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Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here.
... I guess I’m just surprised. I thought the trailers were pretty bad. I guess I sort of wrote this off, but it sounds like Capone really dug it. Which means I’m going to have to give it a chance.
But... more than RATATOUILLE? Really?
Bold words, my friend. Bold words.
Hey all. Capone in Chicago here.
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Hey folks. Capone in Chicago here.
Director Brad Bird has single handedly made it impossible to lump all Pixar movies into one category. Sure, Pixar works are all varying degrees of great, but with his last film, THE INCREDIBLES, Bird took the kid-centric animation house and allowed older kids and adults into the fold a little easier. In fact, it almost seems that he's more concerned with appealing to a slightly older crowd by populating all his films (including his first, THE IRON GIANT) with almost entirely human characters. I'm sure kids will find a whole lot to love about Bird's latest, RATATOUILLE. The images and energy are as strong as anything the Pixar crew has done to this point. But beyond that, the story about a rat living Paris who is obsessed with eating and creating fine cuisine is clearly a theme that adults can embrace and get the most out of in terms of the full movie-going experience. Even the idea that a character would dream of living in Paris just for the food is something that might not make the most sense to an 8-year-old, but I've been there.
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Last week, at the Ratatouille premiere here in Austin, Patton Oswalt looked out over the crowd and remarked how odd it was to be in a room full of both children and Jaded Internet Hipsters. Later in the evening I leaned over to Patton, shot him a sarcastic look and said "Jaded Internet Hipsers, huh?" "Dude, take the hit," he smirked. "Because I haven't written my review yet…" "Dude, take the hit." Of course I can take the hit. I mean Internet, definitely. Hipster, maybe. But jaded? That's the joke. I'm not jaded. Am I?
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Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. I conducted this interview with Ms. Janeane Garofalo immediately after my chat with Patton Oswalt (click here if you missed that one). In fact, there was a bit of time in-between the two since Garofalo was in a round table interview a room over.
I saw Patton in the hall outside and chatted with him and the publicity folks until they finally looked around and said, “How long is she going to be?” So, Oswalt decided to crash the round table. I heard him enter and say something, “What the hell are you still doing in here!”
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Sorry. I swear to god the headline will be the only example of bad cooking references in this whole review. You’ll get hit with enough of them as the positive reviews for this film keep pouring in over the next two weeks.
And believe me... the vast majority of the reviews for this one are going to be glowing. Over the moon. Madly in love. And the film deserves all of that and more.
In 1999, a banner year for film, and probably the single best year since I started at AICN, there were several genuine masterworks released, and my favorite of them was an underperforming animated film called THE IRON GIANT. In 2004, there were also a number of truly great films released, and my favorite of the year was again an animated movie about superheroes called THE INCREDIBLES. And now, with the year half over, the single best movie I’ve seen at this point is the animated story of a rat who wants to be a chef and the guy who helps him accomplish that dream. All three of these movies are from the same filmmaker, a fact that suggests to me that, in my opinion, Brad Bird is the best filmmaker working right now. Period.
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Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here.
So Disney ran that nationwide sneak on Saturday night, and sure enough, we got in a ton of reviews for it. I asked Nordling, one of our oldest friends here at AICN, to write in if he got a chance to go, and he basically hit the computer as soon as he got home, so let’s check in with him first:
One of Patton Oswalt's comedy routines is about KFC's Famous Chicken Bowls. Basically, he rants about how people tend to settle for the basic when they can strive for something more, even if that something is just separating your food instead of consuming it in one amorphous blob. I had to feel a little guilty hearing that bit. I love KFC's Famous Bowls. But, he's right. We should require something more... substantial from our food, and from our movies. Which brings me to RATATOUILLE, Brad Bird, and Pixar.
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Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. You’re going to love this interview.
Big words… but you gotta give it to Patton Oswalt for filling this interview with vulgarity. I interviewed him for Pixar’s RATATOUILLE, so here is a rarity in the entertainment journalism world… an R-rated interview for a G-rated movie.
There are some spoilers, but I put a warning before the big one toward the end of the interview, so don’t be too scared to read the below.
We go over so much territory, I’m not even going to bother trying to summarize it for you folks. As Hunter S. Thompson once said, you bought the ticket, now take the ride…
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Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here.
Disney’s evidently running a nationwide sneak of RATATOUILLE on Saturday night, and I would recommend that you make the effort to get out and see it. I’m working on my own review of the film, but for now, we’ve got a couple of reviews from people who saw early screenings, and I want to run them to encourage all of you to check this one out. This is a very, very special movie.
Hello!
I attended an advance screening of Disney/Pixar's RATATOUILLE in Boston Monday night. This was a free MySpace promotion, and the crowd started lining up inside the Boston Common Theater around 5 for the 7:30 show.
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Hey folks, Harry here... I know for many years you folks have been wanting to have a peek at what goes on at AICN's screenings at the fabled Alamo Drafthouse. Well, thanks to Videographer Anne Heller, we'll be bringing you glimpses of what is up. You saw the "humiliation of Eli Roth" - well this time - you get close to 10 minutes of the brilliant Patton Oswalt and Janeane Garofalo during their Stand Up / Q&A after our screening of RATATOUILLE. You should know that this is a sample of that night's post-screening performance. Missing is Janeane trying to understand the questions of a 5 year old girl on the second row - which was hysterical - cuz well... you just kinda had to be there. Here's the video...
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Hey folks, Harry here - I sadly can't tell you how I feel about RATATOUILLE... sniffle... I wish I could... I wish I could share with you the feeling I had watching this __________ ______ Movie!!! I mean, there was one moment in the film where I totally __________ ____ __ and ____ ________ my ___ ___!!! But, I can't. However, the regular audience members... like the folks at IMDB and the unknown heroes of AICN can share their unfettered feelings. Suffice to say, _ ____ ____ _______ _____!!!
Hey Harry, Quint, and all AICNers out there.
My wife and I just came back from an amazing advance screening of Pixar's latest, Ratatouille. This was our first time, and unfortunately probably the only time we will get to visit the often hailed Alamo Drafthouse Downtown Austin, but what a great event to experience. What they say is true, The Alamo is a great film venue that oozes geek - but in a good way. And the geeks were out in force tonight. Harry's whole family, Tim League, owner of The Alamo, and Remy The Rat himself, Patton Oswalt introduced the film, with a special video introduction from Brad Bird, thanking the readers of AICN and the owners of The Alamo... what a treat.
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Ahoy, squirts! Quint here.
Because I’m set up to interview Patton Oswalt and Janeane Garofalo before the big AICN screening of RATATOUILLE on Monday, I had an opportunity to watch the film last week, in a digital cinema no less.
I am a Brad Bird stalker. I absolutely adore his work so far. I have an IRON GIANT one-sheet framed and mounted on the wall about 3 feet to my left as I type this. I got him to sign it at Comic-Con the year he was promoting THE INCREDIBLES. And THE INCREDIBLES… My favorite Pixar movie, followed closely by TOY STORY 2.
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Hey folks, Harry here... I know I've already announced this screening, but Patton wanted to personally reach out and yank you in the general direction of this movie. SO... here he is...
“Patton Oswalt here. How are you? Oh God, that’s terrible.
Maybe this will cheer you up. Disney/Pixar and Paramount Vantage are letting me screen a pair of movies in Austin this coming Monday.
The first one, at 7pm, is RATATOUILLE. That’s the new Pixar movie. It’s directed by Brad Bird, who did TROLL 2, ANOTHER 9/12 WEEKS and that video for Whitesnake with the girl from BACHELOR PARTY. I play the lead role — a rat who wants to be a gourmet chef. This one’s going to get shown at the Alamo Drafthouse Downtown. It’s definitely all-ages, so bring the family. I am very proud and excited to be part of this movie — the third truly “great” film I’ve been involved with, after MAGNOLIA and DOWN PERISCOPE.
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Hey folks, Harry here... Make no mistake about it. I love getting to host advance screenings of cool films. Last night's HOSTEL 2 screening was an absolute blast - with an audience that just ate it all up. That said - to be able to present a PIXAR film by Brad Bird two weeks early... that's a friggin awesome thing to get to do. In addition to have the lead character's voice there in person to host it with? Cool. That it is Patton Oswalt, one of the few people on the planet Earth that can pretty much out-geek me. FUCKING AWESOME! OOps... the "f" word. This screening of RATATOUILLE is going to be family friendly - so don't worry about spiraling "f" words flying out of mine or Patton's maws... We'll be on our best behavior. So this screening is exactly ONE WEEK from tonight! AWESOME! Here's Tim League with the details...
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I’ve been to Pixar once before, when I was invited up for the INCREDIBLES DVD release. I found the place to be just as magical as you’d expect. Sure, Pixar may be an incredibly important corporate asset for Disney, but when you’re there, you can see that it was built to inspire real artistry, and that it’s all designed with one goal in mind: the production of films that are genuinely special.
This time, I flew up very early on a Friday morning, and then caught an insanely expensive cab ride into Emeryville, where the Pixar campus is located. Randy Nelson, the dean of Pixar University, was waiting to take me around the campus again for a tour. I met him during my last trip, and he’s one of those guys who exemplifies what Pixar is all about, in my opinion. He’s got the same sort of measured enthusiasm as Fred Rogers, the same sort of innate decency and interest in everything. He is the first face that most guests to Pixar encounter, and I can see why. As he talks about the way the company works, you know you’re not being hard-sold. Instead, this guy is just a true believer. He’s seen the effect that the Pixar system has on artists and writers, and he knows that he’s working for a company that treats its creative people as special, that values everyone in the building equally. Even if you’re an accountant at Pixar, you’re still able to participate in a very real way. Every employee is allowed to take classes at Pixar University, allowed to work on animation skills or sculpting skills or filmmaking skills. They want every single person there to understand the process so that when an animator asks for money for an extra shot or a reshoot of a sequence, that accountant knows what that’s all about. It creates a united front instead of an adversarial relationship, something other studios could learn to do.
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Because if not, I highly recommend it.
This is pretty much the experience I had when I went up to see Brad Bird at Pixar last month. We sat in the editing room, and he talked to me about the film and showed me some footage. Both of the sequences you’ll see in this nine-minute peek at the film were scenes he showed me. I also some more stuff I’ll tell you about in an upcoming piece, but I’ll put it this way: if you aren’t sold after seeing those nine minutes, then just move on. RATATOUILLE isn’t for you. Personally, I look at this, particularly that HD version, and I am amazed at the level of artistry that Pixar has achieved these days. Looking at their growth from TOY STORY to now, it’s pretty astounding for only 12 years. This film has so much atmosphere, and it’s so different than anything they’ve tried before. I think that Remy is a great lead, too. Bird talked to me about how insane the concept of the film is – “a rat that wants to be a gourmet chef” – and how it was putting these total opposites together and making the audience eventually want it to succeed that he saw as the challenge on this film.
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I’ve known Patton Oswalt for a while now. It started when I went with a friend to see Aimee Mann and Michael Penn at the Henry Ford Theater. Patton was the opening act for them, and the emcee for the entire evening, and the next day, I wrote a bit about that evening here on the site. I got an e-mail from Patton, and we started chatting back and forth. We have the kinds of schedules where we may go six or eight months without really bumping into each other, but I would consider him a friend.
He’s one of the busiest guys I know as a writer these days, so I always assume it’s a writing project that’s got him buried when he drops off the radar. When the first RATATOUILLE trailer premiered and I heard the voice of Remy, the main character, I had the phone in my hand before the trailer was even finished. “Holy shit,” I said when he answered, “are you the lead in a Pixar movie?!”
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Hey folks, Harry here... We're all big Brad Bird fans here on AICN - THE IRON GIANT, THE INCREDIBLES... before that... THE SIMPSONS and FAMILY DOG. Oh yes, we're BIG HONKING FANS of Brad Bird.
It's taken longer though with RATATOUILLE to find my excitement for this - as a Brad Bird project. I didn't need a talking rat movie again. Oh sure - that's like saying "I didn't need another buddy cop flick" - but HOT FUZZ will cure your ass of stupidity like that. It's just - with Brad - I like that his animation isn't just that basic Disney formula. It's kinda - a special Brad Bird thing. Where he takes the humor and the endless possibilities of animation... hits you with them right up front, but then slowly but surely makes you forget that it is animation as you invest so much emotionally - that suddenly... blissfully... you're caught up in whatever bit of outrageous, yet emotionally intimate - form of drama - suspense that he's laid out for you.
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And if you can’t wait for the HD debut next week, then head over to Disney’s official site, where you can see it right now.
The Japanese trailer that leaked online about a week ago was created to really emphasize the quiet character side of the film, which is evidently what Japanese audiences like most in the Pixar films, while this American trailer contains some of the same imagery while also doing a great job of laying out the comic premise of the film more clearly.
I can tell you that everything I’ve seen from this film so far (about a half-hour total) is a knockout, and I have every confidence this will continue Brad Bird’s winning streak in style. Check it out and let me know what you guys think.
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Merrick here...
The Chinese trailer for Disney/Pixar’s RATATOUILLE has hit YouTube.
It’s significantly different from the American trailer – featuring an extended sequence of “set up” from the film.
SEE IT!!!
I love the rendering of the foggy Parisian night. I'm eager to see how this film shakes out. CARS was cold and creepy to me (never could shake the sense that it was set in a formerly human world in which machines had overthrown mankind and now dominated the Earth); it never really came to life for me. This might make up for it.
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Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here.
Seriously... how can this go wrong?
Brad Bird. Pixar. Patton Oswalt. Comedy. If you listen to the commentary tracks on THE SIMPSONS, everyone heaps endless praise on Bird for so many of the classic moments and gags and set-ups, and it’s easy to forget after the broader-appeal entertainment of THE IRON GIANT or THE INCREDIBLES that Bird is a very, very funny man. I like that RATATOUILLE sounds like a comedy, and this leaked animation test is just a quick comic piece of performance. I like this character a lot, and this makes me want to see a real trailer for this film as soon as possible:
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Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here.
I got this one today from “Terry_1978,” and it was just a single link. No explanation at all.
It seems to be a storybook cover, where we get a first glimpse of some of the human characters from Brad Bird’s new film. Brad Bird. Pixar. Patton Oswalt. Really... what more do you need?
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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...
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Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with the debut of the new Pixar poster, for the flick RATATOUILLE, the second collaboration between Pixar and Brad Bird. INCREDIBLES was... well, incredible. If this film is half as good as INCREDIBLES, we're all the better for it. And Patton Oswalt voices the main character, so geeks all around the world rejoice! Here's the one-sheet!!!
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Hey folks, Harry here - We finally have the RATAOUILLE trailer in our native tongue. We showed y'all this trailer a while back in French, and some Talkbackers that are better at the French tonguing than I explained roughly what they were saying in t
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