Ratatouille Discussion Thread (Previews, Reviews, etc.)
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SpellWovenNight
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disneyboy20022
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I also saw Ratatouille yesterday. I Have not enjoyed a Theatical Animated Film as much as I did yesterday while watching Ratatouille in a long time..
And it was a good change to see not as much sick humor such as constantly Farting or occasional burping.... Ratatouille is in my opinion the best animated film of the year so far...... Although I have yet to see Surf's Up..
I think its better than Cars. I have not seen an animated film with this much of an enjoyable, original plot since the original Toy Story.... I mean True there is only one sequel TO date of a Pixar film with another sequel coming out in two years... but thats why Pixar continues to have success... they don't push out one success and then a bunch of sequels e.g. The Shrek Franchise.....
And it was a good change to see not as much sick humor such as constantly Farting or occasional burping.... Ratatouille is in my opinion the best animated film of the year so far...... Although I have yet to see Surf's Up..
I think its better than Cars. I have not seen an animated film with this much of an enjoyable, original plot since the original Toy Story.... I mean True there is only one sequel TO date of a Pixar film with another sequel coming out in two years... but thats why Pixar continues to have success... they don't push out one success and then a bunch of sequels e.g. The Shrek Franchise.....
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Maerj
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I saw it Saturday night as well and I must say that Ratatouille is an excellent movie. I think you guys are really going to love this movie. I think its worth seeing in the theater twice.
Pixar is really on top of their game with this movie and I think this will be big hit around the world. There's a fun short in front of the movie and a really cool preview for WALL*E. I know its online but for those with slower connections or for those who just want to see it on the big screen its a plus.
One thing I founf a little strange was that they used the blue Disney pictures logo instead of the new more elaborate one with the the realistic castle.
Anyway, if you haven't seen it yet, on June 29th go see it! If you've already seen it you'll probably want to go see it again.
Pixar is really on top of their game with this movie and I think this will be big hit around the world. There's a fun short in front of the movie and a really cool preview for WALL*E. I know its online but for those with slower connections or for those who just want to see it on the big screen its a plus.
One thing I founf a little strange was that they used the blue Disney pictures logo instead of the new more elaborate one with the the realistic castle.
Anyway, if you haven't seen it yet, on June 29th go see it! If you've already seen it you'll probably want to go see it again.
This movie is pure excellence, I am having a hard time believeing how good it is. Walt would be proud.
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MadonnasManOne
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DisneyGirl22
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disneyboy20022 wrote:I also saw Ratatouille yesterday. I Have not enjoyed a Theatical Animated Film as much as I did yesterday while watching Ratatouille in a long time..
I think its better than Cars. .....
lol I hope so...I have to admit, I hate Cars. I just dont get the major appeal....but Ratatouille looks awesome imo. btw, if you take your ticket stubs to the disney store you get i think a ratatouille pin..(it may be something else but i think its a pin)
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Do you know if you will be able to submit them to Disney Movie Rewards for points like with "Meet The Robinsons" and "Pirates of the Caribbean"? Will double points be offered again for the first couple of weeks?DisneyGirl22 wrote: btw, if you take your ticket stubs to the disney store you get i think a ratatouille pin..(it may be something else but i think its a pin)
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DisneyGirl22
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Simba3 wrote:Do you know if you will be able to submit them to Disney Movie Rewards for points like with "Meet The Robinsons" and "Pirates of the Caribbean"? Will double points be offered again for the first couple of weeks?DisneyGirl22 wrote: btw, if you take your ticket stubs to the disney store you get i think a ratatouille pin..(it may be something else but i think its a pin)
that i know nothing about....i would imagine so...you can ask em at the disney store, maybe they know....i dont think they keep the ticket stub when you go for the pin or whatever it is and it couldnt hurt to ask,
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Ok cool, if I make it to a Disney store, I will look into it. I'm all about getting free Disney stuff.DisneyGirl22 wrote:Simba3 wrote: Do you know if you will be able to submit them to Disney Movie Rewards for points like with "Meet The Robinsons" and "Pirates of the Caribbean"? Will double points be offered again for the first couple of weeks?
that i know nothing about....i would imagine so...you can ask em at the disney store, maybe they know....i dont think they keep the ticket stub when you go for the pin or whatever it is and it couldnt hurt to ask,
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MICKEYMOUSE
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Theatrical Review of Ratatouille (DVDTOWN.COM)
Theatrical Review
By Jason P. Vargo
FIRST PUBLISHED Jun 18, 2007
It´s my personal belief the Best Animated Film Oscar should be renamed the Disney-Pixar Excellence in Animation Award. Why? No studio or production house has, with any regularity, managed to climb to the highs of the Walt Disney Company, nor have they met the extraordinarily ambitious standards set by Pixar. There are pretenders and contenders to the throne, but one fact is undeniable: Pixar continues to set the bar by which all other animated films are judged. Their latest, "Ratatouille," takes the bar set by the recent outings of "The Incredibles" and "Cars," smashes it and sets it even higher. This is notice that Pixar wants the Oscar back from "Happy Feet."
In the French country, Remy (voiced by Patton Oswalt) spends his spare time away from his clan, watching a gourmet cooking show hosted by Gusteau (Brad Garrett), a morbidly obese chef with a once-renowned restaurant in the city of lights. His motto of "Anyone can cook" inspires Remy to watch the show every day, dreaming of a time he can combine ingredients in the same way Gusteau does. He is separated from the clan and he finds himself in Paris, right underneath Gusteau´s restaurant, now run by the maniacal Skinner (Ian Holm), more concerned with slapping Gusteau´s likeness on frozen food than about recapturing former glory. At the restaurant, a new garbage boy (Linguini, voiced by Lou Romano) is mistaken for a gourmet chef, leading he and Remy to combine their forces to create succulent dishes.
If you stop to think about what is on the screen-rats crawling in and out of the holes in Swiss Cheese, for instance-it´s likely you´ll be repulsed. After all, who wants any kind of animal touching their food? But put that thought aside and look at Remy and his friends as more than rats. If it helps, pretend they´re people. Just small, furry, squeaky people. And then all will be forgotten.
"Ratatouille," from the first moments on screen, is far funnier than that other comedy already in wide release and is better looking than all of the $200+ million blockbusters put together, happily accompanied by a very simple message: give credit where credit is due. The laughs start instantly, culminating early in a wild woman with a shotgun taking potshots at the swarm of rats living in her attic. When the ceiling collapses due to her scattershot shooting and the fuzzy creatures of all shapes and sizes (and colors) swarm through the kitchen and out of the house, we can´t help but think two disparate thoughts: first, how can this woman not have heard the pitter patter of all those little feet above her and, second, dear lord, do that many rats live in my attic? All the while laughing out collective asses off.
Pixar has always strived for the closest approximation to real life as they could get. The "Toy Story" films had a couple issues in rendering humans-perhaps on purpose-while the inanimate objects and animals have always been spot on. As wondrous as "Finding Nemo" was when flashed on the screen, "Ratatouille" combines what the studio learned from their previous releases and makes us nearly believe what we´re watching is real. Look no further than an early shot of Remy with a chunk of bread torn off from a loaf. It´s impossible to explain in words, but that piece of food so detailed and nuanced it could easily be mistaken for the real thing. And the first time Remy gazes out at the Paris skyline is as if a painting by one of the masters was scanned into the computer and used for the backdrop. Astonishing, jaw dropping, mesmerizing. Absolutely wondrous work.
As with previous Pixar films (well, aside from "Toy Story" and "Cars"), there are no songs in the film. Disney films, being the reigning champs of the animated musical, never quite come off as taking place in any reality aside from their own because characters burst into seemingly spontaneous song at the drop of a hat. What Pixar´s continued here is a tradition of making the audience work just a little bit for the emotional beats of the story. There´s no need for Remy to break into song when he is scorned by Linguini, nor do chef Colette (Janeane Garofalo) and Linguini feel the need to declare their love for each other swinging from light posts or from Paris rooftops. We get it the first time they awkwardly kiss.
"Ratatouille" is just a triumph in every conceivable way I don´t want to delve too deeply into the plot for fear of ruining the ride audiences will be on. The plot is straightforward enough for the little tykes who are fans of animation and involving enough for their parents blackmailed into bringing them to the theater. For as silly as you might feel watching "Surf´s Up" or any of last year´s animated offerings, there´s nothing silly about "Ratatouille." To be sure, an understanding of cooking would help, for the film revolves around that profession and at least 80% of the film takes place in a kitchen. Whatever you don´t know, however, is explained easily enough by one of the characters. Check out Remy´s first look inside the kitchen where he explains the various roles of the people working below to an imaginary Gusteau. It´s education that doesn´t feel like education.
The voice talent combines tried and true names from the Pixar stable (John Ratzenberger, for instance) with Garofalo, Brian Dennehy and Peter O´Toole as restaurant critic Anton Ego (get it? A Ton Ego?). He´s the single most enthralling character in the film, based in no small part on O´Toole´s talent. Icy cold with an air of supremacy and arrogance any real life chef would be terrified of, he steals the movie from a cast of wonderfully talented artists. Special note to Ian Holm, who, in his role as head chef Skinner, does nothing but rant and scream for the duration of the film. With a wonderful French accent, you´d never know Bilbo Baggins was doing the voice. One last note about the voice talent: at times, the dialogue can be hard to understand since the some of the characters speak in heavy French accents. It shouldn´t be tough for the older crowd, but children may wonder what´s going on.
I can´t praise "Ratatouille" enough. Even the romance subplot, which feels shoehorned in at times, hits all the notes its supposed to from start to finish. The sometimes-slapstick comedy ever lets up for a minute, thus the movie doesn´t slow down for a breath very often. We´re never given the chance to become bored with the story because we´re fully invested in it from start to finish.
As is Pixar tradition, a short film precedes "Ratatouille" called "Lifted." You´re guaranteed to bust a gut laughing at the botched alien abduction story and it´s a perfect lead in to the main feature.
"Ratatouille" is easily the best film to hit cinema screens so far this summer…possibly this year. Because of it deftly combining charm, wit, story and heart with visual punch to spare, it rates an impressive 8 out of 10. I can´t imagine a better animated film coming down the pike in the next year…until, of course, Pixar´s 2008 entry "Wall E."
DVDTOWN.com
By Jason P. Vargo
FIRST PUBLISHED Jun 18, 2007
It´s my personal belief the Best Animated Film Oscar should be renamed the Disney-Pixar Excellence in Animation Award. Why? No studio or production house has, with any regularity, managed to climb to the highs of the Walt Disney Company, nor have they met the extraordinarily ambitious standards set by Pixar. There are pretenders and contenders to the throne, but one fact is undeniable: Pixar continues to set the bar by which all other animated films are judged. Their latest, "Ratatouille," takes the bar set by the recent outings of "The Incredibles" and "Cars," smashes it and sets it even higher. This is notice that Pixar wants the Oscar back from "Happy Feet."
In the French country, Remy (voiced by Patton Oswalt) spends his spare time away from his clan, watching a gourmet cooking show hosted by Gusteau (Brad Garrett), a morbidly obese chef with a once-renowned restaurant in the city of lights. His motto of "Anyone can cook" inspires Remy to watch the show every day, dreaming of a time he can combine ingredients in the same way Gusteau does. He is separated from the clan and he finds himself in Paris, right underneath Gusteau´s restaurant, now run by the maniacal Skinner (Ian Holm), more concerned with slapping Gusteau´s likeness on frozen food than about recapturing former glory. At the restaurant, a new garbage boy (Linguini, voiced by Lou Romano) is mistaken for a gourmet chef, leading he and Remy to combine their forces to create succulent dishes.
If you stop to think about what is on the screen-rats crawling in and out of the holes in Swiss Cheese, for instance-it´s likely you´ll be repulsed. After all, who wants any kind of animal touching their food? But put that thought aside and look at Remy and his friends as more than rats. If it helps, pretend they´re people. Just small, furry, squeaky people. And then all will be forgotten.
"Ratatouille," from the first moments on screen, is far funnier than that other comedy already in wide release and is better looking than all of the $200+ million blockbusters put together, happily accompanied by a very simple message: give credit where credit is due. The laughs start instantly, culminating early in a wild woman with a shotgun taking potshots at the swarm of rats living in her attic. When the ceiling collapses due to her scattershot shooting and the fuzzy creatures of all shapes and sizes (and colors) swarm through the kitchen and out of the house, we can´t help but think two disparate thoughts: first, how can this woman not have heard the pitter patter of all those little feet above her and, second, dear lord, do that many rats live in my attic? All the while laughing out collective asses off.
Pixar has always strived for the closest approximation to real life as they could get. The "Toy Story" films had a couple issues in rendering humans-perhaps on purpose-while the inanimate objects and animals have always been spot on. As wondrous as "Finding Nemo" was when flashed on the screen, "Ratatouille" combines what the studio learned from their previous releases and makes us nearly believe what we´re watching is real. Look no further than an early shot of Remy with a chunk of bread torn off from a loaf. It´s impossible to explain in words, but that piece of food so detailed and nuanced it could easily be mistaken for the real thing. And the first time Remy gazes out at the Paris skyline is as if a painting by one of the masters was scanned into the computer and used for the backdrop. Astonishing, jaw dropping, mesmerizing. Absolutely wondrous work.
As with previous Pixar films (well, aside from "Toy Story" and "Cars"), there are no songs in the film. Disney films, being the reigning champs of the animated musical, never quite come off as taking place in any reality aside from their own because characters burst into seemingly spontaneous song at the drop of a hat. What Pixar´s continued here is a tradition of making the audience work just a little bit for the emotional beats of the story. There´s no need for Remy to break into song when he is scorned by Linguini, nor do chef Colette (Janeane Garofalo) and Linguini feel the need to declare their love for each other swinging from light posts or from Paris rooftops. We get it the first time they awkwardly kiss.
"Ratatouille" is just a triumph in every conceivable way I don´t want to delve too deeply into the plot for fear of ruining the ride audiences will be on. The plot is straightforward enough for the little tykes who are fans of animation and involving enough for their parents blackmailed into bringing them to the theater. For as silly as you might feel watching "Surf´s Up" or any of last year´s animated offerings, there´s nothing silly about "Ratatouille." To be sure, an understanding of cooking would help, for the film revolves around that profession and at least 80% of the film takes place in a kitchen. Whatever you don´t know, however, is explained easily enough by one of the characters. Check out Remy´s first look inside the kitchen where he explains the various roles of the people working below to an imaginary Gusteau. It´s education that doesn´t feel like education.
The voice talent combines tried and true names from the Pixar stable (John Ratzenberger, for instance) with Garofalo, Brian Dennehy and Peter O´Toole as restaurant critic Anton Ego (get it? A Ton Ego?). He´s the single most enthralling character in the film, based in no small part on O´Toole´s talent. Icy cold with an air of supremacy and arrogance any real life chef would be terrified of, he steals the movie from a cast of wonderfully talented artists. Special note to Ian Holm, who, in his role as head chef Skinner, does nothing but rant and scream for the duration of the film. With a wonderful French accent, you´d never know Bilbo Baggins was doing the voice. One last note about the voice talent: at times, the dialogue can be hard to understand since the some of the characters speak in heavy French accents. It shouldn´t be tough for the older crowd, but children may wonder what´s going on.
I can´t praise "Ratatouille" enough. Even the romance subplot, which feels shoehorned in at times, hits all the notes its supposed to from start to finish. The sometimes-slapstick comedy ever lets up for a minute, thus the movie doesn´t slow down for a breath very often. We´re never given the chance to become bored with the story because we´re fully invested in it from start to finish.
As is Pixar tradition, a short film precedes "Ratatouille" called "Lifted." You´re guaranteed to bust a gut laughing at the botched alien abduction story and it´s a perfect lead in to the main feature.
"Ratatouille" is easily the best film to hit cinema screens so far this summer…possibly this year. Because of it deftly combining charm, wit, story and heart with visual punch to spare, it rates an impressive 8 out of 10. I can´t imagine a better animated film coming down the pike in the next year…until, of course, Pixar´s 2008 entry "Wall E."
DVDTOWN.com
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disneyboy20022
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I just called a Disney Store and that offer only goes for opening weekend of Ratatouille.... Not the sneak preview of the film that was held earlier this saturday........ At least thats what the cast member I called told me....DisneyGirl22 wrote:disneyboy20022 wrote:I also saw Ratatouille yesterday. I Have not enjoyed a Theatical Animated Film as much as I did yesterday while watching Ratatouille in a long time..
I think its better than Cars. .....
lol I hope so...I have to admit, I hate Cars. I just dont get the major appeal....but Ratatouille looks awesome imo. btw, if you take your ticket stubs to the disney store you get i think a ratatouille pin..(it may be something else but i think its a pin)
Want to Hear How I met Roy E. Disney in 2003? Click the link Below
http://fromscreentotheme.com/ThursdayTr ... isney.aspx
http://fromscreentotheme.com/ThursdayTr ... isney.aspx
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MadonnasManOne
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The Nintendo Wii has a "Channel" on it, called the "News Channel". I clicked on it, this evening, to find this interesting article about Ratatouille, which is an interview with Brad Bird! In the interview, they also ask him about a possible sequel to The Incredibles. Read all the way to the end for the answer to that one.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/ ... TE=DEFAULT
Jun 18, 9:35 PM EDT
Brad Bird puts the rat in `Ratatouille'
By DAVID GERMAIN
AP Movie Writer
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Brad Bird has become one of the "Incredibles" of movie animation as part of the pioneering outfit behind such cartoon hits as "Finding Nemo," "Monsters, Inc." and the "Toy Story" flicks.
With 2004's superhero saga "The Incredibles," Bird won Pixar Animation's second Academy Award for feature-length animation, following the company's Oscar triumph the previous year for "Finding Nemo."
Writer-director Bird, 49, should be back in Oscar contention with "Ratatouille," the tale of gourmet rodent Remy (voiced by Patton Oswalt), who teams with a human kitchen hand to whip up fabulous meals in a French restaurant.
Opening June 29, "Ratatouille" also features the voices of Peter O'Toole, Janeane Garofalo, Ian Holm, Brad Garrett and Brian Dennehy.
"Ratatouille" could have been the first movie Pixar released with a studio partner other than the Walt Disney Co., whose deal to distribute Pixar films was set to expire after last year's "Cars."
Pixar and Disney had broken off talks to extend their deal, but tension between the companies eased after Michael Eisner stepped down as Disney boss.
Under Eisner's successor, Bob Iger, Disney bought Pixar, continuing one of Hollywood's most successful animation partnerships. With seven films behind them, the Disney-Pixar brand has yet to produce anything short of a critical and commercial smash.
Bird sat down with The Associated Press after a 12-minute "Ratatouille" preview for theater owners in Las Vegas, discussing the Pixar touch, the movie's tongue-twisting title and how the company built itself on the precepts of animation pioneer Walt Disney.
---
AP: The advertising materials for "Ratatouille" cleverly work in its pronunciation (rat-a-TOO-ee). Was the title ever considered too much of a mouthful?
Bird: It was a challenge, because we knew that a lot of people couldn't pronounce it. In fact, there were months where they tried to come up with another title, but no other title was as good as "Ratatouille." It's one word, it's French, it's about food and it has the word "rat" in it. So rather than view it as a weakness, we started going, "What if we view it as a strength and make the pronunciation part of the sales?"
AP: Pixar has a perfect track record: seven movies, seven hits. Do you get the night sweats worrying that your movie will be the one to tank?
Bird: Sure, all the way through the production, you have night sweats. Especially in the early part, when questions aren't answered yet. I think if you ask any Broadway veteran, the ones who survive the best are the ones who still get butterflies. If you start getting smug and start thinking, hey, I've got this thing licked, then they're bound to stumble. So I view the feeling of fear as a respect for the audience, because I don't want to serve up the same old refried meal.
AP: Some critics say there's an overload of animated movies.
Bird: It's kind of like saying, "Is there a movie overload?" There's only a movie overload if they're bad. If they're good, it's just like, "Yeehaw!" The problem with animation is too many people are making the same movie. There's nothing wrong with the medium. The medium is as big as the sky, but you have to go to different places in the sky. You can't just go to the same cloud and expect people to get excited about it, with the jabbering sidekicks and the pop references and the hit pop songs. Everybody is kind of emulating that formula, because it's easier to emulate. People in Hollywood, the press always fixates on technology because it's easier to quantify. The truth of the matter is the technology has never been the answer. The same answers to making a good movie are the answers that were around 80 years ago. You've got to have characters people care about and stories that are both surprising and satisfying.
AP: Was it gratifying for you to have Pixar brought in under the Disney fold for good?
Bird: I don't think we would have been happy with just any manifestation of Disney. That was always on the table. It was, is Disney going to embrace the things, many of the principles that we had? And I feel that Bob Iger has totally done that. The ironic thing for us is most of the values that are at the core of Pixar's success are old Disney values. Everybody studies the Old Testament from Walt's mouth himself, and that has guided us, even though we've been doing new technology, and instead of retelling only fairy tales, we tell original stories. But other than that, the rule book is the Disney rule book, which is all about character empathy and the plausible impossible and understanding where characters stand. Technical innovation and all of that, that's all old Walt stuff. We feel that Iger is very much in that school. He understands the reason the Disney name became so treasured, so we couldn't be happier. We had always gotten along with so many people at Disney really, really well. It was just some fundamental differences at the top that were causing the friction. With Iger in there now, everybody I think is really looking forward to the future.
AP: What are the odds of a sequel to "The Incredibles"?
Bird: I love the world. I love the characters, and if I could come with a story that was as good or better than the original, I'd go there in a second. I have pieces of things that I would love to see in a sequel, but I haven't got them all together yet, and I certainly wouldn't want to come out there with something that is less than the original. ... Sequels are not part of the business plan at Pixar. It's all about the filmmakers being passionate about going somewhere.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/ ... TE=DEFAULT
Jun 18, 9:35 PM EDT
Brad Bird puts the rat in `Ratatouille'
By DAVID GERMAIN
AP Movie Writer
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Brad Bird has become one of the "Incredibles" of movie animation as part of the pioneering outfit behind such cartoon hits as "Finding Nemo," "Monsters, Inc." and the "Toy Story" flicks.
With 2004's superhero saga "The Incredibles," Bird won Pixar Animation's second Academy Award for feature-length animation, following the company's Oscar triumph the previous year for "Finding Nemo."
Writer-director Bird, 49, should be back in Oscar contention with "Ratatouille," the tale of gourmet rodent Remy (voiced by Patton Oswalt), who teams with a human kitchen hand to whip up fabulous meals in a French restaurant.
Opening June 29, "Ratatouille" also features the voices of Peter O'Toole, Janeane Garofalo, Ian Holm, Brad Garrett and Brian Dennehy.
"Ratatouille" could have been the first movie Pixar released with a studio partner other than the Walt Disney Co., whose deal to distribute Pixar films was set to expire after last year's "Cars."
Pixar and Disney had broken off talks to extend their deal, but tension between the companies eased after Michael Eisner stepped down as Disney boss.
Under Eisner's successor, Bob Iger, Disney bought Pixar, continuing one of Hollywood's most successful animation partnerships. With seven films behind them, the Disney-Pixar brand has yet to produce anything short of a critical and commercial smash.
Bird sat down with The Associated Press after a 12-minute "Ratatouille" preview for theater owners in Las Vegas, discussing the Pixar touch, the movie's tongue-twisting title and how the company built itself on the precepts of animation pioneer Walt Disney.
---
AP: The advertising materials for "Ratatouille" cleverly work in its pronunciation (rat-a-TOO-ee). Was the title ever considered too much of a mouthful?
Bird: It was a challenge, because we knew that a lot of people couldn't pronounce it. In fact, there were months where they tried to come up with another title, but no other title was as good as "Ratatouille." It's one word, it's French, it's about food and it has the word "rat" in it. So rather than view it as a weakness, we started going, "What if we view it as a strength and make the pronunciation part of the sales?"
AP: Pixar has a perfect track record: seven movies, seven hits. Do you get the night sweats worrying that your movie will be the one to tank?
Bird: Sure, all the way through the production, you have night sweats. Especially in the early part, when questions aren't answered yet. I think if you ask any Broadway veteran, the ones who survive the best are the ones who still get butterflies. If you start getting smug and start thinking, hey, I've got this thing licked, then they're bound to stumble. So I view the feeling of fear as a respect for the audience, because I don't want to serve up the same old refried meal.
AP: Some critics say there's an overload of animated movies.
Bird: It's kind of like saying, "Is there a movie overload?" There's only a movie overload if they're bad. If they're good, it's just like, "Yeehaw!" The problem with animation is too many people are making the same movie. There's nothing wrong with the medium. The medium is as big as the sky, but you have to go to different places in the sky. You can't just go to the same cloud and expect people to get excited about it, with the jabbering sidekicks and the pop references and the hit pop songs. Everybody is kind of emulating that formula, because it's easier to emulate. People in Hollywood, the press always fixates on technology because it's easier to quantify. The truth of the matter is the technology has never been the answer. The same answers to making a good movie are the answers that were around 80 years ago. You've got to have characters people care about and stories that are both surprising and satisfying.
AP: Was it gratifying for you to have Pixar brought in under the Disney fold for good?
Bird: I don't think we would have been happy with just any manifestation of Disney. That was always on the table. It was, is Disney going to embrace the things, many of the principles that we had? And I feel that Bob Iger has totally done that. The ironic thing for us is most of the values that are at the core of Pixar's success are old Disney values. Everybody studies the Old Testament from Walt's mouth himself, and that has guided us, even though we've been doing new technology, and instead of retelling only fairy tales, we tell original stories. But other than that, the rule book is the Disney rule book, which is all about character empathy and the plausible impossible and understanding where characters stand. Technical innovation and all of that, that's all old Walt stuff. We feel that Iger is very much in that school. He understands the reason the Disney name became so treasured, so we couldn't be happier. We had always gotten along with so many people at Disney really, really well. It was just some fundamental differences at the top that were causing the friction. With Iger in there now, everybody I think is really looking forward to the future.
AP: What are the odds of a sequel to "The Incredibles"?
Bird: I love the world. I love the characters, and if I could come with a story that was as good or better than the original, I'd go there in a second. I have pieces of things that I would love to see in a sequel, but I haven't got them all together yet, and I certainly wouldn't want to come out there with something that is less than the original. ... Sequels are not part of the business plan at Pixar. It's all about the filmmakers being passionate about going somewhere.
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MadonnasManOne
- Collector's Edition
- Posts: 2748
- Joined: Tue Jan 18, 2005 4:08 pm
I hope that you all read the inteview that I posted above. I really agree with everything that Brad Bird said, and am sure that if he does do a sequel to The Incredibles, it will only be if he can equal or improve upon the first one.
The good news is, reviews are starting to come into Rottentomatoes.com for Ratatouille. Currently, it has a 100% FRESH rating. There are 7 reviews currently posted.
Here's the link:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ratatouille/
The good news is, reviews are starting to come into Rottentomatoes.com for Ratatouille. Currently, it has a 100% FRESH rating. There are 7 reviews currently posted.
Here's the link:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ratatouille/
Re: Theatrical Review of Ratatouille (DVDTOWN.COM)
I just wanted to do a quick rebuttal of this rather weak film review. Jason P. Vargo spends the whole time comparing the film to other movies, instead of comparing it to Pixar's standard. Let me disect this a bit.MICKEYMOUSE wrote:Theatrical Review
By Jason P. Vargo
There you go, right off the bat. Already comparing the movie to other studios and other films. Consider this: In 2007, I compare all the movies of the year. Okay some are better, some are worse. This doesn't mean that the greatest movie of 2007 is as good as the greatest movie in 1977. Nor does this mean that the movie that wins the Oscar of the year is the best movie of that year. My point is, don't compare Ratatouille to Surf's Up, when it should be compared to Toy Story.Jason P. Vargo wrote:"Ratatouille," from the first moments on screen, is far funnier than that other comedy already in wide release and is better looking than all of the $200+ million blockbusters put together, happily accompanied by a very simple message: give credit where credit is due.
Frankly, the audience was only laughing during the short at the beginning. There wasn't all that many laugh out loud moments for me. My five year old brother agreed, saying his didn't like the movie at all, and thought it was boring. I think I head him laugh a couple of times, and these were just slapstick jokes.Jason P. Vargo wrote:All the while laughing out collective asses off.
Okay, great, they do good animation. Obviously. This is Pixar, not the studio that brought you Hoodwinked. We've come to expect oustanding animation and they provided. However, you don't mark Star Wars or King Kong solely on the effectiveness of the CGI. Especially with animated features. We can be wowed at the cool new effects they've come up with, but we never want to base too much of a review on the technology. Animation is simply a medium to tell a story, and, as such, any review of an animated feature should be 90% story, 10% or less technological innovation.Jason P. Vargo wrote:Astonishing, jaw dropping, mesmerizing. Absolutely wondrous work.
Okay, now he's compared Apples (Disney musicals) to Oranges (Pixar talkies). Great, fine, they don't break out into song. That doesn't mean it's a better or worse film than Aladdin. Just like upcoming films from Disney won't be better or worse just because they are made in 3D versus 2D. Different techniques for different films, where they fit.Jason P. Vargo wrote:As with previous Pixar films (well, aside from "Toy Story" and "Cars"), there are no songs in the film. Disney films, being the reigning champs of the animated musical, never quite come off as taking place in any reality aside from their own because characters burst into seemingly spontaneous song at the drop of a hat.
Again, comparing Ratatouille to the LCD rather than Pixar's previous efforts.Jason P. Vargo wrote:For as silly as you might feel watching "Surf´s Up" or any of last year´s animated offerings, there´s nothing silly about "Ratatouille."
He even acknowledges the weak love sidestory, but surely doesn't take off any marks, because the *amazing* animation just completely makes up for thatJason P. Vargo wrote:I can´t praise "Ratatouille" enough. Even the romance subplot, which feels shoehorned in at times, hits all the notes its supposed to from start to finish.
I just wanted to share this review by Michael Barrier with everyone. He outlines my thoughts on the film's shortcomings with pure "reviewers" elegance. I hope that people read this and maybe will understand where I'm coming from when I think the movie isn't *all that and a bag of potato chips* (and Pixar's worst to date)
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Brad Bird's new Pixar feature Ratatouille is in many respects a marvel, taking full advantage of the capabilities of computer animation in ways that other cartoon studios' films (and other Pixar films) haven't even approached.
Ratatouille posterTextures are not just photo-realistic; instead, the realism extends to textures that are totally fantastic, like the rats' spiky fur after Remy and Emile are struck by lightning. The camera seems to move in three-dimensional space—a lovingly recreated Paris—with a fluidity I can't imagine any live-action camera duplicating, as when the villainous chef Skinner pursues Remy along the Seine. The character animation, so often laggard in computer-animated films, is very good, too, and sometimes better than very good, as with the sensitive handling of Colette, the tough cookie who is the only female chef in the kitchen at Gusteau's, the restaurant at the heart of the story.
There's not the thoroughgoing (and very effective) stylization of Bird's last feature, The Incredibles, but in some ways that makes the character animation all the more impressive. My greatest source of apprehension, that Remy and his rodent colleagues would seem a little too much like real rats, and thus repulsive, turns out to have been misplaced. It's not just that Bird uses the animals' expressiveness to take the curse off their rattiness. He very shrewdly makes them expressive not through broad movements but through telling gestures—Remy gives a very winning Gallic shrug when the kitchen boy Linguini asks him if he really can cook. There's not a trace of anxiety or belligerence in the handling of the rats, only a very intelligent awareness that the audience must be comfortable with these characters if the film is to have any chance to succeed.
Ratatouille has negative virtues, too. Pop-culture pokes and nudges, so tiresome in the DreamWorks cartoons and Pixar's Cars, are mercifully absent; neither are there any obtrusive movie-star voices. There's an odd sprinkling of French characters who are presumably speaking French but with a French accent, and Colette's accent is a little too thick, sometimes getting in the way of a joke. In general, though, the voices seem to have been chosen with the characters clearly in mind, in the manner of the early Disney features, and certainly not for the voice actors' marquee value.
But—there's always a but—the film's premise, that a rat might be a great chef, in keeping with the title of Chef Gusteau's book Anyone Can Cook, turns out to be a terribly weak foundation for a film lasting almost two hours. I almost immediately had the sense, as Remy's passion for cooking began to show itself, that he was a supporting character who had somehow taken over an entire film, and that what could have been a very amusing five-minute episode about an incongruously fastidious rat chef had been inflated almost to the bursting point. The expansion of the story required its seemingly endless complications and detours, and ultimately such absurdities as a restaurant kitchen overrun with rats who very quickly become organized to assemble difficult gourmet dishes. (Surely I wasn't alone in seeing in that operation echoes of Disney and Warner Bros. cartoons from the 1930s.)
Worse, the film's length tempted Bird to try to give his story meaning that it simply can't support, as in the awful scene when Remy's father shows him a shop window full of rat poison, rat traps—and dead rats. I couldn't grasp what Bird had in mind here. Remy resists his father's warning that humans and rats are irreconcilable enemies, but Dad is right, of course; humans and rats aren't separated by religious or political differences, they're biological rivals, and pretending otherwise simply points up how little the cute cartoon rats resemble the real thing. Perhaps Bird is most to blame for this misplaced seriousness—I was reminded of his grumblings about "mediocrity" in The Incredibles—although the equally dubious emphasis on the rats' family life seems to bear John Lasseter's fingerprints. Here again, an attempt to give the story emotional content serves mainly to call up unwelcome thoughts of the real world, and of rats' incredibly rapid reproduction in particular.
It's probably because constructing the story was so grueling a task that Ratatouille slips and stumbles and goes slack so often, in between the expertly choreographed action sequences. I saw the film with a child-heavy audience, and I've never before attended a Pixar showing where the children were noisily restless and bored a good part of the time. Too much of Ratatouille has a sort of corporate-Pixar feeling, with questionable aspects of earlier Pixar features—a wispy premise (Monsters, Inc.), a piling up of plot complications (A Bug's Life), and sentimentality about families, and about fathers in particular (Finding Nemo, Cars)—clustered in one unfortunate film.
I found the romance between Linguini and Colette particularly difficult to accept; Colette is much too hardened to fall for a limp noodle like Linguini. Actually, Linguini should have been the film's central character, but once that role had been assigned to Remy, there was little choice but to make Linguini as hapless as he is. (How could a strong character let himself be manipulated by a rat, even a rat who's a great chef?) Ratatouille echoes Ben and Me, the Robert Lawson book and Disney cartoon in which the mouse Amos presents himself as responsible for Benjamin Franklin's achievements, but it lacks the book's charm and, especially, the cartoon's brevity.
Most surprising, perhaps, Ratatouille lacks Parisian atmosphere, for all the detail of its settings. (Gusteau's is on the Left Bank, apparently in the exact location of the very old and very famous restaurant Taillevent, which lent expertise of some kind to the production.) It's the colors that are most wrong; I can't be more specific until I've seen the film again, but Paris is a northern city, with relatively pale and severe light, and the film's color seems to me more Mediterranean—or Californian.
Ratatouille summons up the San Francisco area, Pixar's home turf, more than Paris, the resemblance heightened by the single most successful character in the film, the lean and sadistic critic Anton Ego. Such a celebrity food critic, whose judgments can make or break a restaurant, is far more plausible as an American than a Frenchman. (The "stars" that are an obsession of French restaurateurs, including those in Ratatouille, are awarded not by celebrity critics but by the Michelin Guide Rouge—the august Red Guide—whose reviewers, like those of rival French guides, are anonymous.) Ego is, in appearance, movement, and voice, stylized very much in the manner of the characters in The Incredibles, and that's all to the good. As in the earlier film, the stylization is wonderfully witty: the restaurant critic is no sybarite but is instead as dark and grim as a stereotypical cartoon undertaker. When Remy's ratatouille breaks through Ego's defenses and awakens his childhood memories, so that he once again takes real pleasure in what he eats, it's the funniest—and most affecting—moment in the film.
It's also a moment, one of the few, that feels wholly Brad Bird's. He didn't come up with the idea for Ratatouille but instead took charge of a foundering project that originated with Jan Pinkava (who has since left Pixar). Bird deserves a lot of credit, I'm sure, for rescuing Ratatouille and making of it a better film than anyone could have expected, but I hope he gets no more salvage assignments. He's at his best, as in The Incredibles, when the controlling ideas are all his.
-----------------------------------------------
Brad Bird's new Pixar feature Ratatouille is in many respects a marvel, taking full advantage of the capabilities of computer animation in ways that other cartoon studios' films (and other Pixar films) haven't even approached.
Ratatouille posterTextures are not just photo-realistic; instead, the realism extends to textures that are totally fantastic, like the rats' spiky fur after Remy and Emile are struck by lightning. The camera seems to move in three-dimensional space—a lovingly recreated Paris—with a fluidity I can't imagine any live-action camera duplicating, as when the villainous chef Skinner pursues Remy along the Seine. The character animation, so often laggard in computer-animated films, is very good, too, and sometimes better than very good, as with the sensitive handling of Colette, the tough cookie who is the only female chef in the kitchen at Gusteau's, the restaurant at the heart of the story.
There's not the thoroughgoing (and very effective) stylization of Bird's last feature, The Incredibles, but in some ways that makes the character animation all the more impressive. My greatest source of apprehension, that Remy and his rodent colleagues would seem a little too much like real rats, and thus repulsive, turns out to have been misplaced. It's not just that Bird uses the animals' expressiveness to take the curse off their rattiness. He very shrewdly makes them expressive not through broad movements but through telling gestures—Remy gives a very winning Gallic shrug when the kitchen boy Linguini asks him if he really can cook. There's not a trace of anxiety or belligerence in the handling of the rats, only a very intelligent awareness that the audience must be comfortable with these characters if the film is to have any chance to succeed.
Ratatouille has negative virtues, too. Pop-culture pokes and nudges, so tiresome in the DreamWorks cartoons and Pixar's Cars, are mercifully absent; neither are there any obtrusive movie-star voices. There's an odd sprinkling of French characters who are presumably speaking French but with a French accent, and Colette's accent is a little too thick, sometimes getting in the way of a joke. In general, though, the voices seem to have been chosen with the characters clearly in mind, in the manner of the early Disney features, and certainly not for the voice actors' marquee value.
But—there's always a but—the film's premise, that a rat might be a great chef, in keeping with the title of Chef Gusteau's book Anyone Can Cook, turns out to be a terribly weak foundation for a film lasting almost two hours. I almost immediately had the sense, as Remy's passion for cooking began to show itself, that he was a supporting character who had somehow taken over an entire film, and that what could have been a very amusing five-minute episode about an incongruously fastidious rat chef had been inflated almost to the bursting point. The expansion of the story required its seemingly endless complications and detours, and ultimately such absurdities as a restaurant kitchen overrun with rats who very quickly become organized to assemble difficult gourmet dishes. (Surely I wasn't alone in seeing in that operation echoes of Disney and Warner Bros. cartoons from the 1930s.)
Worse, the film's length tempted Bird to try to give his story meaning that it simply can't support, as in the awful scene when Remy's father shows him a shop window full of rat poison, rat traps—and dead rats. I couldn't grasp what Bird had in mind here. Remy resists his father's warning that humans and rats are irreconcilable enemies, but Dad is right, of course; humans and rats aren't separated by religious or political differences, they're biological rivals, and pretending otherwise simply points up how little the cute cartoon rats resemble the real thing. Perhaps Bird is most to blame for this misplaced seriousness—I was reminded of his grumblings about "mediocrity" in The Incredibles—although the equally dubious emphasis on the rats' family life seems to bear John Lasseter's fingerprints. Here again, an attempt to give the story emotional content serves mainly to call up unwelcome thoughts of the real world, and of rats' incredibly rapid reproduction in particular.
It's probably because constructing the story was so grueling a task that Ratatouille slips and stumbles and goes slack so often, in between the expertly choreographed action sequences. I saw the film with a child-heavy audience, and I've never before attended a Pixar showing where the children were noisily restless and bored a good part of the time. Too much of Ratatouille has a sort of corporate-Pixar feeling, with questionable aspects of earlier Pixar features—a wispy premise (Monsters, Inc.), a piling up of plot complications (A Bug's Life), and sentimentality about families, and about fathers in particular (Finding Nemo, Cars)—clustered in one unfortunate film.
I found the romance between Linguini and Colette particularly difficult to accept; Colette is much too hardened to fall for a limp noodle like Linguini. Actually, Linguini should have been the film's central character, but once that role had been assigned to Remy, there was little choice but to make Linguini as hapless as he is. (How could a strong character let himself be manipulated by a rat, even a rat who's a great chef?) Ratatouille echoes Ben and Me, the Robert Lawson book and Disney cartoon in which the mouse Amos presents himself as responsible for Benjamin Franklin's achievements, but it lacks the book's charm and, especially, the cartoon's brevity.
Most surprising, perhaps, Ratatouille lacks Parisian atmosphere, for all the detail of its settings. (Gusteau's is on the Left Bank, apparently in the exact location of the very old and very famous restaurant Taillevent, which lent expertise of some kind to the production.) It's the colors that are most wrong; I can't be more specific until I've seen the film again, but Paris is a northern city, with relatively pale and severe light, and the film's color seems to me more Mediterranean—or Californian.
Ratatouille summons up the San Francisco area, Pixar's home turf, more than Paris, the resemblance heightened by the single most successful character in the film, the lean and sadistic critic Anton Ego. Such a celebrity food critic, whose judgments can make or break a restaurant, is far more plausible as an American than a Frenchman. (The "stars" that are an obsession of French restaurateurs, including those in Ratatouille, are awarded not by celebrity critics but by the Michelin Guide Rouge—the august Red Guide—whose reviewers, like those of rival French guides, are anonymous.) Ego is, in appearance, movement, and voice, stylized very much in the manner of the characters in The Incredibles, and that's all to the good. As in the earlier film, the stylization is wonderfully witty: the restaurant critic is no sybarite but is instead as dark and grim as a stereotypical cartoon undertaker. When Remy's ratatouille breaks through Ego's defenses and awakens his childhood memories, so that he once again takes real pleasure in what he eats, it's the funniest—and most affecting—moment in the film.
It's also a moment, one of the few, that feels wholly Brad Bird's. He didn't come up with the idea for Ratatouille but instead took charge of a foundering project that originated with Jan Pinkava (who has since left Pixar). Bird deserves a lot of credit, I'm sure, for rescuing Ratatouille and making of it a better film than anyone could have expected, but I hope he gets no more salvage assignments. He's at his best, as in The Incredibles, when the controlling ideas are all his.
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MadonnasManOne
- Collector's Edition
- Posts: 2748
- Joined: Tue Jan 18, 2005 4:08 pm
I really don't care that you don't like the film, yoda_four. For all of your rattling on about how it's a bad film, and that you feel it's Pixar's worst film, you are not going to convince me of anything. I'm still going to see the film. There's nothing that's going to change that. In fact, other than you, I haven't seen anyone say that this is a bad film, in all of the reviews I have read from people who got to see the sneak peek. It wouldn't matter, anyway. I'm still going to see the film. I'll make up my own mind about it. Pixar hasn't disappointed me, yet, and I'm sure that they won't disappoint with this one.
So, you don't like the film. Fine. Just don't try to force us to see this as a bad film, when most of us haven't even seen it, yet.
So, you don't like the film. Fine. Just don't try to force us to see this as a bad film, when most of us haven't even seen it, yet.
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Okie Tigger
- Limited Issue
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- Location: O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A
Michael Barrier wrote:Most surprising, perhaps, Ratatouille lacks Parisian atmosphere, for all the detail of its settings. (Gusteau's is on the Left Bank, apparently in the exact location of the very old and very famous restaurant Taillevent, which lent expertise of some kind to the production.) It's the colors that are most wrong; I can't be more specific until I've seen the film again, but Paris is a northern city, with relatively pale and severe light, and the film's color seems to me more Mediterranean—or Californian.
LMAO I think Mr. Barrier might need to share some ratatouille with Ego.
Ka-Chow!
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carter1971
- Gold Classic Collection
- Posts: 168
- Joined: Sun Mar 11, 2007 7:42 pm
- Location: Georgia
I'm with MM1 on this. The vast majority of reviews are raving about the movie and I can't wait to see it. As one review from Rotten Tomatoes said, though, I can see it not making as much money as the other Pixar movies because it doesn't have as much kid appeal. I still hear friends and co-workers make that complaint about Cars. Some people still have it in their head that animation is for kids, and if kids don't take to this film, word of mouth may hurt its box office total. Regardless of what happens, I hope Pixar continues to do what they are doing. Instead of making films for parents to use as electronic babysitting, they treat animation as an art form, just as Walt Disney did.
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katemonster
- Special Edition
- Posts: 518
- Joined: Sun Mar 18, 2007 1:00 pm
- Location: Washington, DC
I saw it last night, and was wondering if it could live up to all the positive reviews I'd been reading - and well, all I can say is that I think Ratatouille is the real deal. It is an intelligent, beautiful, heartwarming movie, and definitely one of the top two, if not the best film I've seen this year. It's really that good. I loved it.
Things that are great - mostly it's the story that was the best part for me here. I thought it was funny and touching without being too sappy or over the top. The characters and voices were great. The animation was BEYOND beautiful, and so detailed. I loved how much attention they paid to the smallest things - the army of rats moving around all move individually (and look like individuals), the wet clothes after Linguini falls in the river. The humor is funny. The relationships were sweet (I love that Linguini calls him "little chef") - I even loved Remy and his dad!
It's just SUCH a good movie - I can't recommend it enough.
For folks that saw it already - what's your favorite part? For me, it was probably the stuff with Ego at the restaurant at the end - that was just *fantastic*, that entire sequence. (I thought Peter O'Toole was so great doing that voice, too.)
Things that are great - mostly it's the story that was the best part for me here. I thought it was funny and touching without being too sappy or over the top. The characters and voices were great. The animation was BEYOND beautiful, and so detailed. I loved how much attention they paid to the smallest things - the army of rats moving around all move individually (and look like individuals), the wet clothes after Linguini falls in the river. The humor is funny. The relationships were sweet (I love that Linguini calls him "little chef") - I even loved Remy and his dad!
It's just SUCH a good movie - I can't recommend it enough.
For folks that saw it already - what's your favorite part? For me, it was probably the stuff with Ego at the restaurant at the end - that was just *fantastic*, that entire sequence. (I thought Peter O'Toole was so great doing that voice, too.)
