Wyatt’s Uncle Bon-Bon took us all to a friends and family screening of Ratatouille at Pixar tonight. It was terrific! We’re big fans of Pixar movies around these parts so it’s probably no surprise that I liked this one as well, but it really exceeded my expectations. I knew it would have a great story because Pixar movies always do, but what really surprised me was how great the animation was. Yeah, yeah, I know — I should have expected that. But it’s really amazing how much better the animation gets from one movie to another. Some of the things that particularly impressed me were: the rats’ fur, the people’s hair, the water scene and the cityscapes of Paris. The other animation related thing that I think is worth noting is that they’ve completely worked out the people issue. The humans in this movie are decidedly non-creepy and weird looking (except for the villains who are meant to be). We’ve been watching Toy Story a lot lately and those people give me the willies, so it was nice not to get tripped up on that in this movie. Some of the other things I liked:
- Janeane Garofalo as a French lady chef, imparting her years of wisdom to Remy’s clueless side-kick
- the mean, Steve Jobs-ian restaurant critic and his trip back to childhood
- the thought that a kids movie is going to introduce millions of children to haute cuisine
- the rat’s-eye-view chase scenes
- there’s a knock-your-socks off kitchen scene at the end that I can’t wait to watch over and over again on DVD
If you can’t wait to see the movie, check out the Ratatouille web site, or read this great New York Times article: A Rat with a Whisk and a Dream (requires login).
