Aust. Ratatouille Prem. + Pixar Exhibit Report

Emma Clarke was lucky enough to have been able to attend the Australian Ratatouille Premeire and the Pixar: 20 Years of Animation Exhibit in Melbourne this year. She has given a full account of her experience. It’s quite in-depth. Thanks Emma!
Click Here to Read…..(WARNING: Potential Spoilers)

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Pixar: 20 Years of Animation at the Australian Centre for Moving Image, Melbourne.

ACMI Foyer

As soon as I heard that the Pixar Exhibition was coming to Australia, I knew I had to go. I planned from about December 2006, to travel interstate just to see it, and on Saturday, 11th August 2007, it was time to finally go. The exhibition was being held at the Australian Centre for Moving Image, at Federation Square in Melbourne, Australia.
The event, which is running from June – October 2007 as part of the Melbourne Winter Masterpieces at the ACMI, was advertised quite well throughout the city. Flags and posters with the design of the concept artwork for Finding Nemo were displayed around the CBD, and the exhibition was well advertised in print. A few Pixar animators flew down here during the week of the exhibit’s opening, and gave free talks. For the whole duration of the exhibit, each Pixar movie will be played every week at the ACMI’s cinema, giving people a chance to see their favourite Pixar movies on the big screen.
The first noticeable, and downright neat installation that we saw, was the giant Luxo Jr. and ball, installed outside the Flinders St entrance of the ACMI. The lamp measured about was 6 1/2 metres tall, and the ball about 1.5 metres. The best part of it, was the fact that it actually lit up at night.
The entrance of the ACMI was pretty much all focused on the Pixar exhibition. As soon as you walked in, you were greeted by a smiling Porsch, otherwise known as Sally from Cars. Behind the car was a very true quote from John Lasseter – “Computers don’t create computer animation any more than a pencil creates pencil animation. What creates computer animation is the artist.” I hope that the exhibition would open the general movie goer’s eyes to how much work Pixar puts into their films, and people gain an appreciation for it.
Finding Nemo pastel, concept artwork covered the front of the ACMI’s ticketing desk, and Andre and Wally B. sketches were stuck to the walls using clear contact paper. It was a really nice touch, and set the atmosphere very well. I don’t think the centre could have felt more Pixar-y unless you went to the actual studio.
We bought our tickets ($15 adult/$10 concession), and headed downstairs for the exhibition. There was strictly no photography allowed, and with many ACMI employees walking around, I didn’t want to take my chances, especially as I was planning on spending most of the day at the ACMI. So I’ll try to do the artwork justice. At the beginning, there was a medium-sized TV screen which played Pixar movies on a loop for the whole day, probably so people could familiarise themselves with the films that Pixar had made, before viewing the artwork.
Now, the exhibition was split up into five stages, reflecting the Pixar film-making process: character, story, world, as well as the additional media: zoetrope, artscape, interactive kiosk, and the kids activity zone.
The first artwork that left a big impression on me, would have to have been John Lasseter’s first concept art he sketched for Luxo Jr.. I had seen it on the Internet a few times, but to see it right there in front of me, really set the tone for what to expect from the exhibition. I was speechless.
Again, there were two screens set up which were playing the old Pixar shorts. The ones I caught were Red’s Dream, and Tin Toy. Quite a crowd had gathered to watch Tin Toy, who seemed to quite enjoy the ending. I bet a lot of them didn’t realise that Pixar started out making short films such as those, or that Tin Toy was used as the basic premise for Toy Story.
Each section of the exhibit focused on each part of Pixar’s filmmaking process. The thing that I liked the most was that there were such varied ways of presenting the artwork, as well as the different mediums of which the art was created. To give you an idea of what was displayed, if you’ve watched the DVD extras on your favourite Pixar movie, all of the best design work from various stages of production was displayed there.
In the middle of the rooms were glass cases with character sculptures – some purely developmental, such as one of Bud Luckey’s original designs of Woody, and others in their final form. There were colourscripts, which is a way to show to show people at a glance the colour palette of each film. The Incredibles one was about 3 × 2 metres wide.
In the “story” section of the exhibit, was a huge TV set right above your head, with a storyreel from The Incredibles. It was of the scene where Dash was running really fast through the jungle. I really liked how there was a good mix of old and new Pixar films. It didn’t feel as if they were presenting one film more than another. Even A Bug’s Life had quite a few models and sketches.
A smaller TV was playing a storyreel from Ratatouille, which took me by surprise because I didn’t think they would show it before the film had been released here. It started from the part of when Linguini is in the kitchen and catches Remy, he then catches Remy in the jar, Remy runs back to him, after fleeing under the bridge. The temp track with the alternative dialogue, was neat to listen to as well, but nothing major was different about it.
The funniest piece of work on display was a spoof storyboard – if memory serves me correct, I think it was drawn by Andrew Stanton. It was of an animator (Andrew) working hard on his storyboard for a month, then presenting it to John Lasseter, who thinks about it for a minute, re-arranges all of the storyboards in a hurry, as well as removing quite a few, with John Lasseter then exclaiming, “It’s perfect!”. Meanwhile Andrew looks on with shock at all of his work down the drain. Then the whole process during an animator’s month starts over again. It really did show both Pixar sense of humour, but also their standard of work of not accepting anything less than the best. Quite a few people got a laugh out of that.
I was very surprised at how much this felt less like an exhibition, and more like an experience. The two visual presentations, the Zoetrope and Artscape were something that only Pixar could have dreamt up. The Toy Story Zoetrope can only be descibed as what at first seems like the Toy Story characters, displayed next to each other around a circle, with each character slightly different from the next. The wheel starts to slowly spin, then the strobe lights come on and… you just have to watch this video to see what it was like. It looks a lot better in person I must say though, but it really did take people’s breath away.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMBoJq6IgFE
The second visual presentation was called the Artscape. You go into a room which would be similar to a movie theatre, except the floor is flat instead of sloped, and the screen is low to the ground and very wide. There were also no seats except for a long bench. The best way to describe the presentation was if you have seen the beginning of the Wall-E trailer, with the camera moving in and out of the concept artwork for the various Pixar films.
The approx 10-minute presentation started off with all of the artwork pinned to a board, then it would weave in and out of the artwork taking you under the deep sea in Finding Nemo, to the underground caves in The Incredibles, and over the roads of Radiator Springs while Lightning McQueen races across the screen. Other Pixar artwork was included as well. I really hope this is included as a special feature of an upcoming Pixar DVD, as it would be such a shame for this to not be seen by other Pixar fans, not to mention it would look fantastic if you have a plasma, widescreen TV.
Every so often there would be “interactive kiosks”, which was like a black box with a little TV in it with headphones. You touch the TV screen and pick what behind-the-scenes feature you want to learn about. There was options to watch on the TV of what you could find on any Pixar making-of DVDs. I chose to listen to “Scoring the Incredibles” and “The Sound Effects of Toy Story 2”.
At the beginning of the tour was also an option to listen to an audio guide with the tour, on an iPod, no less. I forgot to do this, so I can’t tell you what it was like, but the other people seemed to be listening intently at the listening stations set around the exhibit.
Created especially for the upcoming artists was a kids activity zone where they were encouraged to create their own Pixar character and pin it up an a board, “on display”. It’s a good idea because it shows children that it is possible to do what you love for a living if you are work hard at animating, and there is market for it.
One aspect that I feel was missing from the exhibition, was the lack of scripts and explanation of how they come up with a good story at Pixar. Even though I know how most films were thought up, it would have been good to have seen a few pages of early drafts of our favourite Pixar films, and what could have been. Some photos of Pixar Animation Studios, and information on the main Pixarians wouldn’t have gone astray either.
But overall, it really wasn’t as issue – just something I thought of in hindsight to keep Pixar fans like me happy. Something else that could be considered for a future exhibition would have been a section about the history of Pixar – how Pixar was formed from a division of Lucasfilm, its early advertisements for Listerine, and when Disney gave Pixar its big break in the form of a five picture deal. But I suppose they didn’t want to bore non-Pixar fans, and seeing as it is mostly a visual exhibition, and there is a book coming out later this year explaining this very topic, that may have been the reason for this.
But again, those are just a few things that would have been nice to see within the exhibition for Pixar fans such as myself. But I was still very pleased with what I did get to see. If you have never even heard of Pixar before, or are diehard fan, or anything in-between, you really should get along to this exhibition in Melbourne. It has something for everyone not matter your age, or what aspect of Pixar’s films you enjoy the most. It’s a great chance for people to learn why Pixar is being hailed as the “new Disney”, and for current fans of Pixar, it will re-enforce everything you admire about this company. I cannot recommend this exhibit enough. The only thing that would be better than visiting the exhibition would be to visit Pixar Animation Studios., I would think. (hint, hint)
On the way out of the exhibition, the kids were given a free Pixar showbag with filled with Pixar related merchandise. They were kind enough to give me one on request, and I have a picture of everything included in the showbag if you would like to know. Up the the escalators was a glass case which presented a taste of what merchandise was on offer at the ACMI Shop. Next to this was a table which invited people to sign up to the ACMI newsletter, to go in the draw for a chance to win one of the coolest prizes ever: a piece of Pixar artwork, from the exhibition, I presume. How much I would love to win that prize…

ACMI Shop

Next, we made a beeline for the ACMI Shop. Near the entrance stood the characters Mike and Sulley from Monsters, Inc.. I’m guessing that this was the same ones that used to stand in the atrium of Pixar Animation Studios. Inside the shop was more Pixar merchandise in one place than I had ever seen – and such a variety as well. At the entrance of the store was the Pixar: 20 Years of Animation book which showed most, if not all, of the artwork on display at the exhibition. There were mugs with three designs, with developmental character artwork, which was the design of most of the merchandise available.
There was quite a lot of Cars merchandise, seeing as it was the last Pixar movie, and the Cars merchandise seems to be selling quite well, here in Australia at least, even though it’s been over a year since its release. On the table further in the shop was Ratatouille merchandise I hadn’t seen before, down under. Mostly of books, and magazines, a lot of which were very cute. There was a book that was aimed at small children and it was separated into pieces of cheese. It was very creative. I held off on buying any Ratatouille merchandise, simply because we would have gotten that stuff into mainstream stores soon anyhow. I was a bit disappointed to see there was so Ratatouille plush toys, but I don’t think any of it would have even arrived in Australia yet, at that stage anyway.
The Art of Cars, The Art of The Incredibles postcard pack, most of Pixar’s DVD movies, a lot of Cars merchandise, the Pixar: 20 Years of Animation t-shirt available in three designs, notebooks, colouring books, and magnet set were just a little bit of what was on sale at the shop. The merchandise such as The Art of Cars and postcard set are hard to find in stores I’ve found, and it sure does beat buying them over the Internet. At the back of the shop was what I called “The wall of postcards” where there were many, many Pixar postcards on sale, featuring designs shown in the exhibition, for $2 each.
I felt that even though most of the merchandise was of high quality (well, it is Pixar), it was a tad expensive. The black bag with the Mike and Sulley outline and ACMI logo, cost $45: That was $5 more than the exhibition book! The bag wasn’t made out of that cheap canvas or anything, so I suppose it was strong, but come on. In order to not go to crazy in that store, I just left with the book (I highly recommend getting a copy to see what was on display), and a postcard featuring artwork of Buzz and Woody on the remote control car.
Ratatouille Live!

Ratatouille Live

That weekend from 1 – 4pm at the ACMI, there was a promotional event for the Ratatouille video games, released on all of the major platforms. It was called “Ratatouille Live!”. The room was decorated with the Ratatouille video game posters, and a huge projection screen was in the corner displaying the gameplay for the Xbox 360. Along the side were 3 TVs hooked up with the Ratatouille game on the Wii, and a few Nintendo DSs that anyone could try. I should mention that each console’s game is different, and they all take advantage of that particular platform’s advantages.
At the main entrance of the room was a little table with Ratatouille colouring-in sheets of paper, encouraging the kids to enter a competition to win a video game. There was a another table like it in front of the big projector screen, a stuffed toy of Emile and Remy (I really wanted both of those), some more colouring-in sheets, and a video game case for each of the gaming platforms.
The room was pretty busy, by the time we got there just after 1pm, but there were a few spots left on the consoles to try the game. I had a go at the Nintendo DS game. It was a level where you had to “chop up” the different vegetables, by using various motions with the DS stylus. You were playing against a timer, which made it a bit more difficult. If you have played the Choppity Chop game on the official Ratatouille website, you will know what to do. It seemed pretty easy to pick up, but that’s because I have played a DS regularly.
The next level was where you had to blow onto to the vegetable to cool them off. You did this by blowing into the microphone on the DS. It didn’t seem to work for me, and it does have a tendency to leave you a bit dizzy and out of breath. I’m sure it would have been fun if I could have gotten it to work. Overall, for the short time I played it, the Ratatouille game on the DS seemed to use the DS’s touch screen in a varying ways, and it didn’t feel repetitive at all. There are three different difficulty settings, so any age can find this both fun and challenging. I wouldn’t mind buying this game for myself.
My sister had a turn on the Nintendo Wii. She played as Remy racing the rest of the family in the river, taken from the beginning of the movie. She said it was fun, but there is a bit of a learning curve with the Nintendo Wii, so it wouldn’t be fair to judge the game from the time she spent on it. And especially as it took forever to get to the game, and only one of the three guys in the room were actually helping people with the game.
I didn’t get to play Ratatouille on the Xbox 360, but watched someone else play for a while. It seemed easy to pick up, because the kid was quite good. The level he was playing first was where Emile and Remy are chasing after one another on little squares. Every time one of them ran over a square, it changed colour. So I guessed that the character with the most colours won. It then changed to a roleplaying game with a tutorial, acted out by Emile, teaching you how to break open things and earn points. It seemed like a pretty standard video game in that sense. I didn’t get to see any more of his playing after that, but the kid seemed to enjoy it.
Ratatouille Live! seemed like a success, judging by the interest from the public, and was a good chance to grab the attention of people who were planning on visiting the exhibition and vice versa. All I can say is, I am going to buy the Ratatouille video game for the Nintendo DS, and if you enjoy the movie you should give one of the games a go.

The Australian premiere of Ratatouille – August 13, 2007
I was lucky enough to win tickets through the ACMI to the Australian Premiere of Ratatouille. The fact that Ratatouille was shown the day before in Brisbane, didn’t change the fact it was still the Australian premiere, I guess. Anyway, I was ecstatic to win tickets because it meant that I wouldn’t have to wait 3 weeks to see it, when it hit theatres nationally in September, and I would also have a chance of meeting Brad Bird (director), and/or Brad Lewis(producer), who were originally scheduled to appear at the event.
So, the winning email said to collect our tickets early, so we arrived at 5:45pm to collect or tickets for the 7pm start. I knew it wasn’t good news regarding the supposed red carpet when there was no actual red carpet/posters/press or anything. That was a bit strange… So we headed to the box office counter to collect or tickets, and the guy there clarified that there would be no red carpet (I didn’t ask why), but the director of the ACMI would be making a presentation before the film. (I guess that meant no Pixarians either?)
Since we were really early, we killed some time and looked in the gift shop again. I bought red “Edna” Pixar exhibition t-shirt, and looked around a bit until the shop closed. We headed upstairs where I met one of my online Pixar Planet friends, Scheree, waiting with her friend. So we chatted for a bit, and I got to see her neat Ratatouille home-made t-shirt. Some more competition winners rocked up, in tuxedos nonetheless, expecting a red-carpet, as well.
At about 6:40pm the doors were opened, and we made our way into the cinema. The cinema’s capacity would have been about 2/3rds of your usual megaplex cinema, and the screen was a tad smaller, but the quality was great. On the walls of the cinema were ingrained lines with lights in them, that would fade out when the movie started, but other than that it was a pretty regular cinema. More people started coming in: a mix of old people, animation students, movie reviewers, competition winners, as well as people who had connections to those in the biz.
Once the cinema was full, the director of the ACMI made a short speech, starting with the Pixar exhibition, then explaining the basic premise of the film, as well as its inspiring metaphor. He finished up saying how proud they were to host the Australian premiere of Ratatouille.
There was no mention of why the two Brads were a no-show, however. I guess it was better to not mention it and let us be grateful for the experience of seeing the film early, rather than telling us what we were missing out on, I suppose. So the lights dimmed, and we were served with the the two entrees that were Lifted and Wall.E preview trailer.
I’ll start with the Wall.E trailer, but I’ll try not give to much away. The beginning was a very different approach to this trailer. What they did, they hadn’t done before, because of the death in the past year of fellow Pixar animator, and longtime friend, Joe Ranft. This tribute was sweet and touching, and despite my initial surprise from the usual trailer format, it really does work for this trailer. As for the rest of the trailer, the music is upbeat, and different to the space-themed score I was expecting. I should also say that the tagline is one of my new favourites for a Pixar film.
Wall.E the movie looks very refreshing, and the character is so cute with his “voice”, and big eyes. He seems very lovable already, and I hope that Pixar can show that they can create “non-living”, endearing characters that you can connect to (which was a supposed issue with Cars). I felt they should have made the Wall.E part of the trailer a tad longer, but I suppose they didn’t want to give too much away, seeing as it is only a teaser.
Now to Lifted. This short film had me in stitches. One of the more “ha-ha” funny short films, with a bit of a “cheeky” sense of humour (if you have seen it already, you’ll know which part I am referring to). Pixar’s latest short film had most of the cinema laughing along, and any teenagers out there will relate to the main character, going through one of his rites of passage. Oh, and see if you can notice a familiar character in this short film…
And with no other trailers being shown, it was time for the main course that was Ratatouille, to start. It took me about 10 minutes to be immersed in the world of Ratatouille, but it was the beautiful scenes at the beginning that sucked me in. You soon identify with Remy and his passion for food and cooking, and want him to succeed. Linguini is very lanky, so this provides a lot of slapstick scenes that were executed very well, and in a tasteful manner. The other thing I liked was the clever observations – I can’t really be specific, but the adults in the audience really appreciated it. You don’t really get that nowadays in animated films.
In my opinion, this would have to be the most adult Pixar film to date. Think of what The Incredibles was like, then take it one step further, and you have Ratatouille. The pacing would probably get a bit slow for anyone under 8 years old, but with comic relief, suspense, and action, spaced throughout, the kids shouldn’t get too restless. Although, I felt the ending was a bit predictable, and I saw it coming towards the finish, but it doesn’t make the journey there any less sweeter.
I really don’t want to give too much away, because I know what it’s like if you haven’t seen the film, but in my opinion, if you have seen the film once, go and see it again, because once really isn’t enough. I was left a bit dazed by the film, simply because it is a lot to take in at once, much like after I watched The Incredibles. I am going to see it at least once again, just to get my head around the message of the film, and appreciate the many, many details that Pixar have put into this. I couldn’t stop thinking about this film following the days after seeing Ratatouille, so I’m guessing it’s a good sign that it will be enjoyed even more on the second viewing.
I would give this film four stars, but wouldn’t hesitate to give it more, upon seeing it again. This would have to be Pixar’s top films, and most ambitious to date. I really hope it gets the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film. It really does live up to the hype, and more. After you see it, if you think other people would enjoy it, I suggest you recommend Ratatouille to everyone you know as well.
Even though I didn’t get to meet the two Brad’s at the Australian Premiere, I still had a good time, and was very grateful to be there at all (Thank you, James Nolan from the ACMI). I never in a million years thought that I would have the opportunity to attend a Pixar premiere, and was very happy and felt privileged to not have to wait until next month to see it. I hope that everyone reading this gets a chance to see Ratatouille, and the Wall.E trailer, and Lifted, also.
And that’s it for my report of the Pixar Exhibition, Ratatouille Live!, and the Australian Premiere of Ratatouille. I tried to recall my experience the best that I could, and I hope you liked reading it. 🙂
Bye for now!
Emma Clarke
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Thanks again Emma 🙂 You can view the full set of photos here.