Fresh off the film’s Best Animated Feature Oscar nomination, GKids has released a U.S. trailer for the French animated film Ernest & Celestine.  Directed by Benjamin Renner, Vincent Patar, and Stéphane Aubier, the story revolves around a young artistic mouse named Celestine (voiced by Mackenzie Foy) who strikes up a friendly relationship with a bear named Ernest (voiced by Forest Whitaker), despite the fact that her fellow mice live in fear of being eaten by bears.  This trailer highlights the delightfully charming relationship between the titular duo and the adventurous spirit of the pic as a whole, which finds Ernest and Celestine on the run and getting into various hijinks.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The U.S. release also features the voices of Lauren Bacall, Paul Giamatti, William H. Macy, Megan Mullally, Nick Offerman, and Jeffrey Wright.  Ernest & Celestine opens stateside in limited release on February 28th.

Here’s the official synopsis for Ernest & Celestine:

Deep below snowy, cobblestone streets, tucked away in networks of winding subterranean tunnels, lives a civilization of hardworking mice, terrified of the bears who live above ground. Unlike her fellow mice, Celestine is an artist and a dreamer—and when she nearly ends up as breakfast for ursine troubadour Ernest, the two form an unlikely bond. But it isn’t long before their friendship is put on trial by their respective bear-fearing and mice-eating communities. Ernest & Celestine joyfully leaps across genres and influences to capture the kinetic, limitless possibilities of animated storytelling. Like a gorgeous watercolor painting brought to life, a constantly shifting pastel color palette bursts and drips across the screen, while wonderful storytelling and brilliant comic timing draw up influences as varied as Buster Keaton, Bugs Bunny, and the outlaw romanticism of Bonnie and Clyde.

Click over to Apple to watch in HD.