Ethel and Earnest: A Review

Fig 1. Ethel and Ernest (2016) [Poster]

Ethel & Ernest (2016) is a feature length animation by Raymond Briggs which is based on the simple and unremarkable story of the lives and marriage of his parents Ethel and Ernest. It follows their lives from when they met and married in 1928, into the 1930s when they bought their one and only house, and Raymond, their only child, was born.

Raymond Briggs is an English illustrator, graphic novelist and author born in 1934. After finishing his studies at Wimbledon School of Art, and completing his National Service, he returned to study Fine Art at University College, London, graduating in 1957. Briggs then became an illustrator for children’s books and subsequently gained great critical acclaim for his book ‘The Snowman’ in 1978 which was developed into a short animated film, and for a subsequent work, ‘Fungus the Bogeyman’.

The story of Ethel and Ernest is a soft meander and reflection on their lives together, dealing with life, with their son, and tragedy including Ethel developing Alzheimer’s and ultimately the death of both Ethel and Ernest in 1971.The film doesn’t ponder on, or explain, any particular issue in detail, moving on to the next stage in the characters’ lives. In a review on Variety in December the following year, Dennis Harvey commented:

“It’s admirable that the film avoids melodrama as neatly as it does excess sentimentality, but irksome that the rare instances of organic narrative conflict (when juvenile Raymond is collared by the police for petty theft, or the later revelation of his fiancée’s schizophrenia) get introduced only to go entirely unexplained and unexplored.”

- Harvey (2017)

The story of Briggs parents was first captured in his award winning graphic novel, titled ‘Ethel & Ernest’ in 1998. The 103-page book was developed into a 95-minute film. The film starts with a personal introduction from Briggs before moving onto the hand drawn animation, the style of which is soft and warm, with the script written by Roger Mainwood. The warm familiarity of the film is aided by the casting of Brenda Blethyn and Jim Broadbent, who were so true to character that Briggs was reduced to tears during recording.

Fig 2. Ethel and Earnest (2016) [Film Still]

In order to reduce the amount of work in producing the backgrounds, and improve consistency, Robin Shaw, the Art Director, devised a system of ‘papering’ walls with hand painted textures, and covering the floor areas with tiled, carpet or linoleum painted textures.

Ethel and Ernest was well received critically and had an audience of 4.5 million viewers when broadcast during Christmas 2016 on BBC1.

Bibliography

Harvey, D. (2017) Film Review: Ethel and Earnest. [Online] At: http://variety.com/2017/film/reviews/ethel-and-ernest-review-1202643201/ (Accessed on 09.05.18)

Illustration List

Figure 1. Ethel and Earnest (2016) [Poster] At: http://all-allam.com/roger-allam-film/ethel-and-ernest-roger-allam/ (Accessed on 09.05.18)

Figure 2. Ethel and Earnest (2016) [Film Still] At: http://www.ethelandernestthemovie.com/ (Accessed on 09.05.18)