There are enough films that do that these days. It's refreshing that this one decided not to. It probably would have made more money if it was filled with pop songs and nods to current trends, but Bird went the brave and classier rout. For poop jokes and pop culture references galore - Shrek 3 was in the Cineplex a door or two down. I did see that one too, but Ratatouille received repeat viewings from my partner and me.
Aye, Shrek 3 was a disappointment, even to a Shrek fan like me. Even the Christmas Special was better. But for me, Shrek is one of the only times I forgive poopoo and toot toot jokes (outside of older episodes of Ren and Stimpy and certain 1980's animes).
I have no problem with Culture references, but too much is too much. A few parodies and snarky commenets are fine, but if you put random references that go no where, I could care less.
One of the many reasons I thought Rat was just supurbly different. There was even a scene in a sewer, and not even so much as a smelly sewer joke.
I really hope when this film happens it has the same style of classier fare as Rat did. I mean, pop culture would be funny to work into a Traveling Matt segment, if the movie has one, but I don't think I can see the Fraggles Rehashing old movie lines. After all, they never seen these movies.