While I am a self-proclaimed non-movie addict, it wouldn’t seem so this past weekend as in the past 4 days, I’ve seen two movies in the theatre. That’s a lot for me.

First we have Ratatouille. The wonderful rat animation by Disney and Pixar about a rat in Paris who becomes a chef of a 3 star restaurant. While the premise seems a little odd, the story is actually quite smooth and well told. With just enough character development to understand where everybody was coming from, it was a quite the satisfying movie.

This is quite the feat as I tend to shy away from Disney films. As a matter of fact, I believe this is the first Disney animation that I’ve seen in theaters. Who knew a story about a rat in love with cooking, and a linguine boy in love with a sous-chef would win my vote?

Next comes Transformers, the highly touted movie event of the year by Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg. Ask any guy and they would normally say 2 hours and 30 minutes of full robot glory and special effects would be no problem for them, however, I found this story to be slightly different.

The first half hour of the film was well played, as characters were developed and we began to understand exactly where the Transformers belonged on Earth. Further on in the movie, however, they decided to play into the humour of the film by introducing the parents of the main character. I can almost say, that scene may have killed the entire movie as it was out of place and just stretched far too long than it should have. Should he have his little “fun time”? Who cares?! We’re dealing with a film about Transformers, not an adolescent teenager coming of age.

I have to admit, the computer generated Transformers were really well done, and its fluidity in interaction within real life was remarkable. As for the transforming sound effects? Well, they did without the traditional sounds of the 5 tones and instead opted for a more modernized mechanical noise which I suppose I can’t complain about.

Optimus Prime, the leader of the Autobots got a new facelift as it was no longer the hoodless truck that it once used to be. And Megatron? Well, who could blame them for changing him from a gun to a flying beast. Not a bad change.

There were several other changes from the original toys although I can’t complain about most of them. The changes were made appropriately and made it exciting to watch.

- teaser alert -

One odd part about the ending is the fact that Sam knew not to put the cube inside Optimus Prime, but into Megatron’s chest instead. Nobody explained this to him, and he basically took it upon himself to see what would happen if he did it. If you had the fate of the world in your hands, would you go ahead and experiment to see what would happen if…? Way to go Sam!

It was an enjoyable movie nonetheless, and seeing as I did grow up with the likes of Optimus, Soundwave, and all the other folks, it was great to see them on screen for once.

Two movies worth watching: one, if you’re into animation, and the other, if you’re into Transformers. If not, then you may just find it a little boring… like one of my coworkers, who fell asleep during the film!