I went to see it last Tuesday night while on a date and I thought that overall it was pretty good. The storyline was pretty Hokey… like how the rat controlled the cook by pulling on his hair. But it’s a movie mostly for kids, so with that in mind I can forgive some of the quirkiness of the story.
What I want to know is what everyone thought about the different aspects of the CG. My thoughts so far…
1: I thought the fur on the Rats was spot-on!! Can’t see how they could make it any better! Even with the shots of the rats in the sewer with wet fur, it’s absolutely phenomenal!
2: Also the SSS is great. There are a few shots of the rats lit from behind, showing SSS through their ears. Very nice!
3: The animation of the rats and their different manorisms was very believable. There were even several shots of the rats in large packs, and I could hear from the audiance several times “Eeewwwwwwww!!!” as if they were looking a live rats! It was actually quite amusing.
What I didn’t like was the human characters. Pixar has come a long way since “Toy Story”, but the human characters still leave something to be desired. Even in a movie like this where they are supposed to be somewhat “cartoony”, I still think they could have done a better job.
actually i liked the people. i thought they looked just what they needed to look like for the movie. although i wasnt very fond of the modeling of the fat cook that died. his skinny head+his multiple chins didnt realy blend together very well, imo.
but i do agree with the rest of your observations.
I liked the human character’s surface texture. the incredibles felt a bit too smooth for me, these things had a really nice faint bump-map thing going on. Little pock marks and stuff. The designs themselces were all over the map. Some of them were caricatured really heavily, others were very plain looking. Could have used a bit more overall design cohesion…
Remy was freaking amazing. Animating him must have been an absolute blast. There were SO MANY little gestures and things he did that blew me away. The scene where he goes from the sewer to the roof and the whole journey from one to the other was friggin spectacular, just for the dozens of little things he did. I won’t ruin the flick by listing all the stuff i liked or anything, but good god i could watch that little rat move around a screen for days and probably never get bored of it.
The only thing that kinda threw me off: The little opening sequence with the rats… It made in instantly think of “The Secret Of Nimh” and i REALLY wanted the movie to suddenly just become a Pixar version of that flick… good god that would be awesome…
If i had any ambition in the slightest i would attempt making a Remy of my very own…
I remember the first appearance of him on CG talk years ago, a little short where he was interacting with a cigarette lighter…pretty sure it’s the same character anyway, I still have the clip so i’ll have to verify that once i’ve seen the movie.
Well I finally saw it. The only theater near my house chose really inconvenient showtimes, so it took me forever to get the opportunity to see it. This movie was much better than Cars in my opinion. Finally Pixar has seen fit to abandon its concept of basing movies on a theme (superheroes, bugs, toys, cars, etc.) and has instead started with characters and concepts. Great move in my opinion.
As always Pixar’s texturing is superb. I especially loved the spice rack near the beginning. Animation was also flawless as far as I could see. This could easily be the most beautiful movie they’ve done yet. I never once saw something that made me cringe, but I had several such moments with Cars.
I did find some of the SSS a little over-the-top though. Sometimes it just seemed to be turned up a bit high. SSS in human skin is a subtle thing, and I often felt that they turned it up so high that the people began to resemble wax or something of that sort.
Particle and water effects are great as usual. Really good fire effects (how do they do those? Will we ever have access to fire like that?)
Regarding the content of the movie, my family was discussing it afterward and came to the conclusion that it’s not actually ideal for children. It has a lot of subtle points and content that would seem alien to children (such as the intricacies of snob culture). What do you guys think?
One last thing: Due to the aforementioned Bad Show Times, I missed the short and the preview of the next Pixar film. Could someone fill me in?
Spoiler Alert:
Pixar Short: Lifted: Little alien takes his ‘road test’ in abducting a human…wonderful, all the way to the ending.
Preview: A movie featuring a robot who discovers his purpose in life. Name: Wall.E. The preview link for Walle was available on 3dtotal I believe.
I loved the CG in the movie. As was said before, the texturing was awesome. I loved all the detail in the pots and pans in the kitchen.
As far as the movie, I thought it was choppy as compared to previous movies. I recently watched all the Pixar movies with my kids after seeing Ratatouille and thought that it didn’t flow as well as the others.
Also (call me a prude) I didn’t appreciate a scene with someone getting drunk and the concept of an illegitimate child in a childrens movie.
I thought the movie was great. The story was interesting, and I liked the characters. It’s to the point now where everyone is capable of great CG & effects; it all comes back to the storytelling…
