Taste Visualization

Michel Gagné, the lauded artist/designer behind the "taste visualization" sequences in Ratatouille, has posted a link to his website on the Animation Nation BB, where he has some conceptual artwork and info on how these sequences were achieved. People seem mostly impressed:

Two of my favorite scenes! Made me think back fondly to the "meet the soundtrack" moment in Fantasia and darned if it didn't occur to me that you must have had a hand in doing those bits. Very, very fun piece; in a movie filled with the atmosphere of food this got me to experience taste. Thank you!

Not everyone is so enthused, though:

I thought this was a very interesting concept, but the final result felt a little conservative in art terms.I like your work, Mister Gagne,yet I wish I'd seen a little more color, flair and exoticism in some of those shots. Cool, but not pushed enough.

You can't please everyone, I guess.

Ratatouille's stinky B.O.

Over at his blog, Jim Hill discusses Ratatouille's less-than-stellar opening weekend. Basically, it may not as big of a deal as it seems:

I just got off the phone with Chuck Viane, head of distribution for Walt Disney Studios. Who basically told me that it wouldn't be wise to label "Ratatouille" Pixar's first real disappointment. Not yet, anyway.

"We've now got the best reviewed film in the country which people just love once they actually get to see it," Chuck continued. "So you can bet that -- when people sit down at the picnic table over the Fourth of July and talk about what movies they've just seen -- 'Ratatouille' is going to come up. And it's that word-of-mouth that's going to make all the difference here."

Though Hill himself seems less than convinced:

Me personally, I have to admit that I don't share Viane's optimism. In a summer where virtually every major studio release has seen ticket sales fall off by more than 55 - 65 % over its second weekend in release, I find it extremely hard to believe that "Ratatouille" going to be the one movie that bucks that trend.

I'd like to think that a film as good as Ratatouille would be a shoe-in to rake in the bucks, but then again quality and box-office grosses are very often mutually exclusive.