Ten Men and a Movie: Ratatouille

We loved it. Anyone who knows us knows that we dig animation (and Muppets too, but that’s another story for another time) We recommend Ratatouille, even if you don’t like animated movies. It’s a solid story, it's funny, and the animation is outstanding.

Pixar for the longest time avoided rendering humans, and for good reason. It’s tough to do people convincingly. Pixar alone seems to realize that the trick isn’t to make them realistic, it's to make them interesting. The more realistic animated humans get, the creepier they become, according to a theory called the Uncanny Valley.

Instead, Pixar has developed a certain style for all their human characters - rounded, bulbous, shiny, looking more like 3 dimensional vinyl dolls than photorealistic humans. The Ratatouille humans (like the Incredibles before them) have ridiculous proportions - obscenely round , pathetically short, impossibly thin. They are not at all realistic, but they are fun to look at. and we love it. This guy explains it much better than we ever could.

Ratatouille also has something to say, too. It takes a real shot at the role that critics play in the restaurant industry, as pointed out by Kottke.

Here’s how we rank it among the Pixar films, from best to worst:

1. Toy Story. A great story and fun movie, but it's number one simply because you can never top the feeling you get when you saw this animation for the first time.
2. Toy Story 2. Rare sequel every bit as good as the first.
3. Incredibles. This is where they found their groove when it came to rendering humans.
4. Ratatouille. Great story, best artwork yet.
5. Finding Nemo. Beautifully rendered, fun story.
6. Bugs Life. Clever and funny.
7. Monsters Inc. We didn't like most of the monsters. Pixar monsters all seem to be descended from either bears or sea octopuses; most of them are large blobs and have lots of tentacles. Neither scary or interesting.
8. Cars. This is the first Pixar feature we didn't go to see in the theaters. We finally saw it on cable last week. Eh. Could never get into the conceit of the story, Cars as living beings. It was at its most absurd during a courthouse scenes, where all these cars were inside a courthouse, and the judge was behind his bench. Why would they even have buildings, if they were cars?
   

If you are going to see Ratatouille, here are some things to look for, from a message board posting by Patton Oswalt, who voiced the rat. And, like all Pixar movies, Ratatouille has plenty of Easter Eggs.