Ratatouille...

Last evening, the family and I partook of the latest Pixar film, Ratatouille. I will admit I was a tad skeptical on how good it would be before going to the theater. After all, this film had some tough acts to follow (I still think Finding Nemo is one of the best movies ever made, animated or otherwise.) So I walked in with my expectations a little low.

We entered the theater a few minutes after the show started, and the room was quite dark for being a part of an animated movie. The three of us managed to find our seats and took in what we could of the opening plot. Immediately I was taken aback at how realistic the scenery was, and it continued to develop in its quality as the movie progressed. The elements, especially water, were particularly well done. And the camera angles! Oh my, they were quick and fluid and fun, especially when taken through the perspective of a rodent's location and how quickly everything swaps around when trying to evade a waiting cart. Oh, and I think the animators captured the look of a soaking wet rat perfectly.

But the movie was far more than simple eye candy. Here is where Pixar excels over all: they make good movies. The medium is what is it, but the quality of the plot and characters are grand. While others may not care for the pretense of a rat wanting to be a cook, I liked it. Plus it lends to a greater point, and surely the driving home of a principle of doing what you have a passion for, even when it's not what is customary or common, is a good thing. The theme was tied in at multiple places, and I liked the reinforcement at different while not beating it over the head.

I walked away happy, having both enjoyed the movie personally, and knowing my son had just seen something of high quality.  It struck such a chord personally that I was thinking of it the next morning while taking a shower.  My only beef is, while the movies Pixar makes are wonderfully mature (not necessarily adult or for a specific age group), they have let a few instances of curse words slip.  Now, I'm not one to usually care for censorship, and even was one who came of age during television's destruction of decency (6th graders watch Family Guy for goodness' sake!)  But when everything else is so good, the world 'hell' sticks out in my ears.  But, c'est la vie.

The Pixar studios must be an amazing place.  I can only imagine that the thought and work created there must mimic the movie studios of Disney nearly half a century ago.  I extremely highly recommend going to the theater to see Ratatouille.  Not that I am against waiting for DVDs and making personal copies; rather, I simply think it is a movie of such high visual and content quality to be worth paying the God-awful prices at the theaters to see it on a big screen with great sound.  And who knows, maybe, like myself, you'll walk away feeling a little bit inspired.