I found the following earlier today (4 March) at aintitcool.com…
It was scheduled to
start at 11:00, but didn’t start till noon. First they showed the RATATOUILLE teaser we’ve all seen, then they
brought out Brad Bird. Bird joked that with so many sequels coming out this summer, that he should rename the
film RATATOUILLE 1. “'Cause you’ve got DIE HARD 4, SPIDER-MAN 3, ALIEN vs PREDATOR 2…”
He
went on to explain the story: A rat named Remy (Patton Oswalt) lives with his family in the French coutryside,
until Remy has them discovered and kicked out. Now he’s on his own in the city of lights. Remy is unusually
skinny because he only likes human food, not rat food (Bird showed sketches that emphasised a more emaciated
appearance). Although Remy’s personality was written by Bird, he heard Patton Oswalt do a routine about a
“steakhouse” and decided he was the one for the job. Other characters include Remy’s glutton brother
(voiced by a Pixar animator who also did the voice of Dash’s teacher in THE INCREDIBLES), their dad (Brian
Dennehy), a hapless garbage boy-turned-chef named Linguini (Lou Romano), a snooty food critic named Anton Ego
(Peter O’Toole), the evil restaurant owner named Skinner (Ian Holm), and the ghost of the restaurant’s previous
proprietor/Master chef named Gusteau (Brad Garret). Remy has long been a fan of Gasteau’s food and imagines his
ghost coming to him.
THE FIRST (really funny) CLIP showed Remy & the ghost looking down on the kitchen
from the skylight as Gusteau quizzes Remy on who each member of the kitchen staff must be. They watch as a clumsy
Linguini ruins a soup–Remy freaks. He enters the kitchen (in that typical Pixar way of his POV while trying not
to get chopped, stepped on, or found) and–as if by instinct–drops proper ingredients into the soup (I know, I
don’t make it sound like much… but I’m not Brad Bird and you haven’t seen this footage). He’s spotted by
Linguini, leading to an awkward stare between the two.
THE NEXT CLIP shows a caught Remy trapped in a
glass jar. Skinner orders Linguini to take him out and kill him. Linguini bikes to the pier, but feels too guilty
to toss Remy in. While talking, he realises Remy understands his words: “I’m not a good chef am I?”
[Remy shakes his head] “But YOU are!” Linguini promises to let him go if he helps him in his kitchen.
Remy agrees, but no sooner does Linguini open the lid then Remy runs off. However, guilt captures him as he looks
back on the pathetic would-be chef. He runs back to him. Bird then brought out Patton Oswalt and the two had
several jokes at the expense of Oswalt expanded waistline. They then went to questions.
The first was if
this movie would follow in the Pixar tradition of John Ratzenberg as a character and Randy Newman doing music.
Bird: “No Randy Newman.” [Large Applause, Bird is bit taken aback by it] He said his composer from THE
INCREDIBLES would be on this film, "and as for John Ratzenberger, well, he’s been in all of Pixar’s films
and they’ve all been sucessful–why tempt fate?" When asked what the like least/best about working on the
movie, Oswalt proclaimed how much he loved being on the Pixar campus which stresses creative freedom even among
its cubicled employees. Bird said the tight schedule was hard as the story (by the guy who created GERI’S GAME)
and character designs had already been made, but Bird had to write an etirely new script and go from there in a
(relatively) short amount of time. Nevertheless, he says it was well worth the effort, because he felt creatively
“spontaneous. I’m psyched!” Oswalt: "But because of the tight schedule, he wouldn’t incorporate
my idea of Remy fighting robot ninjas."
There were understandably a lot of IRON GIANT fans in the
crowd (myself included) as each mention of the title got a great reaction. Bird was asked if he planned to return
to hand-drawn animation anytime soon? He said that his next directorial project would be his first live action,
but stressed that he’d love to do a 2-D animated film soon: “Cell animation is NOT dead!” He went on
to say that his ideal career would be to alternate between live-action, CGI, and cell projects every now and
then.
When it was my turn, I asked if–given how much Disney goes to promote “their” Disney
Digital 3-D, would this or any upcoming Pixar film (which has been the only part of Disney not take part) use the
technology. He explained that Lasseter and the boys at Pixar are a bit gun-shy to go 3-D after doing some IMAX 3D
tests years ago that didn’t live up to their standards, BUT they’re still exploring the projection tech. I then
asked "It’s been rumoured since the first film came out, but only you can say for sure–will there be an
INCREDIBLES 2 ?" He emphasised that he really, REALLY loves the characters and would love to re-visit them,
"BUT it has be because there’s a story there. I don’t do sequels just to do them, neither does Pixar; I’d
have to come up with a genuinely good story. But I love the characters."
The next person asked how
much the on-screen action is dictated by the writer vs. the storyboard artist? Bird: "I do both. I work
thoroughly with camera angles. I do it myself because I don’t want people ‘constructing my sentences.’ But
I’ve worked with great people who understand how I work. Our strategy for this film was that it would be seen
[primarily] from Remy’s POV; even Linguini is looked up at as if from the floor."
Q: "How many
films does Pixar have in production at any given time?" Bird: "Right now, five-to-six, either in
‘embryonic’ stage or full story reels made. Our next one will have its teaser in front of RATATOUILLE." Q:
“Do you have any advice for an animator on how to build story?” Bird: "The 'art of animation
writing’–what is that? THE SIMPSONS isn’t ‘animation writing’, it’s comedy writing." Oswalt concurred,
adding that if one wants to learn how tell good stories, they should read books, read the scripts of the films
they like, and–Oswalt put the most emphasis on this–“Read Will Eisner’s books!”
The final
question was whether Bird would be voicing a character in this movie. He said that he doesn’t want to be one of
those directors who makes a habit of appearing in his own movies, but the character he voices is a "weasly,
unnoticable guy." They then showed the full trailer for the movie–it’s 100 times better than the teaser.
The usual Pixar “credits” (TOY STORY, MONSTERS INC, etc.) are shown as listings in a restaurant menu.
At one point Remy controls Linguini like marionette to make him cook. It got great laughs and the two left the
stage two a grand applause.
I mean, 
