A good helping of Ratatouille

Well, I have now seen Ratatouille, two weeks before it officially opens here in Oz. Pixar have done it again. The film is a visual feast and contains all the elements of hope, drama, despair and comedy that typify Pixar story-telling. In an audience that was made up of around 80% children - many of them very young - it was good to be able to watch the movie undistracted by bored kids running around - as happened with Cars. This was a little surprising as Ratatouille doesn't seem to be aimed at young kids, it really is a film that many adults will appreciate. But the young-uns clearly connected better with the furry critters in Brad Bird's ratty tale than they did with the slick, shiny machines in John Lassetter's Route 66 adventure (which I quite enjoy, by the way). And the adults had a ball, laughing loudly at all the right moments.

I won't critique the film as I'm a hopeless watcher. Neither movies nor novels ever hold my uninterrupted attention and with modern animations I'm easily distracted by the CG feast. As an oil painter too, I was easily distracted in Ratatouille by the wonderful, glowing light that permeates every scene. But I knew from all the preview material that this would be the case. One area where I was disappointed was the in-your-face moral lesson that underpinned the story. In fact, overall I feel the moralising overwhelmed the humour and I really don't need life-lessons from a cartoon.

One thing that did amuse me was the much-feared food critic Anton Ego. His funereal appearance reminds me of ex-Australian Prime Minister, Paul Keating - or at least of the caricatures that entertained newspaper readers during the time of his political career.

Potential spoiler here... > I couldn't help but wonder if Ego's ultimate summary of the value of food critics might also have been intended as a bit of a swipe at the many film critics who had this rodent-filled film dead and buried before the last frames were even rendered?

Now I'm looking forward to the DVD release. Hopefully Disney-Pixar will come good with the extras for this one and not short-change us as they did with Cars, which came with very few "accessories". I think most, Pixar fans will expect to be given a good helping of side servings with their Ratatouille. If this DVD is as skimpy as the Cars DVD was then I'll be waiting until it hits the discount shelves - the extras have become a large part of what makes Pixar DVDs so special and are one big reason why I own so many Pixar titles on DVD despite already having perfectly good VHS copies. The apparent decision to release a fully-accessorised version of Cars, 12 months after the initial DVD release, leaves me feeling a little cynical that someone's trying to double-dip by enticing fans to "upgrade" to the new, improved release.

Thanks again to the organisers of the Telethon previews.

A Taste of Ratatouille

Movie-goers in Western Australia may have an opportunity to get an early look at Pixar's latest release "Ratatouille". Well, early compared to the rest of Australia but still late compared to many countries. Anyway, that little grumble aside, the really good news is that Telethon is holding preview screenings of Ratatouille at selected cinemas on 19th August, a good two to three weeks earlier than the official opening date of somewhere from 30th of August onwards.

If you haven't done so already, find your nearest screening and hope you can still get a ticket. At $8.50 each it's a win-win-win situation. Early screening, cheap tickets and you'll be supporting Telethon!!!

Big thanks to everyone who has anything to do with making this happen. I'll be there!

Rat season comes late to Australia

Anyone with even the faintest interest in animation, or movies in general, would know that Pixar's latest release, Ratatouille, opened in cinemas on June 29th, just two weeks ago. After more than twelve months of teasers being regularly released or discovered on the internet, audiences finally got to see the main event. Well, most audiences.

Australian audiences will have to wait until August 30 before they get a chance to see Ratatouille outside of a restaurant (Yes, ratatouille is really a vegetable dish). If you have a passport and an uncontrollable fetish for Pixar movies then you could fly to China, Russia, USA, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Paris or a few other places. You might see from that list that it seems the foreign-language-dubbed prints were ready for release on-time but if you're an Aussie and you don't have a passport, then you've got a bit of waiting to do. Maybe they're dubbing it in Strine, just for us. I wonder which character Bryan Brown will voice?

One thing to note, as depressing as this news is for those Down Under who've followed all the pre-release advertising (and there's still amazing stuff being released each week!), don't bother using your passport to go to the UK - they don't get the film until October. Gee, they must be on Santa's 'naughty' list or something.

If you're a Pixar fan you might already know about the Upcoming Pixar blog but if not, read what the author of that site had to say about this.