Ratatouille

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

I should already be seeing this movie again.

It was very very good. Each time I see a new Pixar movie I'm amazed at the advances they keep making in digital animation. The colours were fabulous. The copper sheen on all the pots in the kitchen was amazing. I'm guessing the goal for this film was to see what wet fur looked like. It looked good.

As usual, the Pixar people tell a good story filled with interesting characters. And Brad Bird does a terrific job. It was funny. It was sad. It was disgusting. In many places all I could think of was the movie Willard. And to be honest, when there were huge amounts of rats on scene, it did creep me out a little. Eeew. I kept waiting for Mickey to pop up in some scene, but that was the only dissapointment I had during the movie.

I thought HK might have done some work on this film because it might have been made or started during his tenure. If his name was in the credits, I did not see it.

[Haggis Killer]

Missed this one. It was going on most of the time I was there, but I never got pulled into it. I almost got to do some scratch dialogue recording, but my second audition didn't win the day. Would have been fun.

This movie has a looooong history that's been completely understated by the press. The original director, Jan Pinkava, is a friend of mine. (And a foil fencer. Go figure.) His character arc as director - then not director - is pretty interesting reading.

Assuming it ever gets written down.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing it. Haven't yet.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

According to an online article I read, they brought in Brad a year and a half ago because they were having story problems. No mention was made about the original director. That has to suck. Although they did talk to Garafolo and she told about how she was fired from Shrek and can't see the movie to this day because of thoughts of failure.

[El Dingo]

The animation was excellent. Great pacing and voice acting (Peter O'Toole was especially menacing). However the story didn't really hold my interest. I'm not all that interested in Haute Cuisine and don't particularly like Paris or the residents therein.

I also had trouble with the level of disbelief I was expected to hold. I would have liked to have seen a script treatment that kept one foot in reality, a la 'Charlottes Web' or 'Babe'. The whole 'Puppet Master' thing was visually amusing but really, really stupid. They should have worked out real physical signals with the rat 'playing' his charge like an instrument.

Guess I'm just getting old and grumpy.

Still, it was entertaining and I guess kids would like it, but I'll go re-watch 'The Incredibles' and 'The Iron Giant' for the fiftieth time.

[Drunk Monk]

Nice story arc, well paced, phenomenal animation, of course, even got a few chuckles out of ol' DM. Ego's ratatouille epiphany was particularly funny. Also liked the about-to-be-maced scene. It made fun of Parisians while keeping the romance of Paris, which reminded me of Paris Je'taime (http://brotherhoodofdoom.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=787) but really, it would make an amusing double bill with Flushed Away (http://brotherhoodofdoom.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=592). Finally a Pixar film that Ratzenberger can really sink his teeth into.

T thought it was 'funny' but felt the funniest part was the golf sequence in the credits. :?: She laughed out loud several times and was literally on the edge of her seat by the end of the film.

DM questions ED's ability to hang with a chef rat, but not a puppeteer rat.