a second helping of ratatouille
It’s rare that I ever see a movie twice while it’s still in theaters, but my intense affection for Ratatouille simply would not grant me peace until I sat down for a second show. If someone else were paying, I’m sure I would sit down for a third.
Everything from my previous post still stands. Ratatouille is a masterpiece, and it truly breaks my heart to think that this movie may yield an unimpressive box office (relatively speaking) because it is being ignored in the face of inferior but relentlessly marketed summer blockbusters.
The Southerner and I came away from our second viewing just as enamored as we were the first time, perhaps even more so. There are dozens of wonderful details, and even a few great jokes, that I simply missed the first time around, so dazzled was I by the work in front of me. Ratatouille left The Southerner with the desire to cook, and me dreaming of my alternate reality, the one where I took my little hobby more seriously and became a computer animator.
At the end of Ratatouille‘s credits there’s an odd little message: no motion capture used. All character motion in Ratatouille is animated manually. This is nothing short of amazing, particularly in light of some of Linguini’s balletically awkward movements as he adjusts to Remy’s presence. Unlike, for instance, The Polar Express, there was no man in a reflective body suit laying the foundation of his motions, and somehow it came off more natural and expressive than the promise of motion capture should suggest. This movie makes me want to believe in the wildest promises of quantum of physics, because it means that somewhere in the multiverse, there’s another version of me who creates these kinds of things for a living.
Ratatouille loses none of its visual warmth the second time through. Its world is warm, physical, and complete down to the tiniest detail. As Remy sat munching on grapes and cheese, one woman remarked, “That looks so delicious.”
The theater was surprisingly full for a Tuesday night, suggesting that fears over Ratatouille‘s box office receipts may be a bit overblown. There were only two children in the theater, both a bit bored with the proceedings. One of the few criticisms consistently mentioned in Ratatouille‘s otherwise glowing reviews is that it’s not very kid friendly. This is, I think, a fair thing to say, but it’s also not really criticism. The Godfather can be a modern masterpiece while also being, shall we say, distinctly unfriendly to children. Ratatouille, while certainly geared toward the family as a whole, probably isn’t really targeted at five year-olds, and that’s okay. You can still call yourself a family comedy even if you don’t have candy colored backdrops and fart jokes (take note, Cuba Gooding Jr.).
The DVD can’t come fast enough.
Sure the work done by Pixar is outstanding. Still, comparing it to Polar Express is like comparing apples to oranges. There is no concept of realism with the human characters in Ratatouille. No human could perform these leaps of quantum physics and so motion capture would fall short (as ity replicated human motion rather than this exaggerated versiion). The food critic walks in a herky-jerky style that is anything but realistic. As you mention, Linguini’s motion is so balletically awkward that no motion capture performer could pull it off. Yes, the animators at Pixar are amazing and the creative vision is inspired. But just like there will always be a place for Godfather, there will always be a place for more realistic motion-captured movies as well. After all, would you want to eat only apples…