DVD Review: Ratatouille

I'll admit I was a bit skeptical when I first heard of Ratatouille. Not only did I hate the title (fearing kids would not be able to pronounce it), but I was a tad grossed out at the thought of a rat cooking food. Maybe it's because I live in New York City; a place where rats commonly frequent the streets and subways, in places where one spots them on a pretty regular basis. Thus, it's hard for us New Yorkers to look fondly upon rats and support them in their culinary dreams. I skipped Ratatouille when it first arrived in theaters, but after plenty of good buzz, decided to catch the flick on DVD -- and boy, am I glad I did.

Ratatouille will go down as one of the great films of 2007, and if there ever was a time to slide an animated film in the Oscar's best picture category, it's now -- and this is the film that should be there. Aside from the actual film (which looks absolutely gorgeous on DVD), the disk also comes with two animated short films (Lifted and Your Friend the Rat), as well as some deleted scenes and a fabulous behind-the-scenes feature called Fine Food & Film with director Brad Bird and Chef Thomas Keller. Ratatouille is also available on Blu-ray, where it comes with some additional features such as a java based game called Gusteau's Gourmet Game and a feature that allows viewers to customize their own behind the scenes experience.

Remy is a rat with some unique taste buds. While his fellow rats spend their lives stealing garbage and eating rotten filth, Remy longs to create his own food and is inspired by a once-famous French chef named Gusteau, who ran a very successful restaurant in Paris until he received one bad review and, eventually, lost his life because of it. When Remy gets separated from his family, he winds up slumming it up in -- where else -- Paris. Eventually he finds his way to Gusteau's old place, teams up with a clumsy bus boy named Linguini (Lou Romano) who may or may not be Gusteau's long lost son, and the two soon go on to WOW all of Paris with their scrumptious dishes. Throw in a romantic interest for Linguini in the form of a beautiful, yet gutsy souse chef, as well as a sinister head chef (and current owner of Gusteau's), and we have a fast-paced charmer that, like a fine wine, will only get better with age. For more, check out our full-length theatrical review of Ratatouille.

Special Features

Unfortunately there aren't any commentary tracks on this disk, but apart from what I listed before, there are a few easter eggs (hint: check the pots on the menu page). Both short films are fun to watch. First up you have Lifted, which originally played before Ratatouille in theaters. The short tells of a green alien who struggles to abduct a sleeping man from a farm house, if only it can figure out which of the UFO's switches is the one it needs to operate in order to beam the human up. From there you have the second short, which isn't really a short film in the way Lifted is; it's more of a comedic history lesson on rats for the kids to watch, hosted by Remy and his brother Emile. What's fun about this piece is that they jump from 3-D animation to 2-D line animation, a little stop-motion stuff and live-action shots as well. It's cute, reminds us of those old school educational videos in a way and lasts roughly eleven minutes.

In the bonus features department we get three deleted scenes, all of which are featured in a rough-cut fashion, blending black and white line animation with some 3-D stuff. None of the scenes really add a whole lot to the story; they're heavy on character development and one such scene was dropped after they decided to have Gusteau's character dead during the film. Originally, according to Brad Bird, he was supposed to be alive throughout. In another scene, Bird talks about how, originally, Remy was supposed to peer out of the chef's hat instead of being able to see through it. Since there were tons of problems with that logic (including questions like: wouldn't the other cooks see him?), they decided to scrap it and make it so Remy could see through the hat. One of the deleted scenes shows that introduction. Finally, there's a piece called Fine Food & Film which goes between interviews with director Bird and Napa Valley chef Thomas Keller. Each talks about their creative process, etc ... -- it's informational, and, for folks who love food like myself, it's worth a watch.

Audio and Video

It's Pixar, so the film looks great. A few scenes Bird wasn't happy with have been touched up since the theatrical release, but you should expect nothing but high quality. Interestingly enough, the film is only offered in its original widescreen theatrical aspect ratio. There's no fullscreen version available, though for those who are still stuck on fullscreen, I highly advise making the switch to widescreen -- it makes for a much more enjoyable watch. As far as audio goes, the DVD offers both Dolby Digital 2.0 and 5.1 surround. Not sure why 2.0 is there, but you may want to check before hitting play that it's set to 5.1 surround since that's what you'll want to watch it with.

Overall, the film is a treat to watch, however with not a ton of extras, I'd look for a special edition DVD to come out fairly soon thereafter. For me, an additional commentary track with Brad Bird would've sealed the deal, but you should still expect plenty of fun and entertainment from the DVD as is.