It would be excellent to know what tools they used to make this short!

(I’m expecting “Not Flash” as one good answer.)

Looks like a similar style to the end-credits on Ratatouille (which I loved) .

The link to the article on Sci-Fi.com above says this:

“We had to be kind of smart and think of ways to put this together,” Capobianco told a group of reporters at Pixar’s headquarters in Emeryville, Calif., on Oct. 29. That meant finding people who could do the traditional animation, drawn with pencils on paper.”

Pencils on paper ? How about that .

Ooh yeah, saw that on the Pixar campus a few weeks ago but back then it was still secret.

It’s a wonderful short, I hope they branch out of that type of material, because they do a wonderful job on traditional animation.

Oh man this is gonna be sweet!!

Yet another reason to snatch a copy when it’s released!

Animated News says the short is Blu-ray exclusive - can anyone confirm or deny this?

Oh my god, this looks wonderful.

The end credits of RATATOUILLE took my breath away, and hopefully this will do the same. I just looked at the images on Animated-News. I don’t like that still of 3-D Remy and Emile. Their expressions look bored and vacant. Hopefully, the actual short will prove otherwise.

Can’t wait to see it.

Wow wow wow. I am so jazzed for that. Pixar’s 2D concept art has always been great, I can’t wait to see it move.

Pixar does a great job with 2D. Remember the end credits of Monsters Inc.? Great design, timing and showmanship. Same is true of the end credits of Ratatatouille. This short should be right up there. Good animation works regardless of technique.

“Animated News says the short is Blu-ray exclusive - can anyone confirm or deny this?”

Thanks for asking this question! I went and pulled the e-mail I got out of my Trash folder and realized it’s not just on Blu-Ray so I have updated my entry at Animated News accordingly. The e-mail I got with the stills in it started out by saying:

“Happy Halloween!

Here’s a few RATATOUILLE treats – some new photos from the brand new short ‘Your Friend the Rat,’ exclusive to the RATATOUILLE DVD and Blu-Ray (11.6)”

I’ve seen this 11-minute short a few times now, and it is amazing. It’s a “documentary” about the history of Rats, skewed to a rat’s point of view, of course. It’s made up of some traditional hand drawn animation, some After Effects puppeted stuff (like the end credits), stop motion, pixelated chalk board drawings, and even a bit of CG! It’s wonderful that Pixar is producing animation of all types, and I hope for a lot more of it in the future… they’re really good at it.

I can’t wait for my DVD to get here.

Best. Movie. Ever.

Aw, yeah! Jim Hill is probably rolling in his grave reading this!

Cool! I wondered why they havent done a 2d short before since a lot of their animators have traditional/2d skills.

Looks good.

SQUEE!!! :)
I can’t wait to see the short. It looks great. I’m sure the story’s great too. And it’s a mix of 2d, 3d and stop motion? Huzzah! to Pixar.

I am so looking forward to this. And for the love of mike, I hope they show this theatrically so it can get Oscar qualification. It looks fantastic.

Didn’t Capobianco also do the end credit sequence for the movie, or am I mis-remembering things?

Isn’t everyone forgetting Mr. Incredible and Friends on The Incredibles DVD? How can anyone forget the 2D wonder of Mr. Skipperdoo?!?!

Also, there’s a Golden Book of Your Friend the Rat. I was wondering what had driven them to come up with a new Ratatouille-related book.

“How can anyone forget the 2D wonder of Mr. Skipperdoo?!?!”

You can bet your sweet bippy that Frozone wishes he could…

If it was anything like the credit sequance then I’m really excited. :) I actually think that was one of the better sequances in the movie. (Loved the whole thing alot BTW, but the credits where uber)

There’s a Golden Book based on an animated short? Isn’t that somewhat unprecedented?

Now if they could just make the DVD a 2-disc w/commentary, I would be a VERY happy camper.

This short looks Awesome with a capital “A”

“There’s a Golden Book based on an animated short? Isn’t that somewhat unprecedented?”

No, there’s also a very nice Little Golden Book for Jack-Jack Attack.

The short is available on the DVD and rumour has it that commentaries for this and Cars will be Blu-Ray only, Your Friend The Rat also has a very cool 3-D stop motion sequence which I loved and Teddy Newton’s style is plastered all over the film.

Sorry, there is no commentary for Your Friend the Rat on the Blu-Ray disc. We recorded some but it will more then likely be on a future shorts compilation. The production design was led by Nate Wragg, with Teddy Newton doing the character design, with the help of Bob Scott and Scott Morse handled backgrounds. An amazing team. I can’t wait for you all to see it.

How do you know all of tha–oh wait…?
Thanks for the inside word!

We are lucky, here in Hong Kong: the DVD was already in the shops yesterday. “Your friend the rat” is excellent, I hope that Pixar will continue these experiments between the 2D and 3D in a 60’s spirit. And we learn things about the norvegian rat. Who knew the norvegian rats ? One more good reason to buy this DVD.

Good “crossed”-interviews between the Chef Thomas Keller and Brad Bird, but no commentaries at all in this hong kongese version.

(Sorry if my english sucks, I’m a bloody french :) )