Ratatouille [Blu-ray]

Remy the Rat, unlike his brother, father, and extended family, refuses to eat just anything that he finds lying around. show more

Remy the Rat, unlike his brother, father, and extended family, refuses to eat just anything that he finds lying around. He is a gourmand - sneaking into a human's kitchen to read her cookbooks, trying various mushrooms to try and find the best match to his cheese, etc. When he ends up in Paris, he finds Gusteau's restaurant in a declining state - savaged by the critic Ego, with a head chef more interested in developing microwave burritoes than in cooking fine food.

The biggest hurdle to enjoying this film, as mentioned in the Amazon description, is the fact that this movie is about rats. Hundreds of them in some scenes. Ironically, it's the success of the advances in computer animation that makes it difficult - these are not the rodents of "The Rescuers". They are much more realistic and even I, who have no particular aversion to rats, was a little creeped out by the hyper-realism of Remy's rippling fur.

Ultimately the story comes down to the conflict between Remy (and his human avatar Linguini) and the critic Ego. The resolution of this conflict is so surprisingly satisfying and effective that it redeems the entire film, which is otherwise not particularly original.

I can also report that this film works well for children. Although too dialogue-heavy for really young children, my son inserted the film into his regular rotation starting about age 4. It's not requested as much as Cars (obviously!) but it's certainly watched more often than Bug's Life, Monsters Inc., or Aladdin.

This DVD has a couple of really good extras - the short "Lifted" (which, again, my 4-year-old loves) and the promo short "Your Friend the Rat". But these two short films - grand total of maybe 15 minutes - is the sum total of all the extras. There are no making-of featurettes, no director's commentary, etc. For children, I'm sure they don't care. For animation/Disney afficionados, this is disappointing to say the least, especially considering that Pixar commentaries are usually very entertaining and informative.

I expected something better, funnier. show more

I expected something better, funnier. Even my son, who usually likes all of these Disney and Pixar movies found this one a little 'boring' he said. We did rewatch it when it came on television earlier this month, just because it was on for background noise. It's cute, don't get me wrong, but if you're expecting Disney and/or Pixar classics Finding Nemo (Two-Disc Collector's Edition) or Monsters, Inc. (Two-Disc Collector's Edition), you'll likely be a little disappointed like we were. I feel this show is more for the older viewer too, older kids or tweens, instead of the younger kids who will enjoy Nemo just for the pretty colors and movements, while the older kids like the storyline (and by older kids, I mean adults too!)

So while I don't think it's a bad movie to watch, it's not exactly what I had hoped it would be and I wouldn't spend money buying it unless you are into collecting the Disney movies. Otherwise, just rent it and enjoy it for what it is.

When they were airing movie trailers on Ratatouille it sounded like a fun movie to watch so I waited for it to arrive on DVD. show more

When they were airing movie trailers on Ratatouille it sounded like a fun movie to watch so I waited for it to arrive on DVD. I did not want to buy it before seeing it, so I rented it from Netflix and loved it. The fact it is a Pixar movie made that easy to understand as I had already enjoyed Finding Nemo which made the talking fish seem believable with very expressive faces. Ratatouille followed suit with mobile faces and very expressive eyes, and a story of a young rat named Remy who didn't want to grow up eating garbage. His way out was a restaurant in Paris that had once been rated five stars but lost two due to a bad review, and the death of its head chef. Enter Remy and an ambitious garbage boy named Alfredo Linguini who can't cook, but wants to. With Remy controlling Linguini, they make magic in the kitchen and win over the customers. Now they have to win over the very critic who had cost the restaurant one of its five stars with his bad review. Plenty of color, action, music, even a little singing, all form a wonderful picture I recommend to children and adults.