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Beanmimo 
"August review site"
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 Posted - 08/09/2007 : 17:19:49
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quote:
Originally posted by Yukon
I saw the film with my kids and really enjoyed it.
And the review I wrote is also one of my favourites.
Ratatouille (2007):
"Of Mice and Menus"
And you don't even have to have seen the menu movie. |
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BaftaBaby 
"Always entranced by cinema."
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Posted - 10/08/2007 : 14:26:11
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Like good food? And animated features? Then you'll love Ratatouille with emphasis on the Rat.
Pixar�s latest heart-warming hero is Remy, a rodent who - unlike an extended family strangely devoid of females - isn�t content to munch garbage, but dreams of creating culinary masterpieces to match those of the legendary Chef Gusteau.
This delightful albeit overlong culinary tale really gets going after an expositional set-up, which undoubtedly represents the awkward directorial hand-over from story originator and Oscar winning animator Jan Pinkava to big boy in the Disney stable block, Brad Bird.
Animation is definitely the most satisfying element of the film, whose complicated storyline will lose much of its younger audience. It jabs variously at family duty, pursuit of one�s dreams, junk-food, and fraud.
My impromptu apr�s-screening survey showed kids about nine plus really loved it, but their younger siblings were either scared or bored or both.
Remy [voiced by stand-up Patton Oswalt] proves far more empathetic than Rodney of Flushed Away, and given rodents� real life bad press, that�s quite an achievement.
Credit Brad Bird�s assured juxtaposing of action, suspense, and romance, which drives the film engagingly over its slow spots.
These longeurs arise from the human sub-plot of kitchen porter Linguini [voiced by Lou Romano] who meets Remy at Gusteau�s once-celebrated restaurant.
Linguini is accidentally credited with creating a great soup, forcing Gusteau�s odious successor Chef Skinner to promote him and begin to turn around the restaurant�s fading fortunes.
But since the soup was actually the work of Remy, Linguini literally becomes the rat�s meal-ticket, as he helps the young man pursue fellow-chef Collette [Janene Garofolo, cornering the market in sassy cartoon women], and determine his true parentage.
The excellent and witty trailer featured a brilliantly voiced waiter explaining various cheeses on the trolley. The voice was Bird�s himself, continuing the tradition of his voicing Mode in his big hit The Incredibles. Sadly this scene never made it into the film.
But it is preceded by a very funny wordless tale called Lifted involving a trainee alien-abductor frog being tested by his mentor.
If Ratatouille were equally succinct it might have had more laugh-out-loud moments. As it is you�ll be engaged, and possibly wanting a good meal.
I'll give it 4 out of 5 Michelin stars.
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ChocolateLady 
"500 Chocolate Delights"
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Posted - 10/09/2007 : 10:07:38
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quote:
Originally posted by BaftaBabe
But it is preceded by a very funny wordless tale called Lifted involving a trainee alien-abductor frog being tested by his mentor.
As you can see, I loved this short!
quote:
If Ratatouille were equally succinct it might have had more laugh-out-loud moments. As it is you�ll be engaged, and possibly wanting a good meal.
I'll give it 4 out of 5 Michelin stars.
In retrospect, I'm thinking that The Incredibles was a bit better than this, but these two are certainly my favourite Pixar films so far. I still give it 5 stars, though.
(Lovely review, as usual.)
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Whippersnapper. 
"A fourword thinking guy."
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Posted - 10/09/2007 : 11:02:41
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quote:
Originally posted by BaftaBabe
But it is preceded by a very funny wordless tale called Lifted involving a trainee alien-abductor frog being tested by his mentor.
Oh no, not another trainee alien-abductor frog story! Can't they think up anything original? |
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demonic
"Cinemaniac"
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Posted - 10/09/2007 : 15:36:13
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Brilliant film - just lovely. Remy is utterly adorable.
I still think The Incredibles is the best of the bunch, mainly because it is so cinematic and satisfying character and plot wise, but as comparatively slight as Ratatouille is in that story department I've never been more impressed with the animation on a CGI movie, and was totally beguiled. |
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BaftaBaby
"Always entranced by cinema."
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Posted - 10/12/2007 : 11:25:10
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The M* has printed my review here, if you want to see it in context. i.e. they freely lop off the last couple of paras to make the allotted space. I have asked Remy to whip me up something fabulous as consolation
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Edited by - BaftaBaby on 10/12/2007 11:28:10 |
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ChocolateLady
"500 Chocolate Delights"
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Posted - 10/12/2007 : 11:35:31
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quote:
Originally posted by BaftaBabe
The M* has printed my review here, if you want to see it in context. i.e. they freely lop off the last couple of paras to make the allotted space. I have asked Remy to whip me up something fabulous as consolation
Well, pooh on them. They tooK a gourmet review and made it into fast food!
(Harumph!)
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BaftaBaby
"Always entranced by cinema."
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Posted - 10/12/2007 : 11:55:33
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quote:
Originally posted by ChocolateLady
quote:
Originally posted by BaftaBabe
The M* has printed my review here, if you want to see it in context. i.e. they freely lop off the last couple of paras to make the allotted space. I have asked Remy to whip me up something fabulous as consolation
Well, pooh on them. They tooK a gourmet review and made it into fast food!
(Harumph!)
Thank you, loyal fan!!
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Whippersnapper.
"A fourword thinking guy."
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Posted - 10/12/2007 : 13:41:29
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They did it for the sake of the Proleteriat! 
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BaftaBaby
"Always entranced by cinema."
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Posted - 10/12/2007 : 15:36:48
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quote:
Originally posted by Whippersnapper
They did it for the sake of the Proleteriat!
I suspect you mean the ProleteriRat!
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Whippersnapper.
"A fourword thinking guy."
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Posted - 10/12/2007 : 17:08:38
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Yes, that's what I meant. 
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Demisemicenturian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 10/17/2007 : 13:10:48
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I really loved it. The story is very touching and one is engaged with the character of Remy immediately. I would say I preferred it to The Incredibles, so for me it is vying for the animation top spot with Finding Nemo.
B.B. does though make a good point about the lack of female rats! This is particularly a shame as there is only one woman character (aside from the admittedly very funny old lady and a female critic). Gusteau's will also doesn't make sense - why would he think heirs might turn up (and within two years) and why would he leave it to the baddie at all? And why would Linguini mind Remy taking food? He owns the restaurant by then and is not paying Remy anything!
B.B.'s chat to the younger children may mean I'm mistaken, but I would have thought that the plot was not too problematic for them - whatever details they would miss, the thread of the rat(s) needing to stay secret would be clear throughout.
A little touch that I appreciated was justification given for Remy walking on two legs at times - I really hate physical anthropomorphisation of cartoon animals (although caricaturing them, as here, is fine).
I found the hair-pulling slapstick hilarious: even though there was quite a lot of it, it didn't seem to wear thin for me. That added something that most modern animations don't have.
Shame that at the beginning a child screamed (and I mean screamed) continuously for over five minutes before the parent thought to take them out of the screen.  |
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Whippersnapper.
"A fourword thinking guy."
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Posted - 10/17/2007 : 13:28:08
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quote:
Originally posted by Yukon
I saw the film with my kids and really enjoyed it.
And the review I wrote is also one of my favourites.
Ratatouille (2007):
"Of Mice and Menus"
But there's not a single mouse in the whole film! 
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Demisemicenturian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 10/17/2007 : 13:45:30
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Perhaps rats can be considered 'of mice' in the sense that we are 'of apes'.  |
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Ratatouille
