8mm Forum: Ratatouille and Lifted

This is topic Ratatouille and Lifted in forum General Yak at 8mm Forum.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://8mmforum.film-tech.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=000602

Posted by Jean-Marc Toussaint (Member # 270) on June 12, 2007, 07:14 AM:

I saw Ratatouille this morning and, although I still prefer "Cars", the film confirms that Brad Bird is a fantastic director. I was a bit reluctant about the way Paris would be shown and that the whole thing would fall into caricature but they did their homeworks and it looks great.

And the accompanying short - "Lifted" - is simply hilarious, better than last year's "One Man Band" (soon available in adapted scope from CHC).

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on June 12, 2007, 11:36 AM:

I sympathise, Jean-Marc.

I saw my own home town in a movie once. In "Pearl Harbor", the boys go to "Mitchel Field" for training. The real Mitchel Field is about two miles away from where I grew up, and just south of the same Roosevelt Field where Lindbergh took off for Le Bourget in '27. In the movie "Mitchel Field" is ringed by high mountains. I guess they tore those down sometime before I was born!

I saw the previews for "Ratatouille" when we went to see "Shrek the Third", and we plan to go see it. We haven't seen a bad Pixar yet. In the abstract, a movie about both rats and food gives me the willies but maybe we'll try to eat before we go see it.

"Shrek 3" seemed a bit flat, but I guess it's tough to be as fresh the third time around. The animation was spectacular though.

"One Man Band" will be great on S8!

Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on June 13, 2007, 04:37 AM:

Steve
If One Man Band is the one thinking of it would make a good Scope release. One recent film "Meet The Robinsons" had the Disney short The Boat Builders from 1938, nice to see it on the big screen, watched Shrek a few weeks ago and enjoyed it.

Graham.

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on June 13, 2007, 07:54 AM:

One Man Band is the one with the two hyper-equipped musicians competing for a little girl's coin, which she just wants to throw in the fountain. It's frantic!

http://www.pixar.com/shorts/omb/index.html

I gotta have this one!

Posted by Jean-Marc Toussaint (Member # 270) on June 13, 2007, 08:11 AM:

Steve, if you think OMB is frantic, you will *LOVE* "lifted".

CHC's Phil Sheard had a dummy box at his table during last May's BFCC. It should be available by now.

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on July 03, 2007, 09:10 PM:

We just got back from seeing Ratatouille a few minutes ago. It was a great story and the animation was absolutely fantastic. Strange though, how Pixar does so many things well, but their animated human beings still look kind of plastic, and nowhere near as realistic as Dreamworks'. The scenery and objects were absolutely photo-realistic, though and quite beautiful too.

I realize the point of the story is to learn to overcome preconceptions and let people (...or whatever) become who they are capable of being, but I guess I'm not there just yet because the sight (and the thought) of all of those rats running around the kitchen at one point made the hair stand up on my neck. It's interesting too: every time a big animated film comes out the fast food chains come breaking down the door for the merchandising and cross promotional deals....not this time!

Funny, as I was sitting there watching the awkward young man talking to his new rat-friend I realized this might just be a kinder, gentler Willard!

The fact that they were able to make so much from kind of a risky concept like this says a lot about Pixar's talents as story tellers.

("Lifted" would be nice on a 200 foot reel!)

Posted by Jean-Marc Toussaint (Member # 270) on July 04, 2007, 02:54 AM:

quote:
their animated human beings still look kind of plastic

Well, at least, they are vivid, animated characters. Its' obviously an artistic choice dictated by technical limitations. And they are wise to follow that road. All other attempts by other companies to make realistic humans for 3D animation are scary. Remember Polar Express? Every character looks like out of Night of the Living Dead (Before Christmas).

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on July 04, 2007, 06:18 AM:

Where they have made a lot of progress is in the motion of their human figures. Especially back in the Toy Story era, Pixar's people moved with these weird little hesitations, but lately they've smoothed them out quite a bit.

I think you may be right about their appearance being a choice. I get the feeling that these folks have reached the point where they can do pretty much whatever they want stylistically. It's just curious having people being a little cartoonish in a photorealistic world. (Linguini was pretty realistic in appearance...maybe he should just put on a few pounds.)

I've heard animators say before how difficult it is to convincingly animate fire. It is kind of fluid, but without a container to define its shape and motion. This was a real problem in the scenes where Shrek first meets the dragon, for example. Obviously Pixar has it down, there is a lot of fire happening in that kitchen and you can almost feel the heat it's so realistic.

UBB.classic^TM 6.3.1.2