Face/off: flushed away vs. ratatouille

Rats! i saw both these rodent movies within weeks of each other. Flushed away made the cut first owing to sheer curiosity on my part. ratatouielle a while later on a lazy kolkata afternoon. as for what the movies had to offer....

ratatouielle:
1. pixar animation. as brilliant as always.
2. an unorthodox plot. i mean, rat chefs? come on....
3. brilliant performances from a relatively unknown cast.
4. an academy award.

flushed away:
1. animated by the makers of wallace and gromit. its got that otherworldly charm...
2. brilliant, brilliant acting, from a brilliant, brilliant cast. hugh jackman, kate winslet, andy serkis, jean reno and ian mcKellen do excellent jobs. the last two were cut out for the roles they played in the movie. ian mcKellen as the head of the rat mafia. and he's a TOAD. and jean reno. part poirot (a rather large part), heads his own group of ninja frogs, who are adept at things like singing, dancing and mime-acting. charming.
3. fast paced and has humour which, to my knowledge, only the british are capable of. add to that dashes of french subtlety and we have a laugh riot. honestly.


both movies are brilliant in their own sense. flushed away is more humanoid, yet have humans in only the first scene or so. then its all rats. ratatouielle has humans and rats coexisitng, and while the rat does manage to communicate with the humans, the two species, as dictates logic, are incapable of conversing with each other.

i loved both movies. but if i do have to take a pick, i'd go with flushed away. though imdb gives ratatouielle a higher rating, flushed away was able to charm me more. probably due to the british-ness of the movie and its contrast with the french. its fun.

watch both.

some haiku

incomplete smiles
trying to reach my eyes
failing to decieve.


another day gone
another wasted winter
looking back, for you...

recap#1..end april

my friend gorai and i decided we would diligently attend every movie at the european film festival. in reality, me and him spent the first day checking out chicks and using the restroom, RESPECTIVELY. i mean, not ALL the time, but there's only so much interest you can show towards the FTII staff trying their best at speaking english during the welcoming ceremony, with varying degrees of failure, i daresay. at least i could listen to my player. no nick drake, though. only metal could make itself heard over the din in the auditorium. and if I've ever seen aatels, that was at the FTII. fake hippies, fake semi-punks-semi-nothings-almost-eunuchs. And a variety of other sad excuses for humanity, mostly FTII students in this case, all trying to stand out of the crowd, but due to their glaringly obvious attempts at it, becoming the crowd. DUH. seriously, and people call us bongs aatel.
the only good thing about the opening ceremony was probably mohan agashe. sharp, witty, twinkling eyes and brilliantly veiled sracasm....it was very plain why laalmohan babu's cup had started shaking while taking tea when faced with agashe.
gorai insisted on using the restroom everyday. i know it didn't stink and was rather clean, but still, it was a bit too much. but the movies, thankfully, were worth their weight in gold. and since gorai, in exchange of the passes i had procured took me to ftii and saw me back to my mess the whole week made the whole thing worth it. he leaves pune in maybe a few more weeks. this probably sounds mushy but i'l probably miss him after a while,....