IMAGI-BLOG
Are we all just a bunch of big kids?
Submitted by imaginary stella on July 16, 2007.So, I finally found myself with free time this Saturday night, and my guy and I opted to go see a movie. Among our top choices were Transformers, Ratatouille, and Harry Potter V.
Having read igDana's take on Harry, I figured I'd leave that one to catch at the $3 theatre (I still heart you, The Crest). We really wanted to see Transformers, but the timing wasn't right. So off to Ratatouille we went -- and absolutely adored it.
Apparently the rest of the US continent agrees, as these were the top 3 movies coming off the weekend. Which has me thinking...These movies are initially billed as 'kid' movies, at least in principle (I suspect both Transformers and Harry are too violent for most youngins, and so much of the humor and story line in Ratatouille was geared toward the able-to-vote community). But still, we’re talking about a movie based off a cartoon, a movie based off a kids’ book, and an animated Disney flick…
Were these top-grossers because school’s out for the summer, and the theatres are overrun by kids with disposable income? Or are we all experiencing a return-of-Saturn moment simultaneously?
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imaginary embracey said on July 17, 2007:
The release dates are strategized, of course, to capitalize on those out-of-school young'uns. That plus the dual marketing and appeal to '80s nostalgists (Transformers), adult Potter fans (HP V), and savvy adults who appreciate a subversive, beautifully-wrought animated tale (Ratatouille, which OMG I'm dying to see a 3rd time) help account for the healthy box-office numbers, I reckon.
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Elliot Akshun said on July 17, 2007:
I loved it too! Which is surprising because if you look back at all of the other Pixar movies they are all fundamentally the same, they just change the characters and setting.
The thing I loved the most about this one however was the way that the animators played with your perspective. Whether you were seeing the world from the rats point of view or you were seeing from the humans it all seemed to flow together really well.
Oh, and when Remy was making the soup at the beginning, my Sister and I both agreed that that scene was super cute!
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imaginary embracey said on July 17, 2007:
There are definite similarities among the Pixar films -- variations on the heroic journey -- and even the two that stick closest to a broad thematic formula (A Bug's Life and Cars) are entertaining distractions.
But I see very different things going on beneath the surfaces of Pixar's best films. Finding Nemo is so pro-labor it's almost a Marxist fable, The Incredibles is a clever take on superhero mythology, and Ratatouille is really about what happened when those clever little rats at Pixar came out of nowhere and started cooking in Disney's corrupted kitchen.
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Elliot Akshun said on July 17, 2007:
You saw that too! I feel a little bit closer to this site everyday.
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Reviews
imaginary char said on July 16, 2007:
A flip to your story is a couple of weekends ago when I went to go see Knocked Up (for those of you who haven't seen it, it's not a kid friendly movie) and the drive in was full of kids. Toddler kids.