Rave: Ratatouille

Friday night, I caught up with JWW after work. Following a brief stop in a newly found and sufficiently divey watering hole, Antarctica on the western edge of SoHo, and a just OK meat-leaden meal at the West Village BBQ joint Cowgirl, we wandered in to Union Square to catch a movie. Damned a little bit in our timing, JWW convinced me to see Ratatouille. I should mention here that, despite RM an Slate's positive reviews of the movies, I am not a huge fan of animated movies, and snake-bit earlier in the week by Transformers, I was dubious that a saccharine movie about a rat that cooks would win the day for me.

Well, Ratatouille was great. Charming, funny, visually stunning, with incredibly well-executed chase scenes and some beautiful renditions of Paris - I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, and can only recommend it. While The Incredibles, Iron Giant, Toy Story 2 and Brad Bird movies only did it so much for me, Ratatouille warrants all of the plaudits and cries from every corner hailing Brad Bird as a genius. From the opening sequence, to the stylish closing credits, Ratatouille was ever entertaining, but also, in every way, a film. And extra kudos to Pixar for continuing to run a short before the feature. Lifted, the short, was equal to Ratatouille in charm and humor and was the perfect lead-in to the feature. Go see it.

For your further edification, some Ratatouille-related interviews:

Patton Oswalt in Wired
Brad Bird in MoviesOnline (Pts. 1 and 2)