Nearly random thoughts after watching the Pixar movie “Ratatouille” this weekend:

I’m sorry, but there’s no way I’m not going to flinch at the sight of an invasion of rats in a kitchen.  The lead rat is cute.  His brother is lovable.  His father is respectable.  But to see dozens of them swarming around food?  I can’t buy into it.

That said, it’s a great movie. It all fits together, even if most of it was (like most Disney movies, honestly) easy to predict from a very early stage.  The ending, most satisfyingly, was not something I predicted, though.  That took me by surprise, made a lot of sense, and definitely sealed the movie with a happy ending worth enjoying.

Loved the “Lifted” short film.  This was the first I saw it.  I love silly slapstick, and an alien who can’t drag a human out of bed and into his ship will make me laugh every time. I think it was the bold brassy music that really sold it, though.  Every time the music turns into a soaring John Williams riff, you expect something dramatic and awe-inspiring.  And that’s when the alien hits the wrong switch.

The biggest surprise of the movie for me: The true break-out star of the movie is an Augie!  Auguste Gusteau (nice punny name) rocked!

Was enjoying the credits, but thinking that the painted style looked somehow familiar.  I had forgotten that Scott Morse worked on this movie until I saw his name in the credits.

Something for Pipeline: There’s a bold image at the end of the credits, basically promising that the movie was done without shortcuts — no motion capture done here!  I liked that a lot, particularly given the past week’s “Alex Ross Ruined Comics” blogosphere debate.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 8th, 2008 at 5:07 am and is filed under DVD. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.