Ratatouille

So, I had some family stuff today, and then I wanted to get away from my computer and not obsess over all this NHL free agency crap. Which was better for my health. Although I find that since I've been expecting the worst case scenario I'm actually quite calm about it all. Which is good as there is still plently left to happen.

First off, let me just admit that at the box office I asked for "that rat movie at 12:35." Seriously Pixar people, name your movie something I know how to pronounce! I don't like feeling stupid while buying a ticket to a childrens' movie of all things.

Anyway, it's actually a very traditional story, with all the cutting edge inventiveness being confined to the animation. And that's fine. I don't need people to reinvent the wheel every time they tell a story. Although I do wish this one had been a tad less predictable. I still think Bird's best work to date is The Iron Giant, which was a combination of traditional and computer animation. That one just felt more emotionally "true" to me.

On the one hand, it's thrilling to see what computers can do. On the other hand, when I'm watching these Pixar movies, I keep catching myself thinking, Wow, computers can do that now? and that's not really how I want to spend my movie watching time. It's almost easer to suspend disbelief while watching traditional style animation, pre-computer graphics movies like Sleeping Beauty (1959) or The Sword in the Stone (1963) which look wonderful but in an entirely different, less full of bells and whistles kind of way.

All of which makes it sound like I'm criticizing Pixar and that's really not the case. Ambivalent though I may be about computer animation--for the record, I do like it, I just don't want to see the demise of traditional animation--I am not at all ambivalent about the standards of excellence Pixar obviously embraces. I mean, have they produced one movie that's even mediocre, much less bad? I don't think so. That's pretty damn impressive. If only it would inspire others to set similar standards.

And in other news, I'm currently reading Kenaburo Oe's A Personal Matter. If nothing else, it's a good reminder that a hockey team's star center signing with the Philadelphia fucking Flyers is not actually that depressing. The Flyers though? I hope he spends the next 8 years sucking.