Monday Morning Inspiration: Ratatouille

Remy, the rodent star of Pixar’s brilliant new film Ratatouille.

If you haven’t made it out to see Pixar’s Ratatouille – it opened in first place at box office with $47.2 million – get thee to a multiplex ASAP. I saw it over the long weekend and I have to say that I think it’s Pixar’s best work ever. The film has been receiving glowing critical reviews and is currently rated 95% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

If you’re a puppeteer I’d recommend seeing the film twice, once simply to enjoy it and then again to carefully study and analyze all of the film’s beautiful animation and movement. The animation/puppetry connection is something that’s been discussed a lot here and I think puppeteers can learn a lot from studying Pixar’s work, especially Ratatouille. I don’t really think anyone is currently achieving work in film and video puppetry that’s equivalent to what Pixar is doing in animation, but that’s a goal puppetry artists working in film and video should aspire to.

We may not have a “Pixar of puppetry” yet, but we need one.