Ratatouille

[ShyViolet]

Here's some more of his review,, also interesting:

COMMENTARY
The Golden Touch

Around the midpoint of Cars, Pixar's new computer-animated feature, Lightning McQueen, a stock-car racing star, and Sally, the girl he has met in the little town of Radiator Springs, drive into the countryside and look out over a sweeping desert landscape. The idea is that Lightning, obsessed with fame and winning big races, has never before paused to take in the beauty of the world around him.

Radiator Springs (graphic)

That "natural" beauty is, of course, computer-generated, and if there is a single living thing depicted in that scene, even a tree, it's not conspicuous. (Lightning and Sally pass among some evergreens earlier in their drive, and the trees really stick out; I can't recall any advanced plant or animal life elsewhere in Cars.) The two characters admiring the barren landscape are not only computer-generated but are themselves machines—a bright-red race car and a gleaming Porsche, cars that can think and talk. A film synthetic in every detail is admonishing us to relish the natural world.

There is, in other words, a subtle discrepancy between what the movie is telling us and what we're seeing on the screen. That's not much of a problem, in the movies or any other medium; artists bridge such gaps all the time, irony being the tool of choice. Here it may be tempting to believe that John Lasseter, Pixar's creative arbiter and Cars' director, has his tongue at least slightly in cheek; some of the buttes in the distance have contours suspiciously similar to those of automobile fenders. It's clear, though, that such features of the landscape are there less as a joke than as a way to make the world on the screen seem more hospitable to its population of talking cars and other machines. In Cars, Lasseter asks us to take all too seriously both Lightning and his transformation (today a selfish hot rod; tomorrow an upstanding family sedan). As a result, he makes his hero ridiculous and his film a frustrating bore.

Cars is not contemptibly bad in the manner of so many recent computer-generated features. The $70 million that the movie supposedly cost is all on the screen; to my eyes, the animation is flawless, on its own photo-realistic terms, and sometimes, as in the night scenes near the start, powerfully atmospheric. The movie-star voices for the characters are mostly good, although it's too obvious that they were recorded in a studio and not in the film's wide-open spaces. But Cars is easily the worst of Pixar's features, crippled throughout by the same suppressed awareness that Lasseter imposes on the scene in which Lightning swoons over the desert's artificial beauty.

Lasseter, who did not direct the three Pixar features that preceded Cars, even let himself be trapped inside what amounts to a live-action script. Neither Lightning nor any of the other characters need be automobiles; they could just as well be people, and all of the story's events could easily have been translated into live action. It would have been obvious then how bad the script is, how packed with clichés, non sequiturs, and stereotypes, ethnic and otherwise.

Comedy can't save Cars, because there aren't enough jokes. The film is full of quick cuts that encourage watching for sly gags, but more often than not there's nothing to see but vehicles of some kind, pretending to be people in mildly amusing ways. The gags that accompany the closing titles are wittier than anything in the body of the film.

If irony can close a gap between what's being said and what's being shown, sentimentality always opens such a gap wider. There is sentimentality aplenty in Cars. Lasseter was born in 1957, too late to remember the days the film rhapsodizes about—the days when people went for a drive, in long-gone makes like the Hudson Hornet, instead of just driving to get someplace. We are always most nostalgic about what we are too young to have experienced firsthand. (The film's éminence grise, "Doc Hudson," won his trophy races in 1951-53, a few years before Lasseter was born.) My father was a Hudson dealer when I was a kid, and we rode the family Hudson on drives into the country on Sunday afternoons. "Tiresome" is the word that springs to mind when I think about those outings. At least we listened to Bing Crosby on the radio; Cars can do no better, as it evokes the good old days, than a damp Randy Newman song.

It's difficult for me to believe that Lasseter would really like to resurrect the time when driving from one city to another meant winding through a lot of mostly dismal little towns. Well-planned high-speed roads—the autoroutes in France, for example, which don't rip through city centers in the destructive American manner—enhance the driving experience and make it easier to get to those small towns that are, unlike Radiator Springs, actually worth visiting.

Hicks, Lightning, The King

Lasseter's sentimentality finds its most peculiar expression at the very heart of the movie's story, where he tries to blend his genuine affection for cars with his equally genuine desire to make movies that extol personal virtues. I know almost nothing about NASCAR, but its races have never struck me as a likely venue for lessons on friendship and caring and other qualities that Lasseter admires. Cars does nothing to change my mind.

I've always assumed that many of the people in NASCAR's stands come there in the hope of seeing a spectacular crash—the races, lap after lap, are otherwise as boring as those long-ago Sunday drives—and Cars, by offering several beautifully choreographed pileups and spin-outs, does its best to satisfy any similar longings in theater audiences. The villain car, Chick Hicks, causes a couple of those crashes by attacking his competitors, for all the world as if he were a charioteer in Ben-Hur. I don't know if such viciousness would go unchallenged in a real NASCAR race, but the movie shrugs off Hicks's quasi-homicidal behavior as requiring no more than a caution flag, thus raising the question: what kind of crazy "sport" is this, and why should we give a damn which maniac comes out on top?

[ShyViolet]

By the way, I don't know if anyone noticed this but:

There are apparently no girls in Ratatouille.


This is a few months old, but I think it's really interesting: (it might have been posted already here) It relates to this issue.


http://michaelhanscom.com/eclecticism/2 ... ment-61072

(Scroll to the top for the comment/essay ) Warning: a couple of expletives are used in the comment section.




It still amazes me the lengths to which the animation community will go to defend Pixar (even when Pixar tells them they might be fired, they're like: "Oh, I like Ed Catmull because he's so honest, he doesn't beat around the bush." and "I guess nothing lasts forever." Uh huh. Gee, whatever happened to "Those b*****d executives, how could they lay off so many animators, may they rot in hell!" )

Sure, a great deal of the higher-grossing, successful films in history have starred men (that's to be expected). But animated films occupy a different space. Aren't Pixar always saying that their films aren't for kids, adults, boys or girls but EVERYONE?? Well, why don't their films reflect that?

And what I think the person who wrote the original comment forgot to say was that it's not just so many male leads, but by and large the lack of a truly interesting, STRONG female roles. Sally actually does very little, it's actually Paul Newman who changes Lightning's mind. Jessie the Cowgirl screeches at Woody and is generally annoying, but it's Buzz who makes Woody see the error of his ways. Dory might motivate Marlin to ease up on Nemo, but she's kind of brain damadged anyway and forgets about it a moment later. Princess Atta in Bug's Life, despite overcoming her insecurity and helping Flick organize his bird plan, fades into the background as the story progresses, and so do her issues. It's all about Flick. Flick outsmarts the grasshoppers, Atta helps him, but does little else. Her fears of not measuring up to being Queen are given short shrift next to Flick's desire to "make a difference." Dot, a child and therefore less threatening, has a much more active role. Atta's issues take a back row.

Even The Incredibles, which I usually don't include in Pixar lists, has a strong sexist core that I have to comment on. The focus of the entire film is Bob's sense of loss about having to give up his superhero lifestyle and settle for ordinary "mediocrity" as he puts it. But what about Helen? Doesn't she have ANY regrets or feelings about not being Elasticgirl anymore? How does she feel about not using her powers, giving up her hero identity, being a mom? We never learn any of this. It's Bob's issues that are at stake, not Helen's; Helen just goes with the flow and easily accepts whatever comes: be a housewife? Fine. She puts up kind of a fight when Edna makes the new suits: "Bob and I are retired!" but actually accepts hero work again without much of a fuss. It's all about either being a "normal" mom, or a "super" mom. Never just about being Elasticgirl, and what that entails.

[ShyViolet]

At a lecture, I asked Pete Docter, the main creator of Monsters, Inc why Pixar was so dominated by men, and he replied that animation itself is so much populated by white men. Girls (and minorities except maybe Asians) rarely go into animation. Just look at all the comic junkies - they are overwhelmingly male. He said that he’d love to have more women at Pixar - there’s just relatively so few that apply compared to males.

Artists usually are best creating what they relate to and understand - what is meaningful to them. It’s easy to see each director’s alter ego in the main characters. Miyazaki seems the rare exception when it comes to a man creating great female characters. Until many more women start getting serious about becoming animators, it’ll be difficult for the female perspective to come to the forefront.

This is an interesting response, which I think should be addressed. I think it basically cuts to the heart of my basic problem with Pixar storylines: It's artist and writers doing WHAT THEY KNOW. THEIR world. They make some, but comparitively little effort to have other perspectives/viewpoints/characters. That's why their films, despite their numerous creative and technical merits, have the overall vibe of a bunch of guys having fun and making something they enjoy. That goes a long way, but.....sometimes not far enough.

Also:

Until many more women start getting serious about becoming animators, it’ll be difficult for the female perspective to come to the forefront

Umm....what about Beauty and the Beast? The Little Mermaid? Mulan? Didn't those films deal largely in women and women's issues, even though they have male fans, many of whom are animators? Heck, you can even bring up Cinderella and Lady and the Tramp!

[James]

Blah, blah, yada, yada, omg here we go again! If it wasn't so sad it would be funny! Some people like Pixar better, some people like DW better. We all get it. Can we move on?

Sorry to come off so rough, but it seems like every thread is either this debate or devolves into this debate. As moderator I've got to prod us along sometimes!

[ShyViolet]

It's O.K...no prob. Let's just forget about it.

[James]

We don't need to forget about it, we just don't need so much of it!

This topic is OK, but maybe we could tone down the Pixar/DW battle in other threads that have gotten off course.

[ShyViolet]

Gotcha.

[YCougar]

I'm not one of those people who sits and analyzes movies for how strong the female characters are... sure, I like strong women in movies, but it's not a huge deal to me, so long as the characters overall are good.

That said, I really would like to see a good strong (even main character?!) woman in a Pixar movie. Helen comes close. In the superheroes' heyday, she came off as very independent and take-no-crap-from-men. So where's her identity-searching in her forced civilian life? Maybe having children to protect changed her perspective. Once she got the kids situated and headed into Syndrome's HQ, she did a great job fending for herself... and would have been able to get to her husband and save him even if Mirage hadn't got there first.

I don't want to see a woman completely run circles around all the male characters, as that smacks a little too much of feminism... the annoying kind, not the healthy moderate kind. But a smart woman who takes charge and knows what she's doing? That'd be great.

*raises hand* I want to add to the pool of women at Pixar, haha. Too bad it probably won't be as an animator if it ever magically happens, as people from our animation program usually get picked up for modeling, lighting, textures, and that sorta thing.

[Dacey]

But the issue in "The Incredibles" was that Bob had not accepted not being a superhero anymore while Helen had adapted to having a normal life. She's all about the family, while Bob is reckless about living in hiding. I don't really see how you can't call Helen a strong heroine.

[ShyViolet]

She's all about the family, while Bob is reckless about living in hiding. I don't really see how you can't call Helen a strong heroine.

Exactly...why is she only all about the family? Why can't she be for herself too?

Well, wha'ever. Too much analysis!

[YCougar]

But the issue in "The Incredibles" was that Bob had not accepted not being a superhero anymore while Helen had adapted to having a normal life. She's all about the family, while Bob is reckless about living in hiding. I don't really see how you can't call Helen a strong heroine.

That's mainly my point. I think I started my post from the perspective of Pixar = no strong females, but in rereading it, there's no reason at all to assume that. Helen's a spitfire and is quite capable of handling herself.

And... actually, I didn't realize how cool she was until recently. Maybe because I didn't really think too hard about it.

[Meg]

Actually I think MOST CG films in general lack strong female characters...In fact, the only 3D movie I can think of that stars a female is Hoodwinked!

Pixar, DW, Bluesky, etc. better get crackin'. I wanna see some girl power, darn it! (Elastigirl rocks, though.)

[Josh]

I wanna see some girl power, darn it!

You're in luck, Meg! Don't forget about Disney's upcoming features, including Enchanted, Rapunzel and The Frog Princess, not to mention future direct-to-video titles such as Tinker Bell and The Little Mermaid III.

[Meg]

Well...Other than Disney princesses, I mean.

[ShyViolet]

Actually I think MOST CG films in general lack strong female characters...In fact, the only 3D movie I can think of that stars a female is Hoodwinked!

Pixar, DW, Bluesky, etc. better get crackin'. I wanna see some girl power, darn it! (Elastigirl rocks, though.)

What about princess Fiona, Gloria the Hippo, Stella the Skunk, or Angie from Shark Tale?