"Ratatouille" (Walt Disney Video)
Really? Is this a revelation to anyone? What about Linklater's weird Waking Life (and A Scanner Darkly using the same animation technique). I'd be surprised if many children liked either of those films.
This week's column is animated by the conjunction of two signal events -- the arrival of Pixar's glorious "Ratatouille" on DVD and the bursting forth of Robert Zemeckis's bemuscled "Beowulf" on big (plus the biggest, meaning IMAX) screens. The films are products of different animation technologies, and look as different as mutant peas in separate pods -- the one exuberantly artificial, the other suggesting, during much of its length, live action that has somehow taken on a fantasy life of its own. But the signal sent by both of these productions is unmistakable. A process once confined to a relatively small realm has become a vital force in the evolution of the movie industry. [From Animation Isn't Just Kid Stuff]
