Wednesday, November 28

Ratatouille DVD Review

Everybody might have already heard the plot to Pixar's Ratatouille, about a rat Remy that was enticed to become a chef in Paris. It all starts with Chef Gusteau who writes a book called "Anyone can cook," which is a philosophy in its own. Gusteau died and follows Remy as a figment of his imagination. No one expected it to be a hit. Pixar admitted people would be squeamish about seeing rats in the big screen but they were adamant by having them walk and scurry and act like rats. I thought I would have no problem with it at all but I have to admit I had to get used to it. Entertainment Weekly passed off the movie Ratatouille in lacking in celebrity voices. They said Patton Oswalt is no hero next to Owen Wilson's Lighting McQueen from Cars. But what decides who is not a star? Patton does a great job and Remy is an awesome character. Curious and set to his principals. The movie is filled with innuendo, guns, sex, drunk people, a chef that clams to have killed a man with a finger and venom. This is a G-rated flick and there is the line 'caught fooling around with his daughter' and Remy's human friend almost gets maced in the face.

In the first Toy Story, Pixar's humans looked robotic and weird. But, once they got that their humans have to look cartoonish, now Pixar has their own class of look for humans. It started with The Incredibles and now with this movie, humans blend in easily. Remy and his friend Linguine do go through the cliche of going up and down in stardom (claiming credit and so on), but it is forgivable. Some say the plot and writing is said and done, but the dialouge is great and awesome lines. The greatest character is Collete, that has to survive in a man-driven chef world and is hard-as-nails. Like a date movie cliche, she then falls in love with the Linguine but still remains a tough cookie. Some people said the movie could have more of her but I think it's just perfect, sometimes you got to have people wanting more.

One can pass over the movie was being cutesy and wacky but that is not the case. Pixar has a way to make movies feel real adult. For example, The Incredibles could just be another superhero dribble but it was cemented in family politics and raw emotion. Also Finding Nemo can also be taken as a morose An American Tail. Now, Ratatouille may not have star kid power like Nemo, where any kid goes "Nemo!" when they see a fish or even The Little Mermaid's Flounder, but it has its charm. The movie is delicious and have great message... move on, change and go forward. Also that people can do whatever they set their sights on. The review at the end by Ego (Peter O' Toole) is great. Of course, like any Disney movie, it comes with a happy ending, this one comes with a delightful ending.

What is not fair is this:
ONLY THE BLU-RAY and LIMITED COLLECTOR'S EDITION HAS AUDIO COMMENTARY! The regular one does not have the director's commentary with brad Bird and David L. Like cinemablend.com says, "Brad Bird is a wealth of information for people that want to be inspired by how movies are made, animated or not. What kind of shots does he look for? What makes a good script? What makes a good scene? A good character? A realistic character? An audio commentary could have made this disc go from beefaroni to alfredo."