Film review: Pixar's Ratatouille

I saw Ratatouille yesterday at The Cathay near Dhoby Ghaut MRT. This is my favorite place to see movies, because of the quality of the cinemas. A lot of buzz has been generated about Ratatouille and Rottentomatoes.com shows that more than 90% of the movie critics there gave this film a favorable review.

Personally, I've been very intrigued by this film ever since the first trailer came out more than a year ago. I know it's been more than a year, because I remember seeing the trailer in Jakarta, before I moved to Singapore. The first time I saw that trailer, I thought "Wow, what a great concept. This looks like it's going to be a great movie."

My younger brother had a different reaction to the trailer. He didn't like the concept of a rat being a cook. It just doesn't seem right. I never understood his objection until much later when I read a review somewhere that pointed out that the rats in this film looked unsettlingly similar to real rats. These rats do not look like Mickey Mouse. Therefore some people will be turned-off, and may not be able to relate to the rat-protagonist.

Anyway, all of these thoughts were there before I saw the film. So, was the film good? Yes, it was very good. At the end of the movie, some people in the audience actually applauded. I don't remember anyone applauding a movie outside of film festivals (in film festivals an applause is sort of expected; it would be almost impolite NOT to applaud). The movie was very funny and very touching. It was obvious that the audience was involved every step of the way, laughing at the funny parts and choking at the sad parts. Everyone was rooting for the main characters (Remy the rat-cook and Linguini the garbage-boy-turned-cook). The "ickyness" factor that my brother was worried about was not there at all, in my opinion; there was nothing repulsive about these rats.

You can't go wrong with this movie. It is now one of the my top five favorite animated films of all time (the other four being "Finding Nemo", "The Incredibles", "Toy Story", and "Lion King").

At the start of the film there was charming short animated film "Lifted" and a trailer for the next Pixar movie, a robot story titled "Wall-E" (set for release in summer of 2008), which looks like it's going to be another monster hit.

So, go see it this weekend if you have time; you won't be disappointed.

Sunday afternoon in the Esplanade

It's Sunday afternoon, 4:45 PM. I'm sitting at a window-facing table in the Esplanade Library. I can see the bay and the Merlion in the distance, in front of a row of tall office buildings. It was raining before but now the rain has stopped, leaving the wall of windows full of water droplets. I'm writing on my new MacBook laptop which I bought from the NUS shop as a student, but for no appreciable discount.

The sky is still dark from the rain and it's a bit cold, perhaps also from the rain. I just bought a ticket to see a "Duyen Dang Vietnam, 18th Charming Vietnam Gala", which will play in the concert hall in about 30 minutes. The girl at the ticket box told me that this is a combination of a music and dance show with a Vietnam theme. Besides the laptop sits a book titled "Your Movie Sucks" by Roger Ebert. I'm not sure I'll get a chance to read it, since the show will begin soon, and I don't think I want to borrow the book. I'll probably browse it after finishing this blog.

The atmosphere is good, the view is nice, and I'm feeling OK, if slightly drowsy. I'm picturing this blog to come out more as a place where I review recently seen movies and shows. I recently saw "Rush Hour 3". This is one of those movies that didn't deserve its extremely low rating in Rottentomatoes. OK, it's not a masterpiece, but it is somewhat enjoyable. Before that I saw "The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes" and that was terrible. It was probably the most boring movie I've ever seen, though not the worst. That distinction goes to either "White Chicks" or "National Lampoon's Gold Digger", or the Indonesian film "Bad Wolves".

OK, I'm packing up and seeing the show now, will check in later.