Refuge

Even the most seemingly inane films can contain deep and meaningful criticisms of contemporary society. The following thought-provoking assertions could be found within the film I went to see this afternoon.

1. It is possible to fool anyone into thinking you are an artist.

2. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was correct in postulating that humans are mere puppets, manipulated by super-intelligent pan-dimensional rodents.

3. Rats are okay, really.

A classic case of over-analysis of a film, I fear (apart from the last statement, which was actively promoted).

The film in question, Ratatouille, is quite obviously a children's film, so I suspect my slight amusement at some of the logic of the film is to be expected. In any case, the CGI and the musical score was good, which is also, as it happens, part of my huge admiration for the 2005 Joss Whedon film Serenity, which I recently saw (finally) on DVD, and forgot to write about at the time. It has to be said that I am completely ignorant when it comes to films, in the sense that I have not seen a great many, but I would like to assume that that does not limit my enjoyment or ability to criticise.

It wasn't just visual effects and music that fuelled my appreciation of the film. I liked just about every part of the film, including the actors, screenplay and plot. There was some humour too. Unlike with The Simpsons Movie I had seen some of the sadly short-lived TV series (Firefly) on which it was based, and unlike Ratatouille, there were serious issues that there dealt with. Something that really was funny, though, was that on the DVD there was an extra which details the careful filming and production work which went into the creation of the extraordinarily bizarre advert for "fruity oaty bars", which appears on a screen in one of the scenes (this may make sense if you have seen the film).

Tomorrow I should get round to starting my Theory of Knowledge essay. Not that I am entirely sure what Theory of Knowledge is, despite the fact that I have attended the lessons, as part of the IB curriculum, for the past year. I gather it involves learning about how we know things, which is, in my opinion, jumping the gun, since it rather assumes that I know things to begin with.