Ratatouille
Pride was awesome, Sarah's wedding was yesterday, and I am still a little loopy from several days without adequate sleep. More on all this later.
Last night I saw Ratatouille. It is amazing to go into each new Pixar film to see how they have built on all the work that they've done before. With Finding Nemo they perfected moving water and did amazing things with lighting. The Incredibles was just a visual feast with all the different textures, special effects and props. Every room in their suburban house is filled with highly detailed crap. Pencils, mugs, light switches, dinette sets, high tech gadgetry it just goes on forever. Cars had those glorious sweeping south western vistas, and chrome of course. Mmm chrome.
Ratatouille builds on all of that. There were detailed landscapes and cluttered interior spaces. There is a scene in a sewer where the movement of the water is breath taking. The kitchens are filled with beautiful shiny brass that is totally real. Since parts are filmed from a rat's perspective there are a lot of rapid camera movements. Camera movements like these are certainly easier in computer animation than say stop motion animation, but I imagine the story boarding alone was pretty laborious.
I haven't even talked about the story yet. I am still processing. The screenwriter/producer was Brad Bird of The Incredibles. The man is a genius, and now he has a swarm of other geniuses working around and for him. What more can I say? Rather a lot actually. The story is fabulous and quirky and we see shades of personality in every single minor character. It plays humorously on the character of Paris and France in general, but it is not mean spirited. There are ons of hilarious throw away jokes. Absolutely do not see it when you are hungry. Eat a nice big meal before hand. The food is absolutely gorgeously animated and they won't stop talking about it. You will get hungry.
I shant even attempt to compare this to other Pixar films, because it just doesn't work. This one, like The Incredibles, is just different. And Fantastic. Leaving the theater I had flashbacks to seeing all the previous Pixar films in theaters. Now I'm all nostalgic for Toy Story again. When I first saw Toy Story, (or lets be honest here, the animated short Gerry's Game that preceeded it) I was mesmerized. It altered my world view. And now here it is, over ten years later and Pixar is still freaking doing it. Building on what they've done and just being mind blowing with each new film.
Go See Ratatouille!
Last night I saw Ratatouille. It is amazing to go into each new Pixar film to see how they have built on all the work that they've done before. With Finding Nemo they perfected moving water and did amazing things with lighting. The Incredibles was just a visual feast with all the different textures, special effects and props. Every room in their suburban house is filled with highly detailed crap. Pencils, mugs, light switches, dinette sets, high tech gadgetry it just goes on forever. Cars had those glorious sweeping south western vistas, and chrome of course. Mmm chrome.
Ratatouille builds on all of that. There were detailed landscapes and cluttered interior spaces. There is a scene in a sewer where the movement of the water is breath taking. The kitchens are filled with beautiful shiny brass that is totally real. Since parts are filmed from a rat's perspective there are a lot of rapid camera movements. Camera movements like these are certainly easier in computer animation than say stop motion animation, but I imagine the story boarding alone was pretty laborious.
I haven't even talked about the story yet. I am still processing. The screenwriter/producer was Brad Bird of The Incredibles. The man is a genius, and now he has a swarm of other geniuses working around and for him. What more can I say? Rather a lot actually. The story is fabulous and quirky and we see shades of personality in every single minor character. It plays humorously on the character of Paris and France in general, but it is not mean spirited. There are ons of hilarious throw away jokes. Absolutely do not see it when you are hungry. Eat a nice big meal before hand. The food is absolutely gorgeously animated and they won't stop talking about it. You will get hungry.
I shant even attempt to compare this to other Pixar films, because it just doesn't work. This one, like The Incredibles, is just different. And Fantastic. Leaving the theater I had flashbacks to seeing all the previous Pixar films in theaters. Now I'm all nostalgic for Toy Story again. When I first saw Toy Story, (or lets be honest here, the animated short Gerry's Game that preceeded it) I was mesmerized. It altered my world view. And now here it is, over ten years later and Pixar is still freaking doing it. Building on what they've done and just being mind blowing with each new film.
Go See Ratatouille!