From Walt Disney Home Entertainment:
From Academy Award®-winning director Brad Bird (The Incredibles) and the amazing storytellers at Pixar Animation Studios (Finding Nemo, Cars) comes Ratatouille, this year's most original comedy about one of the most unlikely friendship's imaginable.
The film's protagonist is a rat named Remy (Patton Oswalt) who dares to dream the impossible dream of becoming a gourmet chef in a five-star French restaurant. Undeterred by the obvious problem of trying to make it in the world's most rodent-phobic profession, not to mention his family's urgings to be satisfied with the usual trash-heap lifestyle, Remy's fantasies are filled with flambés and sautés. When circumstances literally drop Remy into the Parisian restaurant made famous by his culinary hero, Auguste Gusteau (Brad Garrett), Remy finds the one thing he needs, a friend to believe in him: the restaurant's shy, outcast garbage boy named Linguini (Lou Romano). Remy and Linguini form the most improbable partnership that will turn Paris upside down, leading them both on an incredible journey of comical twists, emotional turns and the most unlikely of triumphs, which they could never have imagined without each other.
TPR Comments on the Ratatouille DVD:
Ratatouille is the 2007 Disney/Pixar animated feature film offering. The film seems to be about cooking with the theme that "Anyone can cook," but it's really about how anyone can be anything they want to be as long as they are true to who they are. What better way to show that than to have a rat cooking and handling food and cooking. Throw in a conniving chef, a restaurant with a legacy and a hapless garbage boy and we have a surprisingly entertaining film.
Remy is a country rat that has somehow developed a taste for finer food and looks up to renowned Chef Gusteau. At the same time that he blows the rat colony's cover, he learns that Gusteau is dead. In their escape he becomes separated from the rest of the rats and reaches Paris alone. He ends up at Gusteau's restaurant and soon forms a partnership with Linguini, the hapless garbage boy. Without giving away the ending, the film manages to juggle a handful of subplots as Remy and Linguini sort out being true to themselves rather than playing the roles that others expect of them.
We'll admit to having to suppress a bit of a gag reflex at the idea of rats cooking even if the rat pointedly washes his front paws and walks upright in an effort to keep those same front paws clean for handling food. Other than that, we and our children were thoroughly entertained throughout the nearly two hour film. The film is largely set in a kitchen, but there's plenty going on in the kitchen. As a special feature on the DVD indicates, a real chef was a consultant on the film and the kitchen feels largely authentic. At heart, the film is still for kids, but as is the trademark of Pixar films, there is plenty of humor that adults will enjoy.
The DVD includes a handful of special features. There is a featurette on food and cooking with Director Brad Bird and Chef Thomas Keller who was a consultant on the film. Three deleted scenes with commentary are also included. Lastly, two animated shorts are included. "Your Friend the Rat" features Remy and Emile giving an amusing history of rats in civilization. "Lifted" is an unrelated short film that takes a humorous look at alien abduction. The special features are underwhelming, but the film is good enough that the special features do not "make or break" our recommendation to add this film to your personal collection.
Ratatouille Voice Cast List
Patton Oswalt
Ian Holm
Lou Romano
Brian Dennehy
Peter Sohn
Peter O'Toole
Brad Garrett
Janeane Garofalo
Will Arnett
James Remar
John Ratzenberger
— Fine Food and Film: A Conversation with Brad Bird and Thomas Keller [13:53] - Cuisine and cinema come together in this behind the scenes look at how master chef and restaurateur Thomas Keller brought his real life expertise to the table.
— Deleted Scene: Chez Gusteau [3:57] - With introduction by screenwriter/director Brad Bird
— Deleted Scene: Meet Gusteau [5:57] - With introduction by screenwriter/director Brad Bird
— Deleted Scene: First Day [5:12] - With introduction by screenwriter/director Brad Bird
— Your Friend the Rat [~10:00] - Remy and Emile star in an all-new animated short film.
— Lifted [5:00] - In Pixar's latest short, Oscar® nominated for Best Animated Short Film, a teen alien learns that failure is an option.
— Fine Food and Film: A Conversation with Brad Bird and Thomas Keller [13:53] - Cuisine and cinema come together in this behind the scenes look at how master chef and restaurateur Thomas Keller brought his real life expertise to the table.
— Deleted Scene: Chez Gusteau [3:57] - With introduction by screenwriter/director Brad Bird
— Deleted Scene: Meet Gusteau [5:57] - With introduction by screenwriter/director Brad Bird
— Deleted Scene: First Day [5:12] - With introduction by screenwriter/director Brad Bird
— Your Friend the Rat [~10:00] - Remy and Emile star in an all-new animated short film.
— Lifted [5:00] - In Pixar's latest short, Oscar® nominated for Best Animated Short Film, a teen alien learns that failure is an option.
— Gusteau's Gourmet Game: In this inventive new Java based game, the orders are stacking up in Chez Gusteau's kitchen. You must help Linguini by moving quickly from station to station in the kitchen to prepare the right meal.
— Cine-Explore: An innovative, in-movie Java feature allows viewers to customize their own behind the scenes experience, which includes Animation Briefings, Documentary Shorts, Deleted Shots: R.I.P. and Deleted Scenes
