Slog - Comments on Today The Stranger Suggests... http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/today_the_stranger_suggests_113 Ratatouille (ANIMATION) Ratatouille is the first great Hollywood film of the year, and may end up being the only great Hollywood film of the year. The premise: a Parisian rat that has a taste for fine foods, that worships a famous chef, that becomes a cook in that famous chef's restaurant, and is so talented that he melts the iciest of food critics into a warm puddle. It's just too much. You will be overwhelmed by a laughter as ridiculous as the movie's premise. (See movie times.) CHARLES MUDEDE... Copyright 2008 Sun, 01 Jul 2007 10:45:06 -0800 Mon, 02 Jul 2007 10:51:58 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Comment by Andrew So Pixar is now going to start advertising in the Stranger? The movie was cute and okay but the great Hollywood movie of the year? I think Charles overstates a bit too much...

]]> Andrew http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/today_the_stranger_suggests_113#c755884 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/today_the_stranger_suggests_113#c755884 Arts Sun, 01 Jul 2007 11:24:01 -0800 Comment by LT L And for those who want to be outside today: Seattle Beerfest at Seattle Center.(p)

/I'm not associated with beerfest, just like to promote outdoor drinking on sunny days.

]]> LT L http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/today_the_stranger_suggests_113#c755888 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/today_the_stranger_suggests_113#c755888 Arts Sun, 01 Jul 2007 11:58:07 -0800 Comment by It's Mark Mitchell! Jonah, check out some basic spelling, grammar, and sentence structure education. Try englishplus.com/grammar. It's a first step on the road to literacy!

Then get help for your Dan fixation.

]]> It's Mark Mitchell! http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/today_the_stranger_suggests_113#c755909 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/today_the_stranger_suggests_113#c755909 Arts Sun, 01 Jul 2007 13:21:57 -0800 Comment by Andrew @4, HA HA!!! But he keeps posting the Dan crap and doesn't realize no one is paying attention to him any more.

]]> Andrew http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/today_the_stranger_suggests_113#c755913 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/today_the_stranger_suggests_113#c755913 Arts Sun, 01 Jul 2007 13:31:43 -0800 Comment by Gitai @1 I saw Ratatouille last night, and it was really fucking good. I'm not alone in thinking so. Check out Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, and the rest.

]]> Gitai http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/today_the_stranger_suggests_113#c755917 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/today_the_stranger_suggests_113#c755917 Arts Sun, 01 Jul 2007 13:38:54 -0800 Comment by Boomer in NYC Ditto Gital--I fucking loved the movie, plus I had the added bonus of seeing it while totally baked.

(Delicious pun intended.)

]]> Boomer in NYC http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/today_the_stranger_suggests_113#c755932 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/today_the_stranger_suggests_113#c755932 Arts Sun, 01 Jul 2007 15:15:57 -0800 Comment by Poster Girl Time for Jonah to go. He's been off-topic about 20 times in the last couple of days and is messing up comment threads.

]]> Poster Girl http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/today_the_stranger_suggests_113#c755936 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/today_the_stranger_suggests_113#c755936 Arts Sun, 01 Jul 2007 15:19:00 -0800 Comment by keshmeshi What I don't understand about Mudede's review is how did he miss the opportunity to bring in some class or race analysis? I mean, at a minimum, Ratatouille's basic premise relies on the hoax that is the American Dream.

]]> keshmeshi http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/today_the_stranger_suggests_113#c755958 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/today_the_stranger_suggests_113#c755958 Arts Sun, 01 Jul 2007 16:41:33 -0800 Comment by jkjk uh.... did we see the same movie? Didn't dig it. Neither did either kid.

]]> jkjk http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/today_the_stranger_suggests_113#c755970 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/today_the_stranger_suggests_113#c755970 Arts Sun, 01 Jul 2007 17:59:45 -0800 Comment by Peter Ratatouille was my favorite movie of the year, but I'm a sucker for Pixar and Brad Bird.

I can't help but notice that Ratatouille, as the first Pixar movie developed and released in the wake of the studio's de facto take over of Disney animation, that the story functions as a metaphor for the internal struggle for the future of Disney's animation efforts, with the goofy idealist deceased chef as a standin for Walt Disney, being used as a posthumous pitchman for junk food (like the straight-to-DVD soulless cash cow "cheapquels that were recently shut down by Lasseter's new management folks).

Unlike the choking glut of recent CG "animated" movies advertising product and billing their famous casts of "voice talent", this wasn't a wheelbarrow full of often-desperate gags hung on a weak excuse of a plot. The movie is all about story and characters and doesn't take its audience for granted.

]]> Peter http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/today_the_stranger_suggests_113#c755988 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/today_the_stranger_suggests_113#c755988 Arts Sun, 01 Jul 2007 19:43:32 -0800 Comment by Gitai @10 He went deeper than that. He went for the very essence of the transformation of the self through the hatred of the self and the aspiration to something higher. Race and class would have been off base. He should have gone for colonialism, and the natives who assist their colonizers, like the Sepoys or Koreans and Chinese who embrace Japanese culture as though it were their own.

]]> Gitai http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/today_the_stranger_suggests_113#c756022 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/today_the_stranger_suggests_113#c756022 Arts Sun, 01 Jul 2007 22:41:35 -0800 Comment by butterw I went at my daughter's insistence, expecting little. I left feeling
better than after any movie since "Monsoon Wedding". Great movie for anyone who loves food and/or Paris. Sure seems like
there are a lot of French-positive films around these days (La Vie en Rose; Paris,
Je T'aime; Mr. Bean's Holiday ...).

]]> butterw http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/today_the_stranger_suggests_113#c756165 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/today_the_stranger_suggests_113#c756165 Arts Mon, 02 Jul 2007 10:51:58 -0800