General Chat / Ratatouille

Hi everybody!

I got back from a sneak preview of Ratatouille a couple of hours ago at the AMC theaters at Downtown Disney, and I just wanted to tell you about it.

In a word: INCREDIBLE. In a few more words: BEST PIXAR MOVIE EVER. In fact, my brother came out of the theater downright giddy, doing a happy dance all the way to the car. He almost never shows that much emotion.

This has definitely become my favorite Pixar movie of all time (heck, maybe even my favorite Disney movie of all time; the only thing stopping that designation is pure nostalgia). Finding Nemo had a nice reign, outlasting The Incredibles and even Cars, but this one takes the cake. Here's why I think so (without spoilers):

• The story. John Lassetter and the folks at Pixar do movies the right way, starting with the story. Just as Walt Disney promoted in the early days of Disney animation, the story drives everything. The story must tie together, form logical steps, and take viewers along for a ride. And this movie definitely has the solid backstory, great supporting cast, smart writing, and consistent plot we've come to expect from Pixar films. And the message is pretty good too: be yourself. In essence. It's a very, very well written film.
  
• Comedy. One commercial touts this film as the funniest Pixar film yet, and while that's always arguable, I certainly thought this movie was hysterical. Lots of fantastic bits, from the behavior of the evil villain head chef to the snooty food critique to the way Remy (the rat) controls Linguini (the boy). This movie was certainly fantastic.
  
• Animation. Ah, of course. The animation. Pixar outdoes itself in the aesthetic department with every film it makes, but this one definitely takes the cake. Everything is just SO. DAMN. BEE-YOO-TEE-FULL!!! The animators have taken everything they've perfected in their previous films--fur, water effects, vehicles, cityscapes, people--and thrown them together in even higher quality than before! When the camera panned over a roof and revealed the city of Paris in all her splendid nighttime glory, my heart genuinely fluttered. I even let out a sigh! An honest to goodness sigh! I suddenly missed Paris so much!! And the rats were simply adorable. Incredibly animated, extremely gestural, and fantastic fur. The detail was amazing. But the one thing that really had my jaw on the floor was a scene in which Remy was holding a piece of a baguette. The bread looked exactly like real life. I'm not exaggerating here: IT LOOKED PHOTO-REALISTIC!!! Usually, you can tell with computer animation that it's computer animation, but honestly, in this case, the bread was perfect. The air pockets and sponginess of the inside was so realistic that I really wanted to eat it. It blew my mind.

There is just so many good things to say about this movie. It is undoubtedly one of my favorite movies ever. I might even rank this ahead of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, because even with that film, I could point out some flaws. With Ratatouille, I can't think of any at the moment (I'm sure you can point some out, but I'm just so overwhelmed that I'm looking at this film with extremely rosy glasses.

See this movie. Somehow. Sometime. I'm certainly playing this movie up, a lot. Giving it a lot of hype. But frankly, I don't think you'll be disappointed (if you are, I'll be disappointed... in you! =P ). It's a fantastic movie, and if it doesn't win best Animated Feature this year (how Happy Feet could have beat out Cars last year I'll never know, but that was a travesty), then I don't think I'll ever watch the Oscars again.

So yeah, bottom line: Ratatouille = must see.

lol Corky.. I read somewhere that they actually used real food for the scenes and edited the animations in there (ie. Remy) to create that atmosphere... so a lot of the food you see is in fact real. They did a damn good job too by the looks of it.

I've had my eye on this for some time (PIXAR... duh) because so far it's been the only one to grab my attention in the preview. In the past I've just seen their movies on a whim because I didn't really care for the previews that much. When I saw the Ratatouille preview at Cars... I was laughing out loud.

I hope to see this soon.

Yeah, I'm also looking foward to this film ... infact, I look foward to any PIXAR film, for that matter.

I also agree with you Cork ... how Happy Feet (a terrible move IMO) beat out Cars is beyond me. PIXAR animation is far superior to anything else I've seen.

It's been on my must see list since I saw the trailer.

I'm so glad you've said it's good Al, because I really hoped it would be. It looked to have all the ingredients for a fantastic film.

lol Corky.. I read somewhere that they actually used real food for the scenes and edited the animations in there (ie. Remy) to create that atmosphere... so a lot of the food you see is in fact real. They did a damn good job too by the looks of it.

I've had my eye on this for some time (PIXAR... duh) because so far it's been the only one to grab my attention in the preview. In the past I've just seen their movies on a whim because I didn't really care for the previews that much. When I saw the Ratatouille preview at Cars... I was laughing out loud.

I hope to see this soon.

I dunno... that would imply that they used motion capture and live filming, and in the credits, they explicitly said that they didn't.

Besides, why the heck would you use real stuff in an animated film?

I can tell you that the rest of the food was definitely NOT real, but in that one scene, the bread looked absolutely heavenly.

Ooops my mistake. I went back and reread the article and it said that all the food you see was prepared and the photographed as refrences (and then eaten lol). No more late night posting for me .

Yeah, I'm also looking foward to this film ... infact, I look foward to any PIXAR film, for that matter.

I also agree with you Cork ... how Happy Feet (a terrible move IMO) beat out Cars is beyond me. PIXAR animation is far superior to anything else I've seen.

The Shrek movies aren't bad either if you ask me. I've enjoyed all Pixar movies I've seen. Problem is that they started a hype with CGI movies and other companies jumped the bandwagon. This means there are a lot of rip-off movies and some of low quality.

I saw this too last night in Huntington. It was beautifully amazing and more. I loved every part of it. Definitely recommend it as well.
10/10

Hello.



Meh....

I saw it yesterday at a press screening. It was so-so. MUCH better than Cars, which I thought was utter shit.

IDK if this can knock off The Incredibles, but it was a decent movie.



Raven-SDI
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how could you hate cars? ;_;

Looking forward to seeing this soon, Pixar is always pure gold ^_^

I saw it last night. I thought it was great but not as perfect as I was hoping. A couple of parts in the middle dragged and I could point out a serious flaw: (Spoilers)









When Remy finds the paperwork that indicates that linguini is what's-his-name's son and the DNA that proved it, and the short chef starts chasing him, Remi could have just gone into the sewer but instead there was that huge sequence. I think it was a bit unnecessary but I do understand why it was included, because that was a turning point in the movie.



/(spoilers) Anyway, I really enjoyed it. Probably my favorite Pixar movie and I'm glad I went to see it. CAn't wait for a DCA attraction based off of it! Now that I think about it, it would not really have a place at any of the Disney parks. Animal Kingdom, maybe. I shouldn't give them ideas.

The France section of Epcot could work. Or the Pixar section in France.

I still need to see it.

Ive had this movie sitting on my computer for about 3 weeks now, watched it the first day I got it and loved it.

now to go watch Harry Potter before anyone else

yeah, i got an early screening too, thanks to EA.