Ooh, Disney’s harnessed the power of YouTube! I always like it when companies realize YouTube can be a good promotional tool.
I saw that nine-minute preview on Apple’s website and it made me decide: Ratatouille looks good. I actually gasped a couple of times when it looked like Remy was going to get caught, and I laughed a couple of times, too. When you feel sympathy and cheer for a rat, then you know Pixar’s doing their job right.
My favorite part, as an animator myself, is the new soft-body collision-detection system Disney/Pixar has developed.
It’s touched upon in the YouTube vlog link that iluvurmom’s oddly enthusiastic post #29. In addition to allowing realistic “droopage” on 3D models of food, animators have much finer control over squash-and-stretch and deformation in response to the environment than ever before in a 3D environment. What took a wave of a hand on a hand-drawn animation sheet used to take hours of mind-numbing set-up in a computerized program.
To quote Jamie Hyneman, “It gets me worked up just lookin’ at it.”
There are sneak previews of the movie on Saturday night. Here in Chicago it’s playing at several theaters at 7pm. We’ll be there! Check your local Saturday listings.
I think the youtube usage is a great tool people are very familiar with it and its a great way to spread the word about great movies like this one. I wish I could see the sneak peak this saturday but I am no where near Chicago, a friend of mine actually got to see the movie this week and he loved it.
I am totally bummed that both this movie and Stephen King’s 1408 are being released on June 22nd. Not that I have a problem seeing two movies in one weekend (one with the kids, one without; or maybe, send the kids to see Ratatouille while we’re seeing 1408. . .But then I would miss Ratatouille. . .) But I’m having surgery on the 22nd, and won’t be up to movie viewing until the following weekend! Waaaahhh.
Well if my vote counts I say go see Ratatouille! If you are having surgery you will want a fun light hearted movie to keep your spirits up!
Yay Ratatouille!
Heh. I’ll have to consider your advice. The next question, of course, is which movie will be more fun, given the presence of post-op pain meds? 
I loved it! It was much better than Cars. I want to see it again and again.
It really is wonderful, very funny, and pure Pixar. I’m not sure yet where it will fit in the list. Right now I’m leaning toward this general configuration:
Toy Story 2
Ratatouille
The Incredibles
Toy Story
Monsters Inc.
Finding Nemo
A Bug’s Life
Cars
I loved that it was set in Paris (never mind the American accents). I’m having a banner Frenchy week at the movies, what with Paris, je t’aime, La Vie en Rose, Angel-A and now Ratatouille. I need to see more movies set in Paris.
I heard about the movie months before they started showing stuff on tv. I can’t wait to see this. I love Pixar movies so much. I’m also a fan of Patton Oswalt. The little guy has so much rage and alcohol in him then becomes the lead in a family movie. If there were a midnight showing I’d watch it.
New Yorkers can hope for promotional tie-ins with local Taco Bell and Pinkberry franchises. (Although the latter one appears to have mice, not rats. Big diff.)
Then its Rattatouille all the way:)
All I know is I am just really excited about seeing this movie. Everything I have seen so far has been so cute and funny not to mention make me hungry. And if a cartoon movie can do that then hey I am in!
OH man, I actually got to see this at an early screening and man it was really good! the animation is some of the best I have ever seen!
Some of that food looked yummy! I wished I could taste it!
I so don’t get the hate for Cars. IMHO, it’s not as good as Incredibles, Finding Nemo or the Toy Storys, but I certainly thought it was better than Bug’s Life or Monsters. And the music was awesome - only the second non-“musical” film I ever bought the soundtrack to (the first was Titanic).
I got to see this last Monday, as well, at a special Pixar screening. Nine months of testing children’s education software finally paid off! Great film. Not Pixar’s best, but definitly one of their stronger efforts. Miles better than Cars or A Bug’s Life, but not quite in the same realm as Toy Story 2 or The Incredibles.
Also, the short was fantastic. Much better than that jackalope crap from the last movie.
I loved this one and thought it was a great! I was really a great family movie with great themes and not to mention all that great looking food:)
Boundin’ (which wasn’t that bad, IMO) was in front of The Incredibles. Cars had One-Man Band. Ratatouille’s short is Lifted. (Incidentially, all of these shorts were nominated for Oscars, but lost. Pixar hasn’t won an short Oscar since For the Birds.)
The critics seem to love Ratatouille. Animation historian Jerry Beck says it is “the best film of the summer…not best animated film- best film, period.” He was also delighted by the “guaranteed 100% animation- no motion capture” label at the end.
I was fortunate to see the sneak preview, and thought the movie was absolutely charming. (No, my ten pet rats did not make me say that). Definitely among the top tier of my favorite Pixar films, and that’s saying a lot. It’s a real love letter to food, and I wasn’t surprised to see a mention of Anthony Bourdain at the end. Some of the animation was so detailed that sections felt like Who Killed Roger Rabbit to me. I hate to say it, but I almost would have preferred them to dial back the realism a little. Maybe I’m just saying that because watching it made me hungry! I took a special geeky pleasure out of how accurately the rats moved, with due allowance for their anthropomorphism. Remy was adorable, but the rest of the rats were presented as being sufficiently rat-like that hopefully parents will think twice before running out and buying live ones as pets without researching them thoroughly first. [Insert standard disclaimer about them being wonderful pets, but not for everyone].
The overall theme about finding your place in the world, whatever it might be, regardless of what others expect was a good one, for both the little 'uns and the big 'uns, I think. There are a few missteps, especially a misplaced After School Special message that made me roll my eyes every time it reared its blunt head, but fortunately those moments were few and far between.
Whoops, you’re right. I thought for sure Boundin’ was in front of Cars, because it was the most recent Pixar short I could remember. One Man Band was completely out of my head, which is too bad, because I liked it a heck of a lot more than the movie it was attached to.
I loved this film and thought this was theme was a great one especially with all that Remy had to overcome to get to what he wanted as well as Linguini! I think this is one everyone should go and see this weekend! I have not heard one person say they did not like it so far!
My SIL asked me to babysit their kids, and got us ticket to see it. For an animated movie, it was pretty good. Not as good as some of the mega-hits like Toy Story and The Lion King, but really good.
However, there was one little scene that I wish hadn’t been in there. Did this bother anybody else? As I remember it:
They’re running through something like an apartment building where you see these “slice-of-life” scenes of different people’s apartments. In one, a couple is arguing, the woman has a handgun (I don’t remember where it was pointed), and the man says “You don’t have the guts” (or “…nerve”, something like that). Soon after we learn that she apparently shot the gun into the ceiling, and then the couple made up.
I didn’t think that that scene belonged in what my SIL thought was a G rated movie. Opinions?