Pixar's best?
Entry posted by Nathan Strum
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I just went and saw Disney's Pixar's Ratatouille last night.
Even though Surf's Up was a good movie... Ratatouille is a great one. It's an order of magnitude better than anything else out there. (Sorry, Jeff.)
Pixar has set a new standard for animated films. Not merely CG animated films, but animated films, period. The animation is absolutely incredible, and would be, regardless of the medium. Computers do not make animation this good - people do. Pixar has the best animators, and in Brad Bird, one of the best animation directors working anywhere. This film is years ahead of the nearest competitors*. As with previous Pixar films (except for A Bug's Life, which I could have done without entirely, and Cars, which always felt like a videogame to me), I immediately forgot I was watching CG. I was just watching animation. And thoroughly enjoying every minute of it. The only times I remembered I was watching CG, were the times I saw something and was suddenly startled at how effortless they make it all look, when it is as far from effortless as you can get.
The origin of the word "animation" means "to instill with life". Life! These characters live. They have emotion. Thoughts. You can see what they think and feel. That they are thinking and feeling. They don't merely move and blink and tell bad jokes. Too much so-called "animation" has been reduced to simple, lifeless devices for moving a film from one plot point to another. Ratatouille is what animation should be, and is at its best. It does my heart good to see a film like this come out of an American animation studio. It makes me realize we haven't completely lost what the Disney studio had once mastered 60 years ago, then seemingly forgot.
Remy (left) is discovered by Linguini.
Visually, the film is a treat. To be sure, there is some brilliant design work, and amazing visuals in the film, (they obviously had a wonderful time designing the food critic's office), but they never beat the audience over the head with it as if to say, "Look what we can do!" Rather, it all serves the story.
Ah yes... the story.
It's absolutely delightful. For more reasons than I can easily describe, nor would I want to for fear of ruining any of it, the story is wonderful. There is great humor, and great heart in this film. And perhaps most telling - I couldn't predict where it was going. Far too many films are completely predictable. Ratatouille kept making turns that I didn't see coming, and I never really knew how things were going to turn out. In hindsight, perhaps it's easy to see the path they were following, but while I was watching the film, they had me guessing. Wondering. Worrying. I really cared about these characters, and their relationships. Their futures. This movie has a lot of laughs to be sure, but it also has some very touching and poignant moments in it. And they come across as genuine. Not phony or forced. There is a fragility to the friendships in this film. When two worlds collide as they do in this movie, that's bound to happen.
What surprised me the most, was the portrayal of the rats in the film. Without giving too much away - they are rats. They act like rats, and are treated as such. There are some scenes in the films where the rats made me feel slightly queasy, or at least uneasy, the way I would if they were real rats. And yet, they're also very likable - especially Remy (the main rat character). Oddly enough, the simple act of him washing his hands makes it seem that it's somehow okay for him to be touching food.
And the food. Food is treated lovingly in the film. A lot of cooking terms are thrown around, and yet, it's still approachable. I must confess to watching the Food Network a lot. But besides following a handful of recipes, I can't really cook. I can't make up recipes, or have an innate sense of how to combine flavors. But the filmmakers managed to convey a sense of what some of these foods in the film must taste like. The amount of effort they put into making it look good (or awful in some cases) is impressive enough, but they found a couple of different ways to attach emotions to food in several scenes, one of which may be my favorite scene in any animated film - ever. (Suffice it to say it involves the food critic.) It's a moment of absolute joy to see a scene like that in a film, and it's one I instantly responded to. If anything, I probably relate to that sort of thing a bit too much... I could stand to eat less of the foods that I do. 
If food isn't your thing, however, don't worry. The film is first and foremost about the characters. Food just happens to be their passion.
Well, one of their passions.
I whole-heartedly recommend this film. To anyone. If you're worried about being in a theater full of kids, go to a late showing (I went to one at 10 PM, and there were no kids in the theater at all). Go to a matinee if you're short on money. I spent $10.50 on a ticket, and $10 for popcorn and a drink. Absolutely ridiculous prices, and one of the reasons I don't go to movies anymore. But this was worth every cent, and then some. I'll likely go see it again. I'll certainly buy the DVD the day it comes out.
As a bonus, the new Pixar short Lifted that precedes the film is easily one of their funniest in years. Most of their recent theatrical shorts just seem like exercises in making cloth or hair or whatever work. But this one is genuinely entertaining. Several weeks ago, we had the privilege to have it previewed for us by director Gary Rydstrom at the college where I work. It was great fun seeing it again (especially for anyone familiar with audio mixing consoles).
And if nothing else... if you've got weather like we've had lately, going to see the movie will get you out of the heat for a couple of hours.
(Outside temperature on top. Inside temperature below.)
* Note: There are many exceptionally talented animators, artists, story people and even a few directors at other animation studios as well. However, Pixar seems to have a knack for bringing out the best in their artists, or perhaps more accurately, allowing their artists to do what they're able to do best.
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