'Ratatouille' Director Brad Bird finds Blu-ray delectable

[Chernabog]

Originally Posted by ROBONICS95

Having seen both versions, were you able to see the added animation to Ratatouille that Bird had mentioned was available on Blu-ray?

Not yet, I didn't watch both versions all the way through yet. I was noticing things like sharper quality on the rat fur, and sparkles around the Gusteau-ghost, the buildings of Paris being sharper, textures on paper/walls/countertops, stuff like that. It didn't seem nearly that clear on DVD.

On both versions I've only watched up to the point that Remy gets captured (after the kitchen run-around scene where he makes the soup) so I can't really comment on that (I probably wouldn't go "oh my god his hair is blowing differently!" either, lol). I mean if Brad Bird said things were added, I believe him... but unless I had a side-by-side comparison of little things like that....

The picture quality though... yes, there is a difference.

[ROBONICS95]

Gotcha, thanks again for your input.

[ALIASd]

Pixar Embraces Blu-Ray

November 06, 2007
AnimationWorldNetwork

The high-def Blu-ray camp gets a big boost today (Nov. 6, 2007) with the release of Pixar's RATATOUILLE, CARS and THE PIXAR SHORT FILMS COLLECTION VOL. 1 (from Walt Disney Studios Home Ent., $34.99).

And no one is prouder than John Lasseter, chief creative officer of Pixar and Disney Animation Studios. "Blu-ray is really exciting because I feel for the first time that you can truly see a Pixar film because there are so many details that get lost on the DVD," he told AWN. "Also because of the amazing amount of data available on the Blu-ray, it makes it so you can do special features that you can't do in any other technology. We have the 'Cine-Explore,' which is like having a commentary with visuals. So it's like watching the movie, hearing the commentary and seeing a documentary at the same time. It's for real cinephiles, and, for me, as a filmmaker, it's great because this becomes the ultimate document on the making of the film. It's so important to put these ideas down when they're fresh in your head.

"And also the Blu-ray technology gives you the opportunity to have fun. The number of characters in the backgrounds of CARS was so gigantic. And we [enjoyed] developing them all but you just drive by in the movie. But the Blu-ray technology gave us the opportunity to explore those characters a little more. So that was the evolution of the CAR FINDER game, which is like a moving scavenger hunt, where you're looking for these cars as the movie's playing. Even as you find them and select them, you can learn about their names, their backstories and more details about them.

"And then there are the shorts with the COLLECTION. I was really excited to finally have the ultimate collection in Pixar shorts, which we've wanted to do for a while, and a lot of people have been asking for this. And there's a great little documentary on the early days of the shorts and commentaries on each one, and it's just great to have them all together [in Blu-ray]."

In addition to such RATATOUILLE DVD bonus features as deleted scenes with intros by Brad Bird, the Fine Food and Film featurette and two shorts -- LIFTED and YOUR FRIEND THE RAT -- there are the following Blu-ray exclusive bonus features:

http://news.awn.com/index.php?ltype=...sitem_no=21392

[Chernabog]

^^ I'm not gonna be home till after I hit the gym tonite, but I'll play around with that Cine-Explore stuff (I didn't last night, too busy marveling at the movie itself). Not sure what Lasseter is talking about above, but I'll figure it out -- since it sounds like something they can't do on regular DVD.... hmmmm has anyone else played with this feature yet?

[Chernabog]

OK just got off the phone with my roommate who watched that cine-explore stuff -- apparently it is different from what I was imagining -- not sure if is a "regular" documentary, but it seems like a collection of stuff that either branches off from, or appears simultaneously with, the film itself (and perhaps, it adds up to 50 minutes extra, etc.). So it's like you're watching comments and extra stuff simultaneously with the scene that it is referring to. I'll figure it out tonight (not sure if it is picture-in-picture, or what).

[Chernabog]

OK just watched some of the Cine-Explore stuff, and here's the deal:

You know how when you watch a DVD how annoying it is to shuffle through the special features? First, there's the behind the scenes documentary where half the stuff shown is "filler" clips from the movie you just watched. Then there's the concept drawings, which you need to shuffle through slowly and get bored with within 2 minutes (and it doesn't usually compare them to the finished product). Then you gotta watch the whole freaking movie over AGAIN to get the commentary?

Basically the Cine-explore feature does away with having to go through all that, because now it will happen simultaneous with the movie.

You choose from the menu "Watch movie the cine-explore feature". You can choose to have the picture auto-branch ("price fixe") or manually branch off ("a la carte") to separate parts of the behind-the-scenes areas.

Then what happens is a FULL COMMENTARY by Brad Bird and..ummm.. someone else (lol cant remember his name) just like you would on DVD over the movie... BUT concept drawings, photographs of the people they're talking about, etc. appear in boxes AS you're watching the movie. Then at points during the film, a graphic will appear at the bottom. If you've chosen to auto-branch off, then a 5 second countdown appears, and the film branches off to a behind-the-scenes segment (usually talking about things relevant to that point of the movie). If you've chosen to manually branch off, then you can choose that particular segment (or not) manually (it tells you what the title of the segment is). When the behind the scenes segment is completed, it goes back to the film from where it left off.

You CAN choose to see the documentary bits just one after the other without watching the film, but there's a really neat experience in watching it with cine-explore turned on auto (plus you'd miss the concept drawing/stills comparison to the final product which is playing simultaneous). Of course, watching the whole movie with cine-explore on will take a hefty chunk of time (I would assume, 3 hours or so, because it is the movie PLUS those behind the scenes bits). The end product is a hefty behind-the-scenes viewing that combines the best features of DVD and puts it into the movie itself.

This is what I am thinking Bluray can do that HD-DVD cannot, but I am not sure. Has anyone seen stuff like this on HD-DVD? **EDIT After reading some other threads, HD-DVD does have some kind of interactivity feature with picture-in-picture. So this type of feature may just be a good thing about the hi-def formats in general, and not necessarily about Bluray being better than HD-DVD or whatever **

As far as 2-disc is concerned, with this format they almost don't NEED 2 discs because you're watching it WITH the movie.