i had it out with him over email about one of his earliest Ratatouille posts. he's hated Pixar ever since Disney took over - i think he had friends in Disney Animation who were replaced when the Pixar crew took over.

anyway, how an animated feature aimed towards an older audience that makes $200 million domestically can be considered a dud is beyond me. there have even been articles about how unexpectedly well the Ratatouille merchandise is selling. i mean, if you can make a hit movie about a rat that cooks AND sell merchandise to boot...how the fuck can anyone complain about that?

and the bigger picture that everyone overlooks here is that Ratatouille is an instant classic and long-term, it can only help to strengthen the Disney-Pixar brand. i mean, Disney did A LOT of damage to their brand with all the cheap direct-to-video shit they dumped out over the last decade. even if Ratatouille had bombed, Disney should still have been ecstatic because they're finally starting to demand excellence in their product again.