Ratatouille Triumphant

Brad Bird at last night’s world premiere of Ratatouille at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.

The best film of the summer will be released next week. Not best animated film – best film, period. The reviews are literally unanimous – 100% fresh at Rotten Tomatoes.

I saw the film and add my name to the chorus. It’s brilliant! But what really excites me is that once again Pixar, and Brad Bird, have pushed the envelope, progressing the art and storytelling potential that can be accomplished with computer graphics. And this is a film Bird took over and reworked — usually a recipe for disaster. Not this time.

The animation and art direction are superb. Every creative descision seems just perfect – from casting to design and through every plot twist and turn. The 2-D graphic end credits should be noted – once again the Pixar animators tease us with the possibility of what a traditionally hand drawn Pixar cartoon might feel like. And the final tagline in the end credits gave me the biggest smile of the night:

“Our Quality Assurance Guaratee: 100% Genuine Animation! No motion capture or any other performance shortcuts were used in the production of this film.”

Don’t miss it.