Rediscovering Ratatouille

Steve — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 17:39:44 +0000

In anticipation of seeing WALL-E tonight, I started re-watching on Ratatouille. First of all, I had forgotten what a great movie it is – likely Pixar’s best to date. Pixar has made 9 feature length films and 5 are on Imdb’s Top 250 movies of all-time: Toy Story (#177), Toy Story 2 (#225), Finding Nemo (#139), The Incredibles (#145), and Ratatouille (#127). Halfway through the film I realized an amazing secret – the film is a metaphor for Pixar and Disney (the microwaveable Gusteau meals are kind of a giveaway, think of all those direct-to-video sequels). This blogger gives a more in depth analysis of what it all means. What’s also funny about it all is that part of the Disney mythology is “it all started with a Mouse”, but with Pixar and Ratatouille its all about the rat. And the scene where Anton eats the Ratatouille and is immediately reminded of his youth – well that’s the kind of goosebumps feeling when I saw Finding Nemo the Musical in Disney World two weeks ago and the kind of experience I’m expecting at WALL-E tonight. Disney magic, reinvented.
Update: Since I posted this yesterday, WALL-E has shot up to #110 on Imdb’s Top 250 list. I’m sure it will drop a bit over time, but it deserves to be up there. It was really spectacular and probably the best science fiction film of the decade.

Pixar Saved Disney Animation 2 Years Ago

Steve — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 00:58:44 +0000

NY Times: Disney and Pixar: The Power of the Prenup. Pretty good story about the fruits of the Disney-Pixar merger. John Lasseter does seem to be making a pretty noticeable impact on the creative direction of the company and I love that they’re breing back cell-animated features. Interestingly, this story was sent around in of our internal ESPN newsletters, which normally focus on sports media.

Steve Clancy » disney

Rediscovering Ratatouille

Pixar Saved Disney Animation 2 Years Ago