Usagi Yojimbo DojoBoard

Did anyone see Ratatouille yet? I saw it this morning, I liked it. Beautifully animated and well written. Theatre was full of both kids and adults and it seemed like everyone in the theatre enjoyed it. The Pixar short Lifted was before it which was good too.

If you are a Pixar fan I recommend seeing it.

I have heard good things. I LOVED Iron Giant and the Incredibles so I have hopes for this one - tho' seeing the trailer didn't excite me at all. I do believe Gary and I will check out the Tuesday matinee next week.

thanks for the heads up!

The Iron Giant is an amazing film, one of the few non Disney animated movies I really love. It has so much heart and emotion in it. The Incredibles is a great film, but, I am bias, I love everything Pixar does.

I've noticed a trend with Pixar trailers in that, their teaser trailers, they give you a vague idea (sometimes) what the film is about, (like a good teaser trailer should I guess) and then with the actual theatrical trailer they really get more into it.

Before Ratatouille they have a trailer for there next film called Walle. It gives almost nothing away about what it is about, but of course, it looks amazing animation wise.

I tend to shy away from all CGI cartoons with the exception of Pixars. The main reason being Pixar ALWAYS puts as much effort into the story as the animation. I hate the Shrek films and Ice Age and so on. One CGI cartoon I was pleasently surprised with though was Monster House. I really enjoyed that.

And, like I said above about traditional animation, US wise I prefer Disney stuff, though I did love The Iron Giant and I liked The Prince of Egypt. Batman Mask of the Phanstasm, Sub-Zero and world's Finest and Batman Beyond Return of the Joker was great though.

I really want to get more into Japanese animation but not too sure where to begin.

I got one word for you - Myiazaki!

morna-san wrote:I got one word for you - Miyazaki!

Most UY fans would probably enjoy Princess Mononoke, so he can start with that one.

Saw it Saturday night and absolutely loved it. Easilly the best picture I've seen so far this year. And it's a cartoon about a rat. Which should tell you how this year has been for movies so far.

sschroeder wrote:Most UY fans would probably enjoy Princess Mononoke, so he can start with that one.

My favorites are Spirited Away and Totoro.... and Laputa (Castle in the Sky in English). I was fortunate to see the original Japanese language version when it first came out. My best friend and her husband are animators (he worked on backgrounds in Iron Giant incidentally! - small world) and they were all geeking out like mad over the explosions. It was the last of the traditionally animated Miyazaki films and each little piece of the exploded airships and stuff was animated separately - amazing amazing animation!

I agree with you, Tayocham, about this summers films. I'm hoping for at least one more film I like this summer, Harry Potter, and if I go to see Transfromers I hope to like it as well.

A sad summer for films it seems, maybe next year will be better with the Batman sequel, Indy 4, Iron Man. Is the new Hulk movie next year as well?

I definitely enjoyed the Ratatouille movie. I loved the animation on the rats, great fun to watch. The story was enjoyable, too.
Just don't go to see it if you are hungry! It will make you want to be snacking on food food food the whole time. Especially thinks like cheese, grapes, wine...

I know Pixar likes to do little in jokes to their other films, have cameos and such. I thought the mime in the one scene looked like Bomb Voyage from Incredibles. Also, I thought I saw the Pizza Planet pick up from Toy Story in there too (they usually throw that in every film.)

I missed all that! I'll have to go see it again this weekend!

I remember seeing an interview with John Lasseter once where he said in each Pixar film, they like to have a cameo by a character from their next movie, and sometimes someone from the film before.

The trouble I find with with watching a Pixar film the first time in the theatre is that, you want to watch the movie, yet you want to enjoy the backgrounds and look at the texture they created for the items in the movie and look for these hidden Easter eggs, and by doing that, you can't focus on the film and story itself.

So, multiple viewings are needed. That's Ok though, since I like their stuff.