Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1032 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-02-11
• Rating: Universal, suitable for all
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 106 minutes

Amazon.co.uk
As good a film as Pixar has ever put out, Ratatouille is a frantic, innovative movie, boasting some of the finest quality animation ever put on the screen.

Ratatouille tells the story of wannabe-chef Remy The Rat, who becomes drawn into the mantra of legendary cook Gusteau, that anyone can cook. The deceased Gusteau's ghostly image appears to Remy, and guides him to his restaurant, whose standards have been slipping since his death. Remy, through the manipulation of a lowly restaurant worker called Linguini, soon starts secretly cooking the food, and this unusual set up proves to be a trove of treasures that Pixar carefully picks through.

Ratatouille's trick is to tie its cutting edge animation techniques to old-school essentials. At times harking back to the frenetic style you'd expect of Chuck Jones, it threads an original narrative through its story, which itself is packed with memorable characters (none more so than Peter O'Toole's superbly-voiced restaurant critic). It perhaps runs a little too long, but it's so well-written and so lavishly entertaining that it's a churlish complaint to have.

For in an era of cynically-produced family movies, Ratatouille is really something special. With an appeal that spreads across generations, and a quality that puts it right up there with Pixar's finest, it's an outstanding piece of cinema, and one set to be enjoyed for many, many years. Unmissable. --Simon Brew

Synopsis
Disney and Pixar combine for this animated tale, which follows the exploits of a French rat who dwells in an upmarket Parisien restaurant. Remy has great dreams of becoming a world-class chef, despite disapproval from his family, and the fact that he is the restaurant world's worst enemy - vermin itself! It seems his dreams will never become a reality until fate finds him living in Paris beneath one of the city's most elegant eateries.

Customer Reviews

Slightly Overrated
I gave this film a 5 star as it was still a very entertaining and light hearted movie, but at the same time very much overrated by the critics.
Remy is a rat who lives in the French countryside. He has the unusual gift of a heightened sense of smell and because of that he gains an appreciation for food which lies beyond the garbage he is used to eating. Remy is the outcast of his family but through a series of unfortunate events he ends up in the sewer which takes him to Paris. When he arrives at Paris he finds Gusteau's, a restaraunt started by the man who inspired Remy to appreciate flavour. Remy meets an unexpected best friend in the garbage boy Linguini and together they make their mark as the best chefs in Paris.

This is a film with a good heart and as with all Disney films a good little message to them about friendship and trust. I can't help but wonder, however how long Disney can keep giving us the same old cliché in every format possible. Sure it's a Disney film and is meant to be family friendly but for once I would like an outcome that I didn't expect, but alas this film isn't giving me this.
The voice acting is great in this film and at times gives us some great slapstick moments but apart from that this film is simply typical Disney, which I'm sure I'm not the only one who is starting to get tired of.

Disney and Pixar are a good combination and have some great films to their name, Monster Inc & Finding Nemo are to name just two. Ratatouille in my opinion is just one of these movies that doesn't sit up there with the aforementioned Disney/Pixar collaborations. This is just my opinion and some people will feel very differently. This is a very good film for kids and is something that can be enjoyed by the whole family, just don't expect the roars of laughter that you may have gotten from Monster Inc or Finding Nemo.

Brillaint film, but some effort to play
The good news is the feature itself, of course. Brillaint production, excellent plot and characterisation.

The bad news is that, when you load the disc, better go find something else to do for a bit.

First off there's an initial loading phase where nothing of any use appears for some time.

Then there are endless trailers. There ought to be a law against trailers where you can't even escape with the disc menu button.

The disc's software stretches the player to the extent that I had to upgrade the firmware before I could watch the film (this is rather a hairy process, putting the whole viability of the player on the line and almost impossible if you don't have a PC with Internet access and a CD-ROM writer). Naturally all the trailers were visible without the upgrade. Though the first time I put the disc in the player just couldn't make sense of it.

It's obvious that those that commisioned the programming of this disc were infinitely more concerned with copy protection and force-feeding us advertising than usability.

Blu-Ray makes everything more beautiful.
THE MOVIE
Ratatouille is Pixar's latest release in their row of succesful movies. The star of Ratatouille is Remy, a sensitive rat with ambitions and dreams far beyond those of his community. Remy wants to cook and become a great cook like his idol, Chef Gusteau. Remy and his community live on the loft of some old house in the country, but one day, the owner of the house, an old lady, discovers the rat colony and they have no choice but to flee the building. During the escape, Remy gets seperated from his family and friends and finds himself lonely flowing through sewers. Eventually he decides to climb up a drain to find that his journey has brought him to Paris. The culinary capital of the world and the home of Chef Gusteau. Eventually, despite the warnings of his conservative father, Remy forms a friendship with a human and together they challenge the conventions of what fine cooking encompasses. Through brilliant computer animation and great voice performances, Pixar delivers the story the best I can imagine. The characters are charming, the animation is beautiful and the story works on multiple levels offering something to keep audiences of all ages entertained.

THE PICTURE
Because Pixars beautiful animation job, Ratatouille is a movie which really thrives on Blu-Ray. Details and colors come across flawlessly. There are no compression artifacts of any kinds. This Blu-Ray release of Ratatouille is how Ratatouille is meant to be viewed.

While the DVD release is undoubtly good looking, the Blu-Ray, using the right equipment, leaves you breathless. I caught myself moving closer to my 37" LCD set multiple times, just to examine the extremely fine details of the animation.

If you already own a PlayStation 3 or some other Blu-Ray player, Ratatouille is an essential purchase.

If you are thinking about getting a PlayStation 3, then you must realise that it is an essential purchase and go get it together with Ratatouille and a shiny High Definition television.

This is living.