Saw Pixar's latest animation flick 'Ratatouille' tonight with my youngest daughter and loved every second! :thumbsup: Right up there with Finding Nemo...maybe even better. The audience was very much into the film 'full of response'. We waited a long time for this one... ever sence we saw the teaser at the drive-in over two years ago.

The animators studied Rat movements very well...the soundtrack is something that I'll be picking up soon...good jazzy stuff.

We have two Rats and well....they will have to wait till late fall or xmas for the DVD.

I saw it yesterday and all I can say is WOW! Brad Bird is a genius.

It looks like Pixar may have found a new house composer for their soundtracks. Randy Newman did all of the Pixar flicks except The Incredibles. The score for this film and The Incredibles was done by Michael Giacchino. Maybe Brad Bird just wanted something different in his films.

Technically, it is flawless. As a student of Computer animation I was astounded by what I saw. There is a moment in the film that takes place on a wet cobblestone street, andI could not tell if it was real or animated. It was flawless. The credits listed people for the animation of just the food, and I believe it.

Haven't seen it yet but the mere fact that Brad Bird is at the helm is enough for me. The man knows how to tell a story.

When you see the difference between John Lassiter and Brad Bird, it's amazing. John Lassiter is a good director (and responsible for bringing Pixar to its feet and giving it diorection) but, Brad Bird is unbelievable. Lassiter seems to0 constrained by the computer, where Bird is pushing it and making it a real animation tool. As entertaining as "Cars" was, it was not a lively or animated (No pun intended) as "The Incredibles".

Entertainment Weekly reviewed it like they would any film...the guy generally liked it but had problems with the lack of 'top' actor voice overs and thought that some of the main charactors lacked 'depth' and personally :confused:

Do they do that with all youth oriented animation films? GHEESH! for crying out loud ....after all ...it's for the young and the inner child in older viewers.

This is fun and funny. You will be entertained! Take the whole fam damily.

Entertainment Weekly reviewed it like they would any film...the guy generally liked it but had problems with the lack of 'top' actor voice overs and thought that some of the main charactors lacked 'depth' and personally :confused:

Do they do that with all youth oriented animation films? GHEESH! for crying out loud ....after all ...it's for the young and the inner child in older viewers.
I see what they mean. Why would they hire no-names like Ian Holm, Peter O'Toole, and Brian Dennehy?

Exactly! :p

Brad Bird is a genius, and I do not use that word lightly.

Speaking of Pixar, their next feature, WALL-e, is set 700 years in the future. The hero is a lonely trash-compactor droid living on an abandoned, post-apocalyptic Earth. Other than a few robotic squeeks and chirps, there is no dialogue in the film.

Say what you will about Pixar, they're not afraid to take chances.

Brad Bird is a genius, and I do not use that word lightly.

Speaking of Pixar, their next feature, WALL-e, is set 700 years in the future. The hero is a lonely trash-compactor droid living on an abandoned, post-apocalyptic Earth. Other than a few robotic squeeks and chirps, there is no dialogue in the film.

Say what you will about Pixar, they're not afraid to take chances.

What?! No top name actors?!?!

What?! No top name actors?!?!

Marcel Marceau?

What?! No top name actors?!?!

Zilch. :thumbsup:

Marcel Marceau?
:lol:

We plan on taking Sam & my neice to see it Friday & I know I won't be disappointed.

Saw it yesterday with 2/3 of my kids. GREAT Movie!

was that 2/3 of the total of your children or 2/3 of each of your children :)


did you catch the snipe at motion capture in the end credits?

basically it said that the the movie was 100% without the use of motion capture OR OTHER SHORTCUTS

Uh, Brad... as pretty as your movies are... when you use a computer to replicate fur rather than animating each hair separately... you are using a shortcut.

You do good work, why do you have to be a dick about it?

So the movie was made without using motion capture? Well, how do you get a rat to wear a motion capture suit, anyway?

So the movie was made without using motion capture? Well, how do you get a rat to wear a motion capture suit, anyway?

Beats me, but I suspect at some point David Fincher has tried.

First off, I loved this movie. I don't think I'll see a better movie this year. It's a movie made by artists about artists (culinary artists).

I also see that many of the posters on this thread talk about taking their kids or nieces or whoever to this movie. That's great. Kids will enjoy the cute rodents and bright colors and whatever. But I think it will resonate more with adults. If you have a sentimental place in your heart for the original "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" you'll like this.

Don't use a lack of children to take to the film as an excuse to not see it. So many people miss out on these great Pixar films because they don't have kids, and they dismiss them as just kids' films. My wife and I don't have kids, but we love these films because we love character and story, which are Pixar's true hallmarks of quality.

I, too, found EW's criticism that Ratatouille lacks ultra-recognizible voice talent strange. Anybody remember The Ant Bully with Julia Roberts, Nicholas Cage, Meryl Streep, etc.? Neither do I.




did you catch the snipe at motion capture in the end credits?

basically it said that the the movie was 100% without the use of motion capture OR OTHER SHORTCUTS

Uh, Brad... as pretty as your movies are... when you use a computer to replicate fur rather than animating each hair separately... you are using a shortcut.

You do good work, why do you have to be a dick about it?

I don't think he was being a dick about it. The seal was a tongue-in-cheek, 50's-style graphic. I think Pixar was taking pride that all of the character animation was hand-keyframed, and that much of it was very stylized and impressionistic. The contortions that Linguini goes through while being puppeted by Remy were very extreme, classic stretch and squash, and probably could not have been done with motion capture. We create 3D animation professionally, but it's mostly corporate, inorganic stuff. I've dabbled in character animation, and it's really really hard. Here's something I did that ran on The Colbert Report last year:

http://www.colboard.com/cn/user-images/vid/ftp/Shawn_Marshall_600x263_Sor3NEW.mov

This took me three weeks to complete in Lightwave 3D. Pretty crude.

I think these Pixar artists are truly great character animators, on par with the best 2D Disney artists, but instead of having another human draw the inbetween poses the software does it.

Shawn Marshall
Portland, Oregon

Shawn,
Here's what I heard so you can take it with a grain of salt.

Apparently that pot-shot was directed at "Happy Feet". Bird was cheesed that it won the Oscar because it used motion capture.

He must not have remembered that even Snow White used rotoscoping.

Brad Bird is a genius, and I do not use that word lightly.

Speaking of Pixar, their next feature, WALL-e, is set 700 years in the future. The hero is a lonely trash-compactor droid living on an abandoned, post-apocalyptic Earth. Other than a few robotic squeeks and chirps, there is no dialogue in the film.

Say what you will about Pixar, they're not afraid to take chances.

Pixar runs headlong into Stanley Kubrick and Sergio Leone. :thumbsup:

Good movies don't need dialogue, if the story is right for it. IIRC, there is just over 28 minutes of dialogue in 2001. The original script for "Once Upon A Time In The West" was over 400 pages - only 12 of which were dialogue. I think we all know how much is said in "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly."

I, too, found EW's criticism that Ratatouille lacks ultra-recognizible voice talent strange. Anybody remember The Ant Bully with Julia Roberts, Nicholas Cage, Meryl Streep, etc.? Neither do I.Shawn Marshall
Portland, Oregon

Well put Shawn! :thumbsup:

Plus I have had pet rats in the past and we now have two of them......Rats are the best!....so my wife and I would have seen this film no matter what, though I must admit...I would never have seen many films that I now love if I did not have kids.

Shawn, Portland huh......We WILL see you at the Sci-Fan - contest, show and Pizza party in October correct? :)

Good movies don't need dialogue, if the story is right for it.http://mnlg.com/jfs/archive_P/2004/jfsPics/gifs/sunset2.jpg[/IMG-LEFT]


"We didn't need dialogue. We had faces!"




I haven't seen [I]Ratatouille, but it sounds cute. I can't help thinking, though, of poor Manuel in Fawlty Towers: "He put Basil in the ratatouille!"

Shawn, Portland huh......We WILL see you at the Sci-Fan - contest, show and Pizza party in October correct? :)

The what now? I'm not aware of that event.

Shawn

Well now....For the past six years or so (north Seattle) has had a Sc-Fi club that meets monthly at Galaxy Hobby in Lynnwood.

Bob Jackobson who has been the owner up of Galaxy for 12 years (who has just recently handed the shop over to the shops co-owner) Is our president and leader of this wacky adventure.

The shop had an annual standard model contest but after a while we decided to break it up into two contests...one contest in spring for ships, tanks, air, cars etc and in October the Sci-Fi and Fantasy contest. I think we had 300 entries last year.

Your a bit far for the monthly meetings but if you could make the October show that would be cool! There are plenty of HobbyTalk folk that are members of our club and some gents who hang around Starship Modeler and the Club house under the same if not other user names.

Here are some links that will explain a bit more.

The club members pic is a bit old and membership has grown sence then and yes that is the Polar Lights scooby van while on its jurney around the U.S..

http://www.galaxyhobby.com/clubs/sci-fi_model_club.htm

http://www.galaxyhobby.com/scifan.htm

We consider our selfs quit lucky to have a sci-fi / fantasy model club loaded with great talent, fun and to have our meetings at such an awesome Hobby Shop like Galaxy that is in NO WAY in any danger of closing down, Galaxy has the largest selection of (yes) PLASTIC models not to mention a HUGE Sc-Fi selection...great staff too.