DVD Review: Ratatouille

Film Release Date: June 29, 2007
DVD Release Date: November 6, 2007

Remy: Patton Oswalt
Gusteau: Brad Garrett
Django: Brian Dennehy
Horst: Will Arnett
Colette: Janeane Garofalo
Anton Ego: Peter O’Toole

The Film

With more charm than Cars, more adventure than The Incredibles, and more heart than A Bug’s Life — Disney and Pixar’s Ratatouille is an absolute home run for fans of animation young and old. Along the way, Ratatouille weaves music, visuals and its recurrent theme of French cuisine together in a vibrant multimedia tapestry, easily making it the best animated feature of 2007.

Sticking close to the company’s tried-and-true template of the “unlikely buddy comedy” (think “Woody” and “Buzz” from Toy Story, “Mike” and “Sully” from Monsters Inc., or “Dori” and “Marlin” from Finding Nemo), Ratatouille introduces its audience with the oddest duo of Disney/Pixar leading characters yet: a bumbling second-generation cook named Luigi (voiced by Lou Romano), and a five-star-foodie-of-a-rat named Remy (voiced by Patton Oswalt), who also just so happens to moonlight as a wannabe chef. As luck would have it, neither of these fellas seem to be much of a success without the other (for a bumbling chef is about as high a demand in a kitchen as — GASP — a rat!), and so — in typical Disney fashion — they come to rely on one another and form a pretty darned heartwarming friendship along the way.

Hey, it’s Disney, alright? Pretty hard *not* to use the word “heartwarming” in a review of a film from The Mouse.

Never shmaltzy or sappy, and rounded out by a supporting cast of voice actors both familiar (Brad Garrett, John Ratzenberger, Peter O’Toole, and Brian Dennehey) and new alike (Will Arnett and Janeane Garofalo each lend a welcome addition), and nowhere near as clumsy and heavy-handed as the Shrek movies — the subtlety and pop-sensibilities of Ratatouille make for snappy, stylish and genuinely enjoyable film no matter *what* your age is. And for those of us in the “old enough to drive a car” age-range and above — you’ll be glad to hear that (as with most other Pixar flicks), Ratatouille is absolutely loaded with visual puns that really make second (and third, and fourth, and…) viewings worth your while. Along the way, you’ll see all sorts of clever in-jokes, sight-gags and pop-culture nods to a wide array of sources in the Disney/Pixar canon and beyond (yes, there is even a sight gag thrown in there about Vice President Dick Cheney shooting some dude in the face — did you catch it!?).

The Video

From the word “go,” animation aficianados will notice that the film pays a wonderful homage to Disney classics of the past. In the opening sequence, viewers see a modern twist on the multiplane camera technique, an early filming method that allowed animated features to look more “three dimensional” — first made popular by Walt Disney himself (and friends) WAY back in the 1930’s. Minutes later as Remy finds himself sloshing through a fast-paced and fully-rendered trip down the Parisian sewers, viewers can’t help but think back to an equally iconic water-logged Disney adventure that once featured a certain Sorceror’s Apprentice against a barrage of bucket-wielding broomsticks. Sequences such as these (and there are PLENTY throughout this film — such as when Remy first sets eyes on the Eiffel Tower) give Ratatouille a unique, colorful, and memorable visual identity of its own, and serve as further proof of the technical wizardry of the creative minds at Disney/Pixar animation studios.

This same clever attention to detail and animation history plays out to perfection throughout the remainder of the 111-minute film, but the true beauty of Ratatouille, however, is in the strength of the *story itself*. True, the film isn’t above throwing in a fast-paced and beautifully rendered 3D showcase here and there, but each of these moments fits perfectly into the larger story arc of the film as a whole. When there’s a chase sequence, it serves a purpose. Not only do you know *who* the characters in the sequence are, you’ve also got a solid idea of *why* they’re doing what they’re doing — so that you’re not just left scratching your head and second-guessing if the animators just wanted to say “look what WE can do.”

In an era where SO many computer-animated movies are making it to the big screen, it’s become far too commonplace for the characters, stories and plots they feature to become all too interchangeable (Pop quiz: what’s the difference between “Surf’s Up” and “Happy Feet?”). Whereas so many competing studios simply operate under the assumption that enough “pretty looking computer animations” can compensate for an otherwise forgettable plot, Disney and Pixar continue to rate head and shoulders above their rivals in always making sure that the artifice never gets in the way of the art itself. What you’re left with, then is a story that’s not just “beautiful to look at,” but also one that is beautifully told.

The Extras

On the drawback end of things, the DVD (as is the case with many new Disney releases) comes equipped with the “FastPlay” technology — a technical slight of hand by the kind folks at Disney which allows the DVD to play straight through from beginning to end from the moment it’s dropped into your DVD player. A pretty ingenious innovation, come to think of it, as it negates the viewer’s need to waste time wading through the often time-consuming and far too “style-over-substance”-driven interface of the animated DVD menu (though the animated menu is still there if you’d like to do things “the old fashioned way”). According to Disney’s press release materials on this thing, it’s basically a dummy-proof “electronic babysitter” for the parent on the go desperate to provide little Johnny and Susie with a kid-friendly distraction in the quickest manner possible. With FastPlay (so sez Disney), folks can just drop the DVD in and keep the kids entertained for two hours — no need to stand by and click through the menus, skip to certain chapters, or anything else of the “time-consuming” sort.

The catch, of course, is that while this “drop-and-play” technology *DOES* play your movie through from start to finish, no menus needed (perfect for moms and dads, or babysitters “on the run”), it only does so AFTER it’s already shown you the previews for the slew of “Coming Soon” trailers to hype The Mouse’s upcoming string of DVD and theatrical releases. What this means, of course, is that you’ll have to sit (or skip) through each of these “Coming Soon” ads before getting to the proverbial “meat and potatoes” of the featured attraction… that way The Mouse will have already planted the seeds on what DVDs kids should ask their parents for next by the time the feature attraction gets underway.

“Why does this matter to us,” you ask? After all, we’re all competent young adults who are more than capable of hitting the “skip” button once or twice, right?

Maybe so, but the fact that Disney has chosen to “streamline” the DVD for “Mom-and-Dad-user-friendliness” means that a few concessions had to be made in order to churn the film out to the target audience (families with young kids) in as timely and efficient a manner as would best suit them. Those concessions, of course, meant that Disney/Pixar decided to nix the bonus disk usually loaded with “making of” featurettes and all sorts of behind-the-scenes peeks into the technical specs and animation secrets that make this film just so visually appealing in the first place. After all — Disney wouldn’t want to bog down a “drop-and-play” technology with a bunch of bonus materials that’s likely to bore your average grade-schooler to tears.

What this means, then…

Is that for as good as the Ratatouille DVD is (and indeed the quality of the feature film itself alone makes the purchase of the disc more than worthwhile), diehard animation fans and Disney-buffs alike could well find themselves somewhat disappointed in the relative lack of “bonus” material that usually makes videos from the Pixar collection so appealing in the first place. Sure, the existing disc *does* include a few animated shorts, a featurette or two, and a handful of deleted scenes — but the available bonus materials can *easily* be polished off in under an hour’s time, which probably means (in all likelihood) that we Disney fanatics and hardcore animation buffs out there can be reasonably assured that a “bigger and better” (and more expensive, especially if you’ve already bought this first DVD edition of the film) expanded version of the movie will likely be in the works for some time on down the line.

The 411

The film? Incredible, and easily the best Disney production of the past decade. The extras? Cute and enjoyable for what they are — but nowhere near comprehensive, and a pretty clear indication that Disney fans will be asked to pony up the dough for a new-and-improved release of the flick sooner than later. My advice? Pick up the movie on DVD format *only* and hold off for a while until you make the investment in a HD/Blu-Ray edition of the same. That way, when you *do* upgrade to the “higher quality” format a few years from now, you’ll be rewarded with an updated re-release of the movie, complete with a boatload of new (and never-before-seen) “extras” that will help ease the blow of shelling out double the cost for essentially two copies of the same feature film. Though again, it really is that good a film that paying double for it might not seem all that crazy after you’ve had the chance to watch it again.

Overall Score: 9.5