Better late than never, my friends. Better late than never.
Earlier today, Pixar released a nine minute clip for its upcoming film Ratatouille.
It’s impressive.
Not necessarily by the story element being put to play, but (it’s here I unveil my animation gasm) holy crap…the animation. Gorgeous. Detailed. Fluid. While it’s par for course to see advancements in animation as the years turn out rapid-fire advancements in technology, Pixar animation is the 3D animation house that, with this clip, actually shows it in superlative-dropping fashion.
The spot, with a short introduction by Brad Bird (The Incredibles, Iron Giant) follows the Patton Oswalt voiced rat as he’s kicked, slammed and carted through a French kitchen and befriends the garbage boy.
Check it out here.
So it’s fair to say I think the animation is tits. On the other hand, the 3D feature animation market’s been diluted by a glut of mediocre fare. While Pixar remains on top, its not-that-anticipated Cars is being followed up here by a not-that-anticipated Ratatouille— which isn’t to say Ratatouille won’t be good (and with the Disney/Pixar name, it’ll still make more money than most studio releases even hope for), but with the Pixar steamroller seemingly slowed by Cars which landed at number five of seven in Pixar’s highest grossing projects, I wonder where Ratatouille will end up falling.
Of course, all of this is relative when you’re talking about movies that easily make well into the hundreds of millions, but it’s interesting to see Pixars growth curve and wonder if now is the time we start to see the flattening out and normalizing of its meteoric rise.