Ratatouille

Tonight I went to see Ratatouille during a preview offered to Myspace users in Boston. Overall the movie was GREAT! It was really funny, often in unexpected places, the storyline kept you engaged the entire time and the overall mood was lighthearted and inspiring. A real "feel-good" movie. I admit I was a bit skeptical going in, I mean the idea of a rat in a kitchen kind of left me queasy, but I left the theater excited to see it again when it is released. The voice actors are excellent and the animation is amazing. I've been to Paris before and the overall views were very accurate. At times I could tell exactly where in the city the events were taking place. Overall a fabulous movie, I highly recommend it!

Taking great ingredients including but not limited to, an endearing story with meaning and a message, superb and breathtaking animation, brilliantly voiced narration and as cute a rattus rattus you're ever likely to encounter. Combined, refined, formed and baked to perfection, the result, a jaw dropping piece of film that you can perpetually admire, enjoy and savour.

I just saw "Ratatouille" tonight.

It's a first class movie. Several thoughts come to mind...

-The character performances are so good, I think there's no sort of movie they couldn't make. I've heard Pixar's John Carter of Mars is going to be live action? No! I want them to do it all animated.

-"Cars" definitely _was_ a lower-value softball they threw to finish out that original Disney-gets-half-of-everything-plus-sequel-rights contract they were in at the time. I remember all the clucking last summer about how Pixar had lost its way.

-There were a few moments when they seemed to lose that stylized reality they had established and things looked merely "real".

-There was one scene in the latter part of the film where I thought "I can't believe they are doing this tired movie cliché" but they pulled out of it at the last second and made it something new.

-The 2D-ish end credits were great. Stick it out to the very end to see the mo-cap disclaimer!

-With this, Brad Bird is certainly one of the animation gods now.

This film is fantastic! Pixar has yet another great film to add to their impressive repertoire. Oscar-winning director and screenwriter Brad Bird, who wrote and directed "The Incredibles", has produced a film with subtle humor, heart, and very profound truth. The voice actors are so great, and it is especially great to hear Peter O'Toole on the screen. The animation is beautiful and it is all around an excellently made film. Its message is one that holds so much truth for everyone, especially today's youth: it tells people that no, not anyone can do anything, but if you have the talent you don't have to be limited by your surroundings or your upbringing. I think this is refreshing to hear because often, children are lied to when they are told they can do anything, when actually not all of them can. But it offers hope to the ones who may feel limited by their social class. It also exposes the fact that most people try to put up false facades of themselves to hide who they are in order to feel accepted by the social standards we create in our society; it shows characters with this flaw, but ultimately they accept this reality and learn to be true to themselves. This thread, I think, is very common throughout the Pixar films, and they present it very well. "Ratatouille" is my new Disney-Pixar favorite! "Ce film a pleine de joie de vivre!"

Fantastic ! ... Can't wait to get the DVD ! The technical / animation / lighting ..etc aspects of the film are awesome. Pixar has raised the bar again.

The best thing about the movie, is that it showcases Pixar's "mantra" , that being story, story ...story. That along with having great characters/animation/dialog, which you just forget ... or never even consider are digital puppets.

The humor was great too, the gags / situations character acting all contributing to making situations that "kids of all ages " could "get".

There is on one level the entire story, of Remy and Linguini, but then there are 3 or 4 or more subplots and a number of dramatic scene changes which almost felt like separate chapters of the main story. That all contributed ..for me at least... to keeping the movie very interesting right to the end.

While I found a few things predictable, there were also quite a few twists and and unexpected events / scenes, that just kept giving me more new "stuff" to enjoy 10 / 10 Mike