I agree with this topic.
I wouldn't call myself a DreamWorks hater - I perhaps was in the past, but I try to be a lot more mellow and open-minded now - but I nevertheless still feel there's something tangibly corporate about the way they make movies. Don't get me wrong - at their best, they can still produce witty, entertaining and well-crafted material, but the end result always feels slightly more akin to a product than a creative work. Never do I feel that there was a story that the writer really wanted to tell, or a theme that they were desperate to express; the driving force is always seems to be the desire to create the next Big Hit Comedy, and to check all of the boxes that it might need to succeed in that respect. Big name cast members for the posters? Check. Hip licensed soundtrack? Check. Pratfalls and gross-out gags for the kids? Sly innuendos and sneaky pop-culture gags for the adults? Well-worn but wholesome moral message for the parents? Check, check, check. At best, this eager-to-please formula can produce some really slick populist crowdpleasing entertainment, like the Shrek movies; much more commonly, however, it produces bland and soulless fare that palpably feels like it's trying to pander to every possible demographic.
This is the crux of why I love Pixar so much - they remain a company (like Britain's Aardman, who I hold as being Pixar's spiritual cousins) dedicated to art for art's sake. It goes without saying that their craftsmanship on a technical level is totally unparalleled; what's less immediate, but perhaps ultimately more impressive, is their total commitment to story and characters. Everybody is aware of their "Story Is King" mantra, but they're more than just words; you can see it just from watching any of their movies. Action sequences are incorporated according to the demands of story and character, rather than vice versa; humour and jokes come primarily from the development of well-defined personalities, rather than cheap one-liners; voice actors are cast according to their suitability for the part, rather than their marketability (can you imagine DreamWorks allowing Craig T. Nelson or Albert Brooks to headline a film?). As such, we get proper films with coherent creative visions behind them; watching a film like The Incredibles, there's never a hint of conflict or contradiction between the humour, the emotion or the action, because they're all part of a unified whole.
Above all else, they're great stories, told from the heart by real storytellers, and as such have a real genuineness and honesty behind their messages that many other films lack. One of the most disappointing aspects about last year, movie-wise, was the lukewarm critical reception afforded to the wonderful Cars. Certain criticisms of it I can accept - its narrative
was more familiar than past productions, and it was certainly a change of pace for Pixar, especially after the zenith of The Incredibles; I think some people went into it with the wrong expectations, not helped by a marketing campaign which misleadingly emphasised the racing aspect of the film. However, other criticisms (that it didn't have enough jokes, didn't have enough action, that it was "too slow") struck me as a refusal to accept and evaluate John Lasseter's vision on its own terms, and when you start to criticise the film for its choice of central theme and message - apparently, its life-in-the-slow-lane moral and nostalgic yearning for the heyday of Route 66 isn't something kids can relate to - well, you'd better start being careful what you wish for. The day that Pixar starts making films that they think
we want them to make, rather than the films
they actually want to make, will be a very sad day indeed.
...
Uh, so, yeah, in answer to the actual question the topic was asking, I am looking forward to Ratatouille. Very much so. The Incredibles was one of the best films I've seen in my life; my friends still tease me about how ridiculously hyperactive I was as I exited the theatre after seeing it, because I was so overwhelmed by how good the film was.
Brad Bird's name alone is enough to get me there on opening day (which, for me as a UK resident, is
October 5th!! 
), especially since having watched the magnificent Iron Giant as well, and from the trailer it looks funny and fresh, as well as being the latest in a long line winners of the "Most Unbelievably Gorgeous-Looking Film Ever Until The Next Pixar Film" Award. Normally, I'm someone who tries to guard themselves against setting their expectations too high for a movie, but as far as I'm concerned, Pixar are seven-for-seven so far - there's no way they will let me down.
