Rat-a-too-ee
I'm not sure whether it's the fact that I've been immersed in animation work myself lately, (wink-wink), or that Esther and I were recently in Paris, or that we're about to become parents ourselves in hours/minutes/days... but seeing Ratatouille in a matinee theatre filled with kids on summer holidays was a blast. It's about Remy, a rat who happens to have a culinary gift, and the inept restaurant garbage boy who helps him achieve his dream of becoming a chef. We went to see Toy Story in 1995 under similar circumstances, and ever since I've made it a point to see animated films in the afternoon with the kids. They're just so present in the moment, oohing and ahhing, spitting laughter, giggling uncontrollably... gasping, sometimes even whimpering, during the scarier scenes. And when the male lead Linguine got kissed full on the mouth by his love interest Collette, one little girl let out a genuinely disgusted "Eeewwwwh!" I imagined how great it would feel to be the filmmaker, sitting in the back row.
Pixar's Ratatouille is the second directoral effort from Brad Bird. His previous film, The Incredibles, won him an Oscar, and is one of my favourite films just because it's so darned fun.
And it's also worth mentioning that this film has once again taken animation to a whole new level visually. The rats looked cute, of course, but also wet and bedraggled, and turned my stomach slightly when they streamed across the kitchen floor en masse. But Paris - and the Notre Dame from the banks of the Siene - never looked so beautiful.
3 Comments:
Hah! Sounds like a great experience (and a good movie). The previews for it looked kinda blah, but I've heard from a few others that it was great. I had forgotten how much I loved The Incredibles...truly incredible.
Heather and I accidentally made the mistake of seeing Finding Nemo on the opening day. Lots of kids in the theatre, which was great, but the best we could do was third row from the front. Kind of like getting slow-motion whiplash. Lots of parents bring there kids to movies like these because there animated comedies, but I remember some scenes where a few of the kids were really scared.
While most of the animated fare from the last two years has been pretty by-the-numbers, it sounds like everyone agrees that this movie is a winner. At eight months, I expect we will have to find a sitter for the rugrat to go see this.
Surprise of the summer: most critics are saying good things about Die Hard 4. Who'da thunk it?
plett
As good as it is, Ratatouille is still pretty by-the-numbers as far as it goes. You know, a protagonist with vision who's completely out of his depth, trying to become something everyone has said he cannot be, bucking societal conventions against overwhelming odds until the moment when all is lost but, plucky to the end, (after a momentary lapse of self-doubt), he prevails and emerges victorious for having been true to himself.
Or something like that.
I was just happy that the script wasn't littered with oh-so-clever cultural references like the ponderous Shrek II. I didn't bother with Shrek the Third, so I'm not sure if they've abandoned that tired approach.
Methinks Ratatouille would make an excellent rental as well, though you might miss out a bit on the lush, saturated colour of the film, depending on your home theatre set up.
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