Ratatouille (the film, not the dish)

i think this will be My First Pixar

Almost anything Pixar could release right now would be better than that fucking horrid Cars movie. But I'm actually really excited to see this one.

I've skipped the last two Pixar ones (Cars, Incredibles) but this one I'll probably see in the theater. Is there a new short being shown before this one?

To be honest when I saw the preview this looked so terrible I could not believe it actually got made. At most it looks like it has 2 minutes worth of (pretty weak) jokes and/or plot. Then today I saw an extremely favourable review headline for it in the NYT, and wondered if my evaluation skillz are really that far off.

Is there a new short being shown before this one?

Yup:

"Ratatouille" is preceded by "Lifted," a Pixar short in which an extremely nervous young alien tries -- with much slapstick bumbling -- to pass his human abduction and spaceship driving test, making for the funniest five minutes, thus far, of the summer.

I saw this during its sneak preview weekend showing a couple weeks back. The pre-movie short is quite funny. The movie itself probably falls somewhere in the middle of the Pixar ranking (not as good as Toy Story, Incredibles, Monsters Inc., but way better than Cars or Bug's Life). Patton Oswalt is great voicing the Remy character. It's a little light on fast-action sequences that give other Pixar films a kick in the pants, but it's never slow.

I say B+

this one is pretty weak. i liked lifted a lot.

i mean r. looks great but the story is really lame and the script just sucks. the characters are way too boring.

oh no it was magical.

maybe because I cook the preview turned my stomach. wife & son will see it while I go to the gym.

the NY Times review from the normally level-headed AO Scott was so OTT ravetastic that I smelled a parody? probably not.

I will see

"normally level-headed AO Scott"

"I will see"

otm

Film critics see so much shite they can go a bit bonkers when a movie shows signs of being both popular and well-crafted. Especially a movie 'for the whole family'. Most especially, especially when the movie is an animated feature length film. Pixar's stuff seems to light them up like pinball machines, even though to me it looks like just pretty decent, middle-of-the-road, broad entertainment full of almost-bad almost-good jokes.

maybe because I cook the preview turned my stomach.

they stress several times that he's a very clean rat and always washes his hands before he cooks

I haven't read many of the reviews but I wonder what critics think of the main villain being a joyless asshole food critic. have any taken the bait?

This movie kicked ass, in a very middle-of-the-road way.

What really annoys me about Pixar's movies is the way they assume that animals and toys can talk. They simply can't. The whole thing is quite dishonest.

Yeah, because I'd rather watch a film without any dialogue whatsoever. I'll figure out what's funny all by myself, thank you very much!

what annoys me about comic books is the way they assume that all people talk in "word balloons" that appear over their heads. sometimes they don't even have their mouths open!

Moley, you forgot about the talking cars, surely the worst of the bunch!!!

IIRC about half the "Cars" thread was derailed because of that issue.

average rating of 95 on metacritic was once decisive, but no longer, after the pan's labyrinth 98 debacle. who can i trust?

IIRC about half the "Cars" thread was derailed because of that issue.

More like 90% -- seriously, search the thread and you'll find the only posts from folks who saw the film are about ten at the end of four hundred!

I must be the only person on Earth who liked Cars more than The Incredibles.

I haven't read many of the reviews but I wonder what critics think of the main villain being a joyless asshole food critic. have any taken the bait?

-- dmr, Saturday, June 30, 2007 8:13 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

as someone in the rare position of being a food & film critic, i really liked that stuff! but i still think this movie was disappointing. remy and alfredo were just such flat characters and the story was just boring from the get-go. compared to the incredibles it was a real letdown.

It's time we started making honest movies for our children - they are our future, after all. We need to make some basic groundrules: cars can't talk. Neither can fish or animals. Sharks are not vegetarian. And what is more, in real life, things rarely end up happily. In real life, Nemo would not have been found - he would have died a swift and horrible death. Why do we lie to our children about this? We must front up to them. Give them a swift, bracing dose of social realism.

What was wrong with Pan's Labyrinth again?

fanboyishly violent and oddly simplistic

Are we expecting nuanced villains from our fairy tales now?

there's a whooooole other thread for this

remy and alfredo were just such flat characters

I liked remy ... I admit alfredo was pretty lame

and the big scene between remy and the dad was sort of stilted and weird

I still liked it on the whole though

I'm seeing Ratatouille in about an hour with the wife and kid. I'll let you know how it goes.

I liked Cars far more than The Incredibles, which I thought was very disappointing. My favorite Pixars are still Nemo and Monsters.

I think the problem here is that you guys even countenanced seeing Cars in the first place, thereby exposing your inherent lack of judgement.

i'm not sure going to see cars is exactly on the same level as doing the same for other larry the cable guy starring vehicles (lolz)? it was pretty hottt looking on a big screen

I think this might've been the best Pixar

The Incredibles, Cars, and Ratatouille are my three favorite Pixars.

you're weird.

SLOCKI IS WRONG

I thought the film was pretty good. I liked that it kinda had the same type of charm Charlie Chaplin films have. They kept the schmaltz to a minimum, looked great, and I liked that there wasn't a straightforwardly evil villain.

But as charming as it was, the idea of rats in a kitchen is still disgusting.

Cars had potential, but was a marathon to sit through. Way too long.

This already #51 on the IMDB top 250 after, I can't remember the last new release to rate so highly on it, so soon after it's premiere.

that should read 'after only three days on release'.

I thought it was great - some of the humor fell flat, and the narration was totally unnecessary, but the characters were charming and the film floated by on a series of small conflicts rather than building to an obvious climax. And it looked incredible, the closest cg has come to the warmth and patina of great cel animation.

What I said on CHILX thread:

We saw "Ratatouille," which was great! It pisses me off that there's no way it would even be considered for any of the serious Oscars, when it's like 9,000 times better visually than whatever shitty drama will win. Not even just the awesomeness of the technology and animation, but even things like the way the shots are "framed" and the way the "camera" moves is really exciting and innovative. I agree with the critical consensus that it's not as ambitious and wide-ranging as some of the other Pixar movies, but I think it gains something from that. It feels a little more ... adult? in a good way. More focused. It doesn't blow you away like "The Incredibles" but it's more relatable and personal.

I also loved Ratatouille. I think it started off a little slow, but picked up shortly after that.

I would have liked to see some cats in this movie though.. *though*

#33 on imdb now, rated higher than any other pixar film. Is it really that good?

saw it last night. it was good - this is coming from someone who suffered ho-hum reactions to toy story/nemo/cars. agree that it was oddly mature. surprised that more ilxors weren't amused by it - the villain's a CRITIC after all.

animation was fantastic - action scene with the rats in the river / sewer was breathtaking. water + grass + fur are 3 things hard to get right animation-wise.

and I don't think I've ever heard edward iv laugh as loud as he did at lifted, the opening short.

god this was great.

OH MAN is the evil critic totally like the guy who's a prick to M. Night in "Lady in the Water," and if so is the rat like the self-righteous hero M. Night-equiv? And also +is it as crazy vindictive as that film? That one's pretty much set my standard for insaniac "critics are evil" rantings.

M. Night is off the scale. ANY scale.

"if i don't love it, i don't swallow"

The critic in this one is redeemed at the end. Nice flashback when he reminisces about when he had the dish "ratatouille" as a kid. And I think the real villain is the chef who took over the restaraunt after the fat guy died.

I would have liked to see some cats in this movie though.. *though*
I meant to end that with *sigh*. ha ha

Anyway, I don't want anyone getting their hopes up too high for this movie, because that always leads to disappointment - for me, anyway. Just go see it.

i took my five year old niece and it entertained us. we liked the kitchen staff the most and though the family was boring.

i still like Monsters, Inc MOST of all the Pixar movies but this one was definitely better than Cars.

It was worth it to see magical non-pooping rats! And a fat French fairy-godmother!

you mean godfather

Late to the game but finally saw it. Dudes this ruled, etc. And there was some insane action stuff, somebody upthread was saying there wasn't! Jeez Louise!

I just said it was light on action, not that there wasn't any at all.

Light, though? Tons of POV-or-near-to-it from Remy's point of view skittering around everywhere, the sewer/river sequence, the chase along the Seine...I'll grant it had a gentler pace overall compared to some Pixar efforts but still.

i found the pacing off, and the drama stilted, and i had some of the squicks with the yuck rats thing...all of that said, jesus was it beautiful. one of the most interesting peices of formal innovation i have seen recently, and the credits were an oblique criticism of the computers are less pure then pens discourse that centers some film critics.

When's this out in the UK? Lots of inexplicable Cars hate in here.

I laffled. A lot.

x-post:

the Cars hate is due to the fact that there can be no redemption for remaking a movie as trite and formulaic as Doc Hollywood into a huge-budget animated film by the most respected name in entertaining kids and adults with innovative digital art. It was a travesty, or at least I think so having snoozed through parts of it the first time I tried to watch it (and regretted wasting my time to take it in a second time).

So, ontopic, I'm really looking forward to Ratatouille as an improvement and return to form.

I've been having trouble describing how this is different from previous Pixar stuff. "More mature" seems right, it seems to go less for kid-laugh stuff and heads for Movies For Big People territory.

Needless to say, this is very big in my house- we have some tie-in books and just got some tie-in toys. I am the only one who hasn't seen it twice.

Does that make you feel left out?

Nope.

^_^

It's good. Technically brilliant and energetic as usual. Better than The Incredibles, if not anywhere near The Iron Giant.

Caveats: not cray about Linguini as a character (why plop in an American-seeming dork as the central human?), and...

Chef Skinner. Ulp.

Is he French-Algerian? That's some mega old-style Disney racial caricature there. Really bothered me whenever he was onscreen.

I don't much care for the Iron Giant, tbh. Controversial statement?

Took the kids to see it today. It's technically brilliant, like the Doctor says. Maybe the best animation of any Pixar film. Nevermind Chef Skinner tho, I think the whole plot plays some worrying riffs on assimilation and racial stereotyping. And please please please Pixar stop hitting us over the head with this Ayn Rand crap. Seriously, it's incredbly annoying.

Oh, and Anton Ego was clearly based on Will Self which was amusing.

http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/images/davidmorleyteaching/2007/03/10/08-will_2106.jpg http://z.about.com/d/kidstvmovies/1/0/e/B/RAT_111.jpg

About 15 minutes too long and one chase scene too many BUT it looked beautiful. Peter O'Toole's voice-over review of the ratatouille was more moving and true than his perf in Venus.

I hadn't seen a Pixar film since Toy Story 2 and didn't go with much sense of anticipation, but in the end I kind of loved it. I have to say that, looking back, for a large part of the film I thought it only so-so (it dragged and there were too many scenes in the kitchen, which is a problem fundamental to the plot, I guess) but the end was so lovely that it didn't matter. Anton Ego's redemption was what made it, really. That final review that he reads out was so beautifully written and delivered by O'Toole. "But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defence of the new". It struck me as a genuinely profound meditation on the value of criticism. His lair was wonderfully imagined and drawn, too.

I also loved the old-school virtuoso animation and jazz over the end credits too. They must have loved getting the chance to do that. I stayed in the cinema, watching all those hundreds of names, till the Pixar lightbulb went out. It felt like a stirring testament to the power of big-budget teamwork.

this is my favorite movie of the year

Nevermind Chef Skinner tho, I think the whole plot plays some worrying riffs on assimilation and racial stereotyping.

I'm glad I wasn't the only one...

this movie is pretty lame

It is more knock-yr-sox-off machinelike than lame. Also Peter O'Toole's voice-over review of the ratatouille was the most soulful thing in it.

think the whole plot plays some worrying riffs on assimilation and racial stereotyping.

What Disney/Pixar movie doesn't?

Bambi?

Maybe my love for it blinds me but I think Finding Nemo is wonderfully innocent compared to the alley they've gone down since.

What is the "Ayn Rand crap" that Ratatouille is supposed to be saddled with?

Remy Shrugged

(Lone) genius is everything but it is always being held down by the (rat) pack.

I suppose you could look at it that way around if you wanted. I saw it more as a class allegory, if anything (people being held back by preconceptions of what they are and can ever be. Encouraging you to not be held back by your upbringing). And the whole "anyone can cook" against the "you're just a rat/garbage boy, you can't cook" is at least egalitarian, even if it is focused on individual endeavour. I would hate to live a life where I had to reject every uplifting tale of human (or murine) self-actualisation on the grounds that it's a Randian lie.

Remy's attitude to his family and roots is hateful tho, until at the end they all work for him so that's okay.

the ayn rand crap is crap.

remy is only successful in pleasing the human aristocracy when he eats crow and enlists the help of the entire rat underclass who together (in a way not traditionally sanctioned by the distant ruling bipedal minority) impress the arbiter of culture with simple and well-prepared peasant fare. there is more proto-collectivist john ruskin ideology than anything else, espesh that weird randy shit.

Remy's attitude to his family and roots is hateful tho

I think hateful is a rather strong word. He knows he doesn't want to follow their path, but he feels tenderness for them. He's more Lisa Simpson than Holden Caulfield.

he isn't hateful of them, he is just engulfed by the largeness and ersatz class of the food culture and seduced away from his humble rat-farm roots.

</ adorno>

You make a persuasive argument remy. But he does go on about rats being no-good thieves and only finds redemption thru becoming a creator like the humans he admires so much.

Your search - randatouille - did not match any documents.

yeah... well, admittedly, rats are kinda gross.

I admit ever since The Incredibles I'm kind of expecting to find this stuff tho.

Lame.

I thought this was a sweet little movie and it made me feel good about cooking. Like if they had the same movie but the little rat was trying to play jazz music, man, that would be something.

This is why I would make a bad movie reviewer.

i would see that movie

I have taken to telling John, "But Ratatouille did it!" Which is great because it is not even the character's name. Oh my god. Oh fucking christ. Oh jesus fucking mary magdalene in heaven's drive-in double matinee.

I loved that it was about cooking. There aren't enough films about cooking.

Dude I know!!!!!!!!!! !!! !!!!!

I thought 'evil food writer' was a surprisingly good character, too! (From what I had heard I sort of expected him to be like the critic in "Lady in the Water," but wtf I don't think Brad Bird has ever got any bad reviews.)

Activists Fear 'Ratatouille' Will Spawn Rodent Craze

The real life breed of rat whose bluish pelt and floppy ears most resemble Ratatouille is known as a Dumbo rat, and the German federation pointed out that they can cost as much as €50 ($73).

That little flashback scene was incredibly effective, it illustrated his redemption so economically.

xpost

http://www.ratspacnw.org/blueg3.jpg

They are pretty cute little guys!

Haha remember the Ninja Turtles first time round and all those kids were flushing terrapins down the toilet after two weeks? Also if I remember right some kids in Hull were breaking into the sewers to play but maybe that was an urban myth or standard Hull kid shenanigans.

This movie made me wish I had a sense of smell. ;_;

Aw, I love this movie. I even bought Megan a stuffed Remy, and I usually don't like buying Disney toys or merchandise for her.

Lovely film. French girls (animated or otherwise) always hawt.

POTENTIAL SPOILER

$appy saccharine and sentimental but I like this line a LOT.

In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defense of the new. The world is often unkind to new talent, new creations, the new needs friends. Last night, I experienced something new, an extraordinary meal from a singularly unexpected source. To say that both the meal and its maker have challenged my preconceptions about fine cooking is a gross understatement. They have rocked me to my core. In the past, I have made no secret of my disdain for Chef Gusteau's famous motto: Anyone can cook. But I realize, only now do I truly understand what he meant. Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere.

(Do not) Discuss

I really like it. Or, at least, I think I do based on five or six partial viewings with my children; I think I've seen the whole thing now. It's Ego's redemption which gets me too.

For Ava it's all about "the naughty man" (Linguini) and the "spooky hole" sequence (where Remy takes the wrong sewer branch).

My fourth favourite Pixar, after Nemo, the Incredibles and the first Toy Story.

I think I would probably agree with that. Fourth greatest is still great though.

Oh absolutely. Can't really go wrong with Pixar (We'll just forget about Cars shall we?).

How great does Wall E look, BTW?

Did it remind anyone else of the "Pink Panther" films?

It's Ego's redemption which gets me too.

It's beautifully pulled off, reminds me of the kind of thing Miyazaki might do. It was a bit mean not to allow the head chef guy a similarly positive end to his arc, though.

linguini's speech to the kitchen staff to try and rally them for ego while remy is stuck in a cage in skinner's trunk somewhere is actually the most hilarious part. Deliver that speech a little less eagerly and it's 95% of all public speaking performances you've ever heard in your life

Just watched. I liked.

i think this will be My First Pixar

and it was. i expect to like it better than most, but apart from the great moments - not just the review but the sleepy 'conversation', which was truly hilarious - it was simply a nice movie. agree about the chef caricature.