Ratatouille updates
Brad Bird movie gets a website makeover, plus 9 minute clip
It's Ratatouille Tuesday. Pixar movie's website is updated with new galleries and podcasts, plus Disney.com puts up a 9 minute clip from the film.
(Source: home.disney.go.com)
The Walt Disney Company is ramping up its Ratatouille coverage, prior to its theatrical release this summer. It recently gave the official website a full makeover, adding an image gallery, games, free downloads, both trailers and three podcasts.
However, Disney’s main page has the piéce de resistance: a 9 minute clip from the movie, with an introduction and comments by director Brad Bird.
The clip begins with a rat named Remy (voiced by Patton Oswalt) observing the kitchen of Gusteau’s, a Paris restaurant that has fallen on hard times since Auguste Gusteau, its founder and head chef, died. While chatting with the ghost of Gusteau (Brad Garrett), he is horrified to notice Linguini the kitchen boy (Lou Romano) messing with the soup.
Accidentally dropped into the middle of the kitchen, Remy initially to avoid getting stepped on, noticed or flambéed. Finally, the rat fixes the damage caused by the hapless Linguini but, encouraged by Gusteau’s ghost (“Now’s your big chance!”), Remy actually tries to improve the entrée. Unfortunately, he’s captured by Linguini but not before a bowl of the altered soup is sent out to be tasted by a noted food critic.
When the critic loves the soup and sends her compliments to Skinner, the current head chef (Ian Holm), he orders Linguini to make the soup again the next night. Unfortunately, the rat is discovered and Skinner demands that Linguini, the only one who knows the truth of Remy’s abilities, gets rid of the rat. Linguini must decide whether or not to throw Remy in the Seine, or use the talented rodent to save his job.
First the positives: if the rest of Ratatouille rocks as hard as this clip, I’d say we have another Disney animated classic, ranking alongside Snow White, Fantasia or Pinocchio. Yep, it’s that good. Pixar has always kicked major booty with their animation and the Emeryville team has kicked up the coolness factor by several notches. The backgrounds are nothing short of stunning. As someone who has actually been to Paris, the animators caught the distinctive light and atmosphere of that city. Check the paving stones below Remy in a later scene: they are almost photo-realistic in their execution.
The characters are a step up as well. Check out the play of shadows and emotion across Linguini or Remy’s faces as they wrestle with their respective dilemmas. Great stuff.
Likewise, the story of a rat who wants to become a great chef is a huge difference from the usual wise-cracking animals that have infested CGI movies in recent years. Definitely a step up from Cars' hoary cocky-young-hotshot-learns-important-life-lessons-from-grizzled-veteran plot.
If I have one major complaint, it's that Disney's site is notorious for overloading the humble home computer. It's not surprising that the Mouse House wants to make their site the best in the biz but they seem to have forgotten that many Internet surfers (like yours truly) are on a DSL modem which can't process the gigabytes per second that Disney's throwing out.
Therefore, viewing a 9 minute clip of Ratatouille on Disney's site is something akin to Chinese Water Torture: you want to watch the thing because it looks so freakin' cool but it's such a pain to sit through the long pauses while my poor modem processes the information flying at it. I wish Disney would follow YouTube’s lead and allow viewers’ computers the chance to process the clip before watching it.
Of course, the Mouse House would mention words like “copyright infringement” and some such in rebuttal, but I’m sure a lot of viewers don’t want to wade through 9 minutes of stuttering footage.
As long-time readers know, I've never seen a Pixar flick I didn't like (although, on reflection, I was nicer to Cars than it really deserved). But this movie looks like it has the potential to be Pixar's best yet.
Ratatouille hits theatres June 29th.
Fun Fact: Check Skinner's bio on Ratatouille's character reel for a not-so-subtle smackdown on Disney's commercial ways. Heh-heh-heh.
