I'm going to a screening of
Persepolis tomorrow. I'm a huge fan of Satrapi's graphic memoirs, and I'm sure they will translate well to the big screen. Very excited to see it.
I saw
Ratatoullie and while it is techinally perfect, as you'd expect from PIXAR, and while the message is a good, nice sentiment that all children should learn and have reinforced, I didn't think it was anywhere
near as funny as their best stuff (
Incredibles, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo and the
Toy Stoy pics) nor is it as pitch-perfect heartfelt. The relationships, from the human love story to the family dynamic among the rats, seemed really shallow and easy to me. It was all nice, but not very inventive past the initial high concept, and it truly didn't move me at all, unlike the undeniable strength of the emotions in the best PIXARS I already listed. And personally, I know it's gonna sound silly, but I could never get past the idea of rat hair in food. The chef's hat acted as a sort of natural rat-hairnet, I suppose, but that big scene where the colony helps in the kitchen...sorry, couldn't get past it. I know they're talking cartoon characters and all, but still. Overall it's much better than
Cars, to be sure, but that ain't saying much. I'm sure it's going to win easily, and that it'll be a couple decades before an "adult" animated film wins an Oscar. Much like the stigma of the label "comic book", the casual or disinterested will always assume that animation = kiddie fare.
But anyway. Haven't bothered to see
Surf's Up. I'll let you all know how
Persepolis is.