Sunday, October 14, 2007
Ratatouille/Hall Concert
Wow it's been a month since I last posted. Ok this movie was actually shown quite some time ago, but I didn't have the time to write my thoughts about it.
Anyway, ratatouille is an animated film about a rat who wants to cook. The quality of the animation is stunning. The scenes are so vivid and detailed, it's amazing how the animators managed to use computers to create all the characters and make them move in realistic ways.
There was one scene with lots of water swirling around. It looked incredibly real. Imagine the amount of effort that went into that. To animate the wet clothes of Linguini accurately, they even dressed up one of their colleagues in a cook's clothes and pushed him into a swimming pool so they would know what it looked like. They kept rats and observed them, plus every hair on the rats' bodies were individually rendered.
Technical details aside, the story was quite moving. There was a dad who had to overcome his stereotypes, a rat who wanted to fulfil a dream, a food critic who realised it's much easier to criticise than to cook. A rubbish boy who couldn't cook, but thanks to the rat, looked like he could. A hard female chef who was moved enough by the rubbish boy to give him pointers, and who was the only one who stayed on when she found out the secret of the boy's success. All this done in a kitchen setting.
All in all, I thought it was an excellent show, never mind that it was a cartoon. Actually I like cartoons, they have a childish simplicity about them, and yet convey life truths in a subtle way. Most action movies don't even get close. In fact, I liked it so much I watched it twice, and I'm thinking about getting the DVD when it's released, haha.
Hall concert is over. The first years put up a great performance, after just 9 weeks into the semester. Thanks to chris, hock, zq and yh for watching. Actually I felt the Saturday show was better. But the music is great. Hopefully they produce a soundtrack.
Perhaps it was because I watched it so many times that I found the actual story quite sad. There were bits of comedy infused throughout the show but the overall story was one of tragedy and lost love. Meanwhile, the audience, most of which were probably watching for the first time, often laughed at the strangest moments where it just wasn't supposed to be funny.
Being a photographer meant I could watch all the rehearsals and actual shows as long as I had the time to go down. It was nice watching them polish up the final product. In just two weeks, they had improved tremendously. So concert is over for another year. And lots of first years will suddenly be very free at night, just like I was last year.
Anyway, ratatouille is an animated film about a rat who wants to cook. The quality of the animation is stunning. The scenes are so vivid and detailed, it's amazing how the animators managed to use computers to create all the characters and make them move in realistic ways.
There was one scene with lots of water swirling around. It looked incredibly real. Imagine the amount of effort that went into that. To animate the wet clothes of Linguini accurately, they even dressed up one of their colleagues in a cook's clothes and pushed him into a swimming pool so they would know what it looked like. They kept rats and observed them, plus every hair on the rats' bodies were individually rendered.
Technical details aside, the story was quite moving. There was a dad who had to overcome his stereotypes, a rat who wanted to fulfil a dream, a food critic who realised it's much easier to criticise than to cook. A rubbish boy who couldn't cook, but thanks to the rat, looked like he could. A hard female chef who was moved enough by the rubbish boy to give him pointers, and who was the only one who stayed on when she found out the secret of the boy's success. All this done in a kitchen setting.
All in all, I thought it was an excellent show, never mind that it was a cartoon. Actually I like cartoons, they have a childish simplicity about them, and yet convey life truths in a subtle way. Most action movies don't even get close. In fact, I liked it so much I watched it twice, and I'm thinking about getting the DVD when it's released, haha.
Hall concert is over. The first years put up a great performance, after just 9 weeks into the semester. Thanks to chris, hock, zq and yh for watching. Actually I felt the Saturday show was better. But the music is great. Hopefully they produce a soundtrack.
Perhaps it was because I watched it so many times that I found the actual story quite sad. There were bits of comedy infused throughout the show but the overall story was one of tragedy and lost love. Meanwhile, the audience, most of which were probably watching for the first time, often laughed at the strangest moments where it just wasn't supposed to be funny.
Being a photographer meant I could watch all the rehearsals and actual shows as long as I had the time to go down. It was nice watching them polish up the final product. In just two weeks, they had improved tremendously. So concert is over for another year. And lots of first years will suddenly be very free at night, just like I was last year.
posted by cosine @ 11:09 PM 
