Yes, Disney’s takeover of Pixar was a financial windfall for Pixar shareholders; but it left many Pixar fans with a feeling of dread: the Mouse inc. could squeeze all the creative juice out of the beloved animation studio.
Pixar top honchos, Lasseter and Catmul, getting key positions at Disney studios could serve as a temporary reassurance for Pixar fans. And Pixar ex owner is now Disney’s owner (slightly stretching the “largest shareholder” tag). So far, so good…
But that small rodent flavored flick – Ratatouille – could be an ominous sign.
A few days ago, an interesting event took place on the boob tube: DreamWorks Shrek made quite a splash on Disney’s ABC in Shrek the Halls, a half-hour holiday special. It looks like Jeffrey Katzenberg is much friendlier with Bob Iger than he was with Eisner.
What WASN’T awesome about Gargoyles? Story, characters, animation, music, voice acting, references- and when you see the old episodes after having seen the conclusion, you go SO THAT’S WHAT THAT MEANT! Utter synergy. But hey, check Wikipedia, it might help you remember:
I’m sure there’s a second opposite definition of ominous, which I’ve never heard till now, that means auspicious. From all the Pixar pictures (say this 3x fast) I’ve seen i.e. all apart from the Incredibles and Monsters Inc. it was hands down the most fun and witty.
Also, it was a nouveauté seeing a film on a french pastime quip only 2x hehe
Ratatouille was not as good as previous Pixar films, mostly because it didn’t have the pizzazz the others had. No big action scenes, no really memorable characters (except for Remi, the ghost, the little Evil Cook, and the Critic (who was voiced, magnificently, by Peter O’Tool). The rest of them were sort of, alright, but not memorable.
Still, in terms of originality, visuals, story and plain fun, it was still miles over all the other recent CGI rivals (Shrek III was a letdown.) I fear Pixar’s “finish a project and then move on” approach is too random to always produce really great movies. Which is why I say that Disney should farm any successful characters in TV shows in the meanwhile.
I beg to differ; Ratatouille was the best comedy I’ve seen since Duck Soup. I was more than happy to see some slapstick in lieu of action scenes and the focus on a few characters served me better. The plot wasn’t anything to write home about but I loved Ratatouille.
