Darwinian Ratatouille

Why is getting a life partner such an attractive prospect for most people? Explain please.

Perhaps because that's what they've been taught to aspire to? Or maybe because, as we've discussed, people order their lives around the avoidance of those things they fear ... and fear of being alone and lonely is a powerful motivator?

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We went to see the Disney/Pixar movie "Ratatouille" yesterday. It is a phenomenal piece of work, both technically and artistically. Technically the animation is stunning. In earlier computer animations I was left with a sense of watching animation throughout the movie. With this film that sense of "watching animation" drifted away very quickly.

One of the things I have noticed is that animated film makers are very intentionally not making certain elements of the characters "lifelike." They're maintaining a certain cartoonishness to the facial features, particularly eyes. The eyes are what convey most emotional expression, and with eyes that are intentionally "not real," they're capable of amplifying the expression.

The movie is not, however, a movie purely aimed at little kids. In fact, many of the kids in the theater were bored at about 1 hour. The action slows and the story develops during the "middle bridge."

The writing and story of Ratatouille is superb. It's a very clever story. Some elements could be jettisoned, but overall it's witty and heartwarming. Oh, and the boy does get the girl! :-)

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Apparently "Live Earth" did not quite meet expectations in terms of attendance. And I've seen several stories about how the performers in these shows flew private jets, a heavy contributor to greenhouse gases.

Unlike previous "Live ____" shows, this one labored under the burden of advocating something that asked participants to actually consider sacrificing their own personal convenience. It's one thing to pay money to some abstract starving child in Africa ... quite another to modify my own lifestyle as part of a cause.