A First Rate Film

Rating: 9/10 (17 June 2007)

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.