10 Certified Fresh 2014 Movies That Nobody Saw

A hit in Belgium and France, anyone wanting to see Ernest & Celestine in English-speaking territories would have been highly disappointed - the film barely got a release, and there was zero apparent attempt to promote it. Which is a real shame, because Ernest & Celestine is one of the best animated movies to come out of anywhere in recent years.

In the tradition of most modern hand-drawn animation, Ernest & Celestine doesn't strive for realism, but instead uses a children's storybook aesthetic to tell the story of an irascible bear forming a friendship with a mouse in some magical idea of a French town. And the film is as warm-hearted, charming, simple as that sounds.

Perhaps too simple for some - the antithesis to the idea that cinematic animation must provide for adults as well as children by containing a much deeper subtext, Ernest & Celestine is wilfully light, nothing more than a generously stylised testament to friendship. It was this, and not the vastly overrated Frozen, that should have won Best Animated Feature at the 2014 Oscars.