The MoFo Top 100 Animated Films - The Countdown

Can the voting for that start on the same day the top two are revealed and have the due date for the votes be April-ish?

So 7 of the top 10 are Pixar, eh?

WALL-E is Pixar's best. The rest of you are wrong, as usual.

WALL-E is Pixar's best. The rest of you are wrong, as usual.

Uh, yes it is.

then someone else thinks it's their best

This is in response to Chris's re-review just a post above. I'm not sure if I'm actually responding to Chris's concerns because many of them do not concern me at all. For example, the floating TV is a classic movie motif, so I won't try to address that, but if I felt the need, I'd say something along the lines that it's Remy's mind remembering what he's already seen. True, Brad Bird used the TV more effectively in The Incredibles and The Iron Giant, but it goes without saying that Bird likes to communicate info through TVs, especially primitive ones.

Now, when I read your original review, Yoda, you seemed to consider that Remy was the main character, and he certainly is, but this last post implies that Linguini is the main character and unless I'm mistaken, you never once mention Remy. To me, the movie is about how the most ridiculous-seeming characters can do what they do and do it well. Maybe I'm misremembering this, but I thought that Holden had some major problems with this flick because Remy was a rat and involved with food, and then when he calls on all his friends and family to help out, they were ALL RATS TOO! Now, I know for a fact that if Remy and all his friends were gay humans that Holds wouldn't care one bit, so I find this negative criticism to be irrelevant, and I bet I've had more rats in my houses eating away at things which I care about than he has.

So basically, I think the film's message is more along the lines that you may find your better half (Remy is obviously Linguini's better half) in the strangest places. I love and laugh out loud, repeatedly, at the way that Remy controls Linguini by pulling his hair. It's physical slapstick as good as it gets and just about as good as anything the great silent clowns ever did. Another message is that humans and non-humans can relate equally as long as they respect each other, although I'm not sure how much Remy actually respects Linguini up front, after all there's not much there.

In general, I just love the storytelling ability of Brad Bird. That, and the fact that he can write hilarious dialogue. The thing which appeals to me about Ratatouille is that there is so much going on that I cannot complain about most of it because I'm too busy enjoying it. Yes, Act III is the best. Does everyone notice that Ego looks like a character out of a Tim Burton flick, that his typewriter has a skull on it and that his "gothic room" is in the shape of a coffin? You can see that all in the scene where Ego learns that Gusteau's is now popular again.

As far as the "artificial" romance is concerned, maybe it is underdeveloped, but it's certainly believeable. Linguini seems to have almost no social skills, but you don't need social skills to be attracted to women in the workplace. It's just normal. Linguini has very little past and very little depth (except for what Remy gives him), so it's not surprising that he doesn't especially grow after he learns he's the offspring of Gusteau. However, he does use what he can do quite well in Act III. Linguini uses his skating prowess to serve everyone quite handsomely when Ego shows up. He also seems less-tongue-tied than normal. I still give Ratatouille , but I'll admit that the last 25 minutes are the best. However, among my earlier, fave lines are "Let's toast to your non-idiocy!" and " I don't LIKE food. I LOVE it. If I don't love it, I don't SWALLOW". Maybe I'll add some more later.