Screener Season Opens:

Yesterday saw the first screener of this award season hitting the mailbox, Ratatouille. Screeners come in 2 forms; full out screeners with the words FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION superimposed and a full version of the DVD release with all the previews, all the features and all the bonus material in a screener box.



Ratatouille is in the later category and I am glad it is because I would hate to have missed Your Friend the Rat, one of the most charming and well-crafted short animations I have seen in a long time.

There is such shear joy in the creation of this short animation that the joy is infectious. It is a combination of CGI and 2D (with a heavy UPA influence) and even has a little touch of stop motion animation.

I think that there is a joy in this work that comes from the chance for Pixar animators to work in other forms of animation. Yes they love their computers but these are not just computer jockeys.

There has been long speculation about Pixar doing a non-CGI film. As I have said before they have been quietly doing non-CGI animation for years in the form of their titles. It is nice to see a whole short film given over to reveling in all forms of animation.




My favorite is the 2D pixilated game art animation with the Canadian hockey goalie fighting off a rat invasion. Oh, and there are some other things on the disk too that are well worth seeing, like the short Lifted and the deleted scenes and oh yes the movie.

So if you haven`t seen this short it is time to buy the DVD. Or if you are a member of ASIFA-Hollywood it is time to check your mailbox.