Sorry for the sparseness of late. I have actually work to do – got one thing knocked off today, with something else I must get done before the end of next week, with then One More Thing looming, something I’m sort of dreading tackling,  that’s due mid-August – and all this with kiddos home and about and underfoot with their Legos and Thomas and bare feet and Teen Drama, and one more trip on the calendar, as well.

So…books.

No, first – movie.

When we were in Florida, we went to see Ratatouille.

It was a last-minute decision, which involved, in order, 1) my vague statement that both Katie and Joseph wanted to see it , then 2) Michael checking the paper then 3) us determining that we probably could make it then 4) an intense drive from Anastasia Island up to the theater on Philllips HIghway – the closest showing to where we were.

And yes, we made it.

Well, we made it in time for the show, even catching the very funny pre-show cartoon. We didn’t make it in time to get a seat anywhere but the front row, though.. And I mean…front row.

So, my take?

Marvelous animation – really amazing and gorgeous, delightful in detail.

But the film itself….’twas okay. The plot had two more layers than necessary, I am really tired of the struggles of animated heros to find their true selves despite the lack of understanding from their families/peers, and I thought the theme teetered toward self-important and overblown.

And, although no one has ever accused me of being a prude, I was actually a little taken aback by the child-out-of-wedlock theme. It struck me as a little inappropriate – yeah, what would the plot be without it, but still.

Animated films have long straddled the child/adult divide, and I’m gratified, in a way, for that – that my teen-aged daughter and her friends go to all of these animated movies in packs, unashamedly and with great anticipation. That’s good. But somewhere, in there, the little ones are lost for the sake of the teen-to adult audience, which is too bad.

There was no lack of gorgeous, magical imagery though, and those that stick in my mind are those of teeming rats – and not in a bad way. The scenes in the countryside in the beginning, those at the end – I don’t know why those stick with me, but they do.

Oh, and the other night, I was improvising a zucchini-garlic-tomato kind of thing, and thought about sculpting it into a nifty little tower – nah.

Also – the movie did give me a chance to introduce Katie, ever so briefly, in the parking lot on the way to the car, to Proust. Madeleines…ratatouille…it’s all the same!