OMG, you folks HAVE to go see Ratatouille.
Yes. It’s about a rat. It’s a very cute, fuzzy little rat with heart & soul who wants to be a cook — no, not just any cook, a CHEF. This is a gentle, warm-fuzzy, hysterical movie that will have you laughing your butt off — and NONE of it’s forced. All the laughter & heart & sniffles here come from true characters & true people, not forced, phony situations.
Okay, rant time. One of the things I HATE about most of the recent CGI films (and most Hollywood films) is that they forget the most important rule: Character Is All. The story must come from your characters’ hearts, who they are, what they truly desire. The story must not be superimposed over your characters. The story spins around those characters’ desires and dreams and heart. If you took the little warm-fuzzy rat Remy out of this film (or his lanky clumsy Human, Linguini), there would be no story, no movie.
Most CGI films nowadays forget that. There’s lots of frantic screaming & sarcastic sassing & lame one-liners (Madagascar comes immediately to mind *shudder*), but no heart, no soul. Almost all the animation companies switched to CGI because “that’s what the audience wants”…bullshit, no, what we REALLY want is character & heart & good story-telling. You could put STICK FIGURES up there and it would work, if you stayed true to their character.
Okay, rant done. The short & sweet? Go see Ratatouille. 😀
Across The Shadows 