Ratatouille and 881
I HATE RATS!
So much that I still cringed when I watched the latest offering from Pixar – Ratatouille. Remy, the rodent star talented in gourmet cooking, is no Micky Mouse.
Don’t get me wrong, Mic and I enjoyed the movie. By that, I mean the rats in the movie look so much like the real McCoys (so not like Mickey Mouse) that I actually cringed in the cinema during the scenes when the whole colony was running / working about. But this also means that the animation was very real, well, it is Pixar after all.
The movie received favourable ratings (like 4 out of 5 at least) in the papers but personally I find it more of a 3.5 star. I still prefer The Incredibles. This one never gave me a high like The Incredibles did.
Last Friday when we were deciding on a movie to catch, I was considering Ratatouille, Hairspray or 881. To my amazement, I saw that 881 has a better selling than the other 2. I was puzzling over how our homegrown movie, which has been showing for more than 2 weeks already, could have beaten blockbusters like the other 2 (Hairspray had received rave ratings too).
Later that weekend, I discovered yet again the power of word-of-mouth and the media. With the support of SM and lots of media exposure for the local flick, people’s attention and curosity are drawn. It also helps that this is the month of getais. I guess that and the appreciation of getais were what pulled my in-laws, who had not gone to the cinema in years, to watch it. Many want to see if it is really that good, and if the Hokkien tunes are really so cool.
I have not watched 881 yet so I cannot comment if it is any good, but no matter what, a local success is always something to celebrate about.