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DVD Details
- Original Theatrical Release: June 29th, 2007
- Rated: G
- Director: Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava (credited as co-director)
- Aspect ratio: 2:39:1
- Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
- DVD Release Date: November 6th, 2007
- Suggested Retail Price: 29.99
A lot of DVD covers carry the claim “one of the best reviewed films of the year!!!!” However, this is one film that is the real deal. Ratatouille scored an amazing 97 percent fresh rating on the Rotten Tomatoes film review Web site, and is so far in the top ten best reviewed films of 2007. If any film has the right to splash the “best reviewed film of the year” subheading on their DVD box, Ratatouille surely does.
The Movie
A simple French rat named Remy (Patton Oswalt) dreams of becoming a great chef despite his family’s wishes and the obvious problem of being a rat in a decidedly rodent-phobic profession. When fate places Remy in Paris, France, he finds himself ideally situated beneath a restaurant made famous by his culinary hero, Auguste Gusteau (Brad Garrett). Despite the apparent dangers of being an unwanted visitor in the kitchen at one of Paris’ most exclusive restaurants, Remy forms an unlikely partnership with Alfredo Linguini (Lou Romano), the garbage boy, who inadvertently discovers Remy’s amazing talents and has a few secrets of his own. Remy and Linguini both find they must be true to themselves and the people they love in order to succeed in life and in the restaurant world.
Photo © Disney Enterprises Inc & Pixar Animation Studios
One of the many things I loved about Ratatouille was the excellent voice casting and how seamlessly the filmmakers paired the character onscreen with a particular actor’s voice, regardless of name appeal. When I heard a character’s voice for the first time in the film, I didn’t automatically say to myself, “Oh look, Patton Oswalt is voicing the character of Remy, and Brad Garrett is faking a French accent to voice Gusteau.” The characters were complete in themselves and the actors never detracted from the audience’s immersion in the movie. Even legendary actors who voice characters, like Peter O’Toole as the critic Anton Ego, and Ian Holm as mini-villain Skinner, do not distract. Everything works together so that the story itself is the star and the characters all contribute to the successes of the film.
Raratouille has a wide appeal; kids love the slapstick parts of the movie, especially when Remy is teaching Linguini how to cook in his apartment by pulling sections of his hair. Adults love the references to French culture and cuisine, the knowing winks about the nature of critics, and the beautiful “shots” of Paris and the countryside surrounding it.
Some aspects of the movie fall short for both groups, however. Every child I’ve talked to about Ratatouille does not fully understand the ending of the film and become restless during the critic’s final voiceover, though they generally understand that Remy, Linguine, and Ego all get what they want by the final scene. Some adults still get queasy at the sight of rats, animated or not. I think in time both these problems will resolve themselves though repeated viewings, as Ratatouille is sure to have a permanent home is most people’s DVD collections.
[You can also read Alex Stroup’s review of the movie when it originally premiered in theaters this past June.]
The Goodies
There is a disappointing lack of bonus features for Ratatouilleis included is interesting but falls far short of what we have come to expect from a Pixar release.
Photo © Disney Enterprises Inc & Pixar Animation Studios
Deleted scenes
The deleted scenes included in this bonus feature are rough, unfinished pictures with a bit of crude animation paired with the dialogue of the real voice cast. Brad Bird introduces each scene and then explains why each was cut after the clip. One of the more interesting deleted scenes shows Gusteau still alive and working in the slowly failing restaurant with his assistant Skinner prodding him to expand his frozen food line. Much of the dialogue is used later in other areas of the movie, but Bird made the decision to kill off Chef Gusteau when he took over the project in 2005. He felt there were too many story lines and complications, and that showing Gusteu in Remy’s imagination would serve the story better. These few comments by Bird are the only aknowledgements that the production of Ratatouille was a long, labored process, interupted not only by management changes but a change in directors. Although Jan Pinkava began the project way back in 2000 and is given a director’s credit, Brad Bird is widely credited for taking the project and shaping it into the success it became.
Remy & Emile present “Your Friend the Rat”
Remy attempts to debunk the “myth” that rats were responsible for the “Black Death” pandemic that killed millions during the 14th Century. It was the dastardly flea that sat on the rat that actually carried the disease to humans, Remy argues, so the rat and human can be considered equal in regards to the suffering both endured. Rats are unjustly blamed for everything that is wrong in the world today, and Remy and Emil hope we humans will have a change of heart after seeing all the noble things rats have done throughout history. The short is animated in a rough, retro sort of way and is very entertaining. Hopefully young children won’t rush out to the garbage dumps of the world to befriend a wild rat after being convinced of their noble qualities.
“Lifted”
Lifted is Pixar’s animated short that was released in theatres with Ratatouille, and is, like virtually all of their shorts, an instant classic. A bumbling young alien student from a distant world tests the patience of an increasingly weary instructor as he attempts a first-time abduction of an innocently slumbering farmer. Hilarious.
Photo © Disney Enterprises Inc & Pixar Animation Studios
Fine Food and Film
This is a fascinating feature comparing the art of cooking to the art of film making, with Brad Bird and Chef Thomas Keller from The French Laundry in Napa Valley, California (considered by many to be one of the best restaurants in the world).
Keller was a consultant on the film and allowed Bird to intern in his kitchen to learn a little about the culinary world. Keller also developed the key ratatouille dish served to Anton Ego at the climax of the film and re-creates it for the camera in the feature. It was interesting to see how both Bird and Keller view their profession as a way to emotionally connect with people, be it film audience or restaurant patron.
Photo © Disney Enterprises Inc & Pixar Animation Studios
Both talk about mentors that encouraged them along the way, as Gusteau does with Remy. As a teenager, Bird sent a homemade animated short to the Walt Disney Studios and got an immediate and positive response. He was invited to visit the studios, where he was paired with veteran animator Milt Kahl, one of Disney’s Nine Old Men and responsible for some of the most important animated characters in animation history. Bird credits Kahl for giving him the encouragement and training he needed to go on to make animation his career. One can see from this feature that the genius of both Keller and Bird lies partly in the balance between creating what they enjoy and love, and having an acute perception of what an audience will enjoy; while still pushing the boundaries of excellence a little further each time they create.
Interface, Audio and Video
The main interface is a very detailed zoom into Gusteau’s restaurant with “menu” choices accompanied by the soundtrack. The secondary menus are very clever clips from the film’s credits; stylized rats cavort around confections and are almost more detailed than the main interface. Ratatouille‘s audio is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, which is becoming the standard way Disney is formatting its newer films from theatre to DVD. The aspect ratio is 2:39:1 and looks just as crisp and clean in the close detailed shots of Gusteau’s kitchen as it does in the wide, sweeping cityscapes of Paris.
The Final Evaluation
While I can’t say enough good things about the actual film, I was very surprised by the lack of bonus material in this release. A quick look at the bonus features for the high-definition Ratatouille Blu-Ray Disc release includes all of the DVD extras plus two more: Gusteau’s Gourmet Game and Cine-Explore. The game sounds like a standard remote-controlled offering, but since it’s in high-definition, the sound and picture must be awfully good. Cine-Explore is “an innovative, in-movie Java feature which allows viewers to customize their own behind-the-scenes experience, which includes Animation briefings, documentary shorts, deleted shots and deleted scenes.”
Photo © Disney Enterprises Inc & Pixar Animation Studios
I know Disney is pushing the whole Blu-Ray Disc concept to the maximum, but I feel they are ignoring their main audience who are still firing up their standard DVD players to watch movies. The main thing I was hoping for in the extras does not seem to be present in either release; that is, how the movie evolved over the years from 2000 to 2007 with such major changes in leadership. It may be a story too soon to tell. I’ll be looking for it with the two-disc DVD release that will hopefully come out in the next few years; in the meantime I will enjoy this first Ratatouille DVD release for what it is—a fantastic movie, painstakingly developed and beautifully presented.
