Plenty of time on the plane to and from Tokio, so I decided to see some movies. Among them, the latest and the greatest from Disney and Pixar.
It does not look good.
Meet the RobinsonsMeet the Robinsons is a movie about a orphan boy who turns out to be the next Albert Einstein. He has a Purpose; to build a machine that rewinds memories you'd think you have long forgotten. He wants to see what his mother looked like when she left him as a baby at the orphanage.
Can't remember his name, though... Oh yes, his name is Lewis.
When Lewis wants to demonstrate his machine at the school's science fair, things turn sour and he gets a visit from a boy from the future, who takes Lewis with him to... to...
ehm... Oh yes, the future.
All sorts of things happen, and then they face someone named the Bowler Hat Guy, basically a guy with a bowler hat.
How original.
Anyway, this guy has some evil plans, and it's up to Lewis and the other kid to foil the plans.
Standard Disney fare; nothing exciting, tame animation (Disney: you have Pixar at your fingertips! Use them!), no lovable characters (I have trouble remembering the lad's name) and a story which makes you wonder whether the scriptwriters were having a bad acid trip of something.
Now, I've seen enough movies where scriptwriters seemed to be on an acid trip, but a lot of those movies turn out to be funny as hell, and entertaining enough to keep you awake.
Not this one, though, so do yourself a favour and leave this in the bargain bin. Watching paint dry is more entertaining than Meet the Robinsons.
Right, on to Pixar's latest:
Ratatouille.
RatatouilleIn short; Remy is a rat with exquisite tastes, idolizes a famous French chef cook and dreams of being a chef himself at a fancy restaurant in Paris.
Turns out that is great idol kicked the bucket a while ago, but he gets the next best thing; a protégé and garbage boy called Linguini who unable to cook an egg, but is human and can be controlled by pulling his hair in certain directions.
When Remy makes a very tasty soup, the cooks all think it was Linguini who made it, and make him do it again.
With Remy under his hat, Linguini is able to surprise his boss, but he doesn't seem too keen on him becoming a chef...
The verdict.
Out of the two, Ratatouille was quite entertaining, but quite predictable as well, and like Cars, aimed at kids.
Nothing wrong with that, but Brad Bird's film The Incredibles was much more entertaining, despite its predictability.
Let's face it; just about every motion picture becomes predictable as you go on and see more and more of them. At that point, the entertainment value becomes very important.
Both Meet The Robinsons and Ratatouille aren't able to cut it, although the latter has something more.
So if you like animated movies and are in dire need of seeing something new, go with Pixar. If you want to see something fresh, wait a little longer.
Cheers, K.