The honours keep coming in for Disney/Pixar's Ratatouille, as the Brad Bird film picked up the Best Animated Film award at the Producers' Guild of America Awards ceremony.
At the ceremony, held on Saturday, Ratatouille once again trumped Twentieth Century Fox's The Simpsons Movie and DreamWorks Animation's Bee Movie to take home the big prize.
The comedy about a rat who wants to become a top Parisian chef has pretty much owned the animated feature film category at every other awards ceremony, and become the third-highest grossing Pixar film to boot (behind Finding Nemo and Brid's other Pixar flick, The Incredibles).
Ratatouille made $204 million at the domestic box office (a far less impressive figure when one considers the film cost $150 million to make) but earned over $400 million overseas. In France, the movie was #1 at the box office for six weeks, topping the record set by James Cameron's Titanic back in 1997.
Will Ratatouille Take the Oscar?
At this point, an Oscar win for Ratatouille seems assured. Pretty much every other awards ceremony has handed the Disney/Pixar film the big prize. However, neither Bee Movie nor The Simpsons Movie were nominated for an Oscar this year. Ratatouille's competitors in the Best Animated Feature Film category are Sony Picture Animation's Surf's Up and Sony Picture Classics' Persepolis.
Surf's Up was more of a critical success than a box office titan (it didn't make its studio costs back in North American theatres), so its chances are slim to none.
Persepolis is the dark horse contender in this category. The autobiographical story of graphic novelist Marjane Satrapi's childhood during the 1979 Islamist revolution in Iran created a firestorm of controversy after it received the prestigious Jury Prize at last year's Cannes Festival (sharing it with Stellet Licht). The Iranian government condemned the film at "Islamophobic" and tried to have it barred from several film festivals. Based on its realistic subject matter, many animators rate it higher than the more fantastical Ratatouille.
Rumour has it that many Pixar animators would also prefer to see Persepolis win the Oscar, since it would help prove that animated films aren't exclusively for children, and allow animators to pursue deeper and darker subjects in future films. Certainly Pixar has won its share of Oscars (Best Animated Feature Film nods for both Finding Nemo and The Incredibles, plus a special Achievement award for Toy Story) so its reputation is assured.
However, most voting Academy members tend to be the ones with the most time on their hands. In other words, retired members whose tastes are a little more conservative. That situation still gives Ratatouille the edge for an Oscar win.
The Oscar ceremony happens (with or without the writers) on February 14th.
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