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The Chemist checks out an extremely rough-cut test-screening of Brad Bird & Pixar's next... RATATOUILLE!!!
Hey folks, Harry here and the winner of the "I most wish I was this guy tonight" Award, which goes to The Chemist for getting to see RATATOUILLE about 8 months early. Sissafrassafrissafrass... Guess what... it's fucking great apparently... It's kinda unbelievable... it's so fucking good... but that's ok. Cuz if you're not The Chemist or one of his Vancouver, Washington neighbors that happened into this gloryhole of a screening... you've just gotta wait... FOREVER... to see this, with the knowledge that apparently it rivals FINDING NEMO as the Chemist's fave PIXAR film and that's with... like 8 months of work to go. That's with whole sequences in storyboard and greytone. Yeah... which means it's a friggin homerun... that we don't get to see till the middle of NEXT YEAR... when it's hot as hell outside and we're running from the global warming heat like Polar Bears in the Arctic. Sigh... Go see HAPPY FEET in IMAX and chill. It'll be RATATOUILLE time soon enough...
Hey Harry-
Got handed an invite for a "free movie screening" today at my work today (11-20), advertising a "major studio animated film coming next year" to be shown at a local theater tonight. Luckily, a gal I work with also is the assistant manager at said theater and had told me it was a Disney flick, but even she didn't know what movie it was. Obviously, Ratatouille sprang to mind, so I RSVP'd and my wife and I went to the theater (Regal Cascade 16 Cinemas in Vancouver, Washington).
After standing in line for almost two hours, we were checked thoroughly by security and ushered into the theater. Seating was about 400 people, with various sections of seating taped off for reserved seating. My wife and I were sitting halfway up the stadium seating at the end of an aisle. After the audience was seated, more people came in with notepads and recording devices and sat in the reserved seating scattered around the theater. The ushers then asked us to move to the middle of our aisle into the reserved seating to make room at the end of the aisle for more of these notepad carrying people, so we did. So we are seated dead center in the theater. Right below was about 5 more empty reserved seats. Then, a small group make their way down the aisle and sit right in front of us, and HOLY SHIT I recognize two of them immediately, Brad Bird and John Lasseter! I just about pissed my pants!
Anyway, the MC gets on the mic and says welcome, blah blah blah, we are about to see Walt Disney and Pixar's next animated film, Ratatouille! He announced that we were the second test audience to ever see the movie. The film will be in various states of completion, and to stay afterwards to fill out a survey. So the lights dim, and the movie begins.
Sorry if I spoil anything here. The movie was in a very incomplete state, with about a third of the movie being storyboards, a lot of gray-scale, then mostly incomplete animation. All the voice-work and sound effects were intact though. The few segments of nearly complete animation already looked fantastic. As far as the story goes, classic Pixar.
The main character is a rat named Remy who has a passion for good food unlike the rest of his trash-eating clan. Remy finds himself paired up with a garbage boy named Linguini in a famous Paris restaurant. After accidentally creating a soup masterpiece, the duo hide the fact that the genius behind the cooking is Remy. Throughout the course of the movie, they battle the jealous head-chef and Paris's top food critic, all the while dealing with Remy's struggle of abandoning his family to pursue his dreams of fine cooking.
The plot seems simple, but like any Brad Bird flick, it has a ton of heart and humor. Much of the action scenes were storyboards and gray-scale, but still promised to be dazzling when complete. The humor moments were hilarious and had the audience rolling. The voice acting was fantastic, with no recognizable A-list Hollywood stars to distract you from the characters, no singing in the edit that we saw either. The music was completely forgettable as it was just filler at this point I suspect. During the movie Lasseter would scribble down notes at various points.
The movie lasted a little over an hour and a half, and was greeted with resounding applause by the audience. When the lights came up I look in front of me to see John Lasseter reach over and shake Brad Bird's hand with a huge smile on his face. The small group quickly gets up and starts leaving the aisle. I worked up the courage to stand up and tap Brad Bird on the shoulder and tell him "awesome movie", he smiles very politely and responds with a "thank you".
Needless to say, my hand was shaking as I tried filling out the survey :)
Anyway, I cant wait to see the finished movie. Personally I liked it better than The Incredibles, the rough cut we saw tonight was right up there with Finding Nemo, my personal Pixar favorite.
Still in awe,
The Chemist
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i hope this will be good, cos cars was just okaaaay...and most disney things totally suck lately!
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Can't wait.
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Kidding. I hope it's as awesome as this guys describes.
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and i think i met brad bird there too. but i was like 7 at the time. he complemented me on my vocabulary and knowledge of film. also, the incredibles was far and away the best pixar flick.
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Can't wait for my next Pixar fix. I am yet to be disappointed by them.
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Both great flicks but I'd have to go with Incredibles by a nose.
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...and so cannot be trusted. The fact that his hand was shaking after meeting ol' Brad and John, shows that he would like anything they do...kinda like a Michael Jackson fan - "He wants love for the whole world! He loves children! I would itunes his farts!" I can't believe that a movie, part-made, story boards and gray scale, would still come across as hilarious and fantastic and oooh I nearly poo'd myself it was so good. The story sounds poor, very weak and I reckon that Pixar are relying on witty one liners rather that a good story.
I guess we wait and see, but considering the animated flicks this year...its not looking good... -
Like...a Star Trek fanboy, a Star Wars fanboy, a BSG fanboy, a Whedon fanboy, a Stargate fanboy, a Lost fanboy or any other kind of fanboy. Fanboys suck. Where was I?
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One of the most highly acclaimed screenings EVER was a work print of Beauty and the Beast in NY about nine months before it came out. "part-made, story boards, gray scale" and all. It was so successful that Disney actually released the WORK PRINT on laserdisc back in the day, and people ate it up. Thing is, it's all in the writing, and that's been finished for a while now. It will only get better with music, editing, and finished animation. Why you would choose to say that Pixar is relying on witty one liners with literally no proof of such is beyond me.
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dear god...
Brad Bird Rocks! -
that even with far too many talking animal movies already, this I am excited about.
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Does anybody know why Pinkata was replaced? 'Ratatouille' was originally going to be directed by him, but he dropped out shortly after production started.
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everything the other guy said and more. Pixar know good story. everything in good animation relies on story. i attended a lecture by mark walsh last year, one of the lead animators at pixar and you wouldnt believe how much effort they put into the development even before a single bit of animation is started. story controls everything, from the way a character walks to the colour of their shoes, and pixar know this better than any animation crew in the world right now. thats why even the weakest pixar film is miles ahead of any other animation cG animation. the main reason being, they dont care that its cg, thats not the important part. Pixar are old school animators using cutting edge technology. Go read the Illusion of life and you'll understand.
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...makes me wonder if it actually happened. Oh, and on another note, if anyones interested, Universal are releasing a film soon, and the website it ev anal mighty .com. Be warned though, sounds disgusting.
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...makes me wonder if it actually happened. Oh, and on another note, if anyones interested, Universal are releasing a film soon, and the website it ev anal mighty .com. Be warned though, sounds disgusting.
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Nov 21, 2006 5:31:59 AM CST
Nothing can beat the Wallace and Gromit movie. NOTHING!
by the wrong guy
Funniest, most entertaining kids movie ever. Hands down. Seriously.
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it was still better than most, and as far as I'm concerned Pixar gets a free pass in perpetuity anyway. Plus, this one's a Brad Bird film, which is like automatic-awesome.
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Skipped Cars, but this looks promising!
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Iron Giant and Incredibles are two of the best animated films of the last decade and The Simpsons was top of its game when Bird was a consultant on it back in the heyday. Cars was weak but better than any other animated film this year. Pixar pay attention to character and story and don't overload with "name" actors that are sold off. This looks great. Can't wait. will have to, but can't. damn it
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Great film but Incredibles and Toy Story are still better. Nemo looks amazing though, as does Cars. Oh, and Wrong Guy, Wallace & Gromit movie was nowhere near as good as The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave shorts which were far more inventive.
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You mean... it's a piece of crap, too?
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One would expect Pixar to make good movies...with 300 writers on staff (like the spartans maaan)you would expect a tight script. But Cars was terrible. It just was. It may have been better than the other animated flicks of the year, but that doesn't take from the fact that is was below par! I reserve judgement on this, and maybe I will be Daniel Craig Bond proved wrong...but I refuse to get excited about something that is little more that a trailer...pretty drawings and storyboards makes a comic...a movie is the finished product...and based on the above review, there was nothing there that excited or thrilled me...I think Toy Story 3 will suck eggs also! How'd ya like them apples, fanboys????
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"Pretty drawings and storyboards make[s] a comic". Thanks for the expertise. You couldn't be more wrong, but as I guess you obviously don't understand storyboards it's not surprising. Have you ever seen a Pixar animatic? Do you even know what an animatic is (this is what they would have seen at the preview)? Take a look at either some of the stuff on the Cars dvd or more appropriately the Incredibles disc with the storyboarded Dash action sequence (Bird goes further than most with the boards, but even 3d Pixar movies are boarded pretty much like 2d Disney films). Then 'return'. Or better yet, don't. "It just was". At least you're concise!
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Just settle down and stop trolling is all. If you don't know what you're saying, best not to say it.
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I stand corrected. I do not work at Pixar and so can not comment on the tremendous work they do. You are correct, and I will look at the, what was the technical word, ah yes, "animatics' and then cry at my foolishness. Although, I must say, I do take issue with "If you don't know what you're saying, best not to say it" remark...I believe I do know what I am saying, and what I am saying is: the movie sounds awful. My respects to you all...
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i honestly dont think anyone could get enough information from this article to decide if the film is bad or not.
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You take an honest look at a great sounding movie and rape it with your cynicism.
Pixar has earned respect.
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with 300 writers on staff (like the spartans maaan)you would expect a tight script." Actually, if history has shown us anything, it's that the more writers a film has, the worst it is. "Too many cooks", and all that. Multiple writers suggest inconsistency and indecision during a film's development, and almost always result in loose, hole-filled scripts. So, the truth is kind of exactly the opposite of what you said. And all this is moot, anyway, because 300 writers aren't working on each Pixar movie.
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so bad."
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Then again, they don't have to. There's no way this could be worse than Cars, so I'll go see it, I'm sure.
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I'll admit the story doesn't sound that amazing to me BUT it's freakin Brad Bird. Go watch Iron Giant and Incredibles again. They're truly brilliant films. I think this guy has earned some cred.
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I don't know about anyone else, but between growing up on Tom & Jerry and several Disney flicks, I don't care for animated mice, rats, etc. anymore. The film will probably be good, but I'd like to see more variety, especially with "Flushed Away" making the rounds. On a Brad Bird note, three cheers for "Family Dog," the best thing to come out of "Amazing Stories!"
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Is still Toy Story. Cars was great, by the way. And this will rock hardcore. I wish I could have met John and Brad. Fuck, I would have gotten their autographs.
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I refuse to spend another dollar on a Disney Pixar movie till they get there minds right and make Incredibles 2. And Litle Nemo Better then the Incredibles this guys on crack.
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...someone a plant turns into a damn ficus! REALLY looking forward to this. Incredibles was hit and miss for me and Cars was just a miss. And I can only agree with the "Toy Story is best" up until Finding Nemo. FN resonated with me very deeply. I place it EASILY in my personal top 10. Probably my top 5. But TS and TS2 definitely come in 2 and 3 for me.
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Though I am sure I will see this. Incredible was TOO DAMN GOOD not to follow it up.
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I think a large part of why Incredibles didn't seem so, well, incredible (sorry) to me is that I hate pretty much anything having to do with superheroes. Other than a small like of Batman for a couple years before the first films, I've really never had anything to do with them. It looks great and was definitely entertaining. But I just had much more of an emotional conection, and thus more of an emotional investment, with several of the story elements in Finding Nemo. That being said, I'd totally be down for I2. Way way WAAAAAAAY before Cars 2.
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Toy Story 2 is my fav Pixar flick behind the original and Monsters Inc. I was so looking forward to the Incredibles and though I liked it, it is probably on the bottom of my list for Pixar flicks. Then again, I have yet to see Cars.
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Toy Story 3 is still in the works?
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..that much, it was good but I haven't watched it again. Am I the only one to rate Monsters Inc - Toy Story - and Finding Nemo as my top 3. Bottom 3 are Cars - Incredibles - Bugs life..in that order. I want Monsters Inc 2 or so help me !
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I agree-- Toy Story is one of the benchmarks of modern animation. Incredibles was good, but didn't come close to the standard of TS, mostly because it was rather more simplistic. Much of it was a typical Hollywood action film done in CG animation-- this makes it somewhat forgettable. Overall, I think that Pixar is the saving grace of the American film industry, not counting the indie productions: Hollywood has generally produced such horrid, unoriginal stuff in the last 10 years that I don't know what fim historians will say about this era.
Even the Matrix trilogy (which began with actual promise, in the first film) went down the tubes in a ridiculously short time.
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