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Studio:Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment

Director:Brad Bird

Amazon.co.uk Review

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

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Accessories

• Ratatouille Original Soundtrack

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Reviews

- Ratatouille

This was the best family film I saw all year in 2007. What seems at first a simple story about a rat who wants to cook, turns out in fact to be something more, deeper and more subtle. It was funny, charming, and also very touching. The animation was truly stunning and both my husband and children aged 5 and 8 loved it. Wonderful.

- Brilliant and touching

I was less than enthusiastic when my husband brought this one home, but what a magical few hours it turned out to be. I adored this tale of Remy, his wonderful clan, acerbic father, genial, dotty brother and all. The human characters were equally as warmly portrayed, genuinely likeable. The villains had a touch of style, too. And there were many moments that had myself and my husband laughing out loud, some of them very subtle. (I loved the fact that the rats, when threatened, ran TO the boats, for example. A fun twist on rats leaving sinking ships!) I even cried at the happy ending. One we'll watch again. Treat yourselves!

- Definitely one of the best films of 2007

I had some reservations about seeing this film. To be honest, knowing it was about a rat, and that the title was Ratatouille put me off - it seemed too obvious from that alone. I was quite wrong. This is an excellent Pixar movie. I loved the critic - I couldn't help but think the character was based on Will Self - and the whole concept of the story - its very easy to knock / criticise something, its far harder to actually get out there and make something I think can resonate across all age groups. As usual for Pixar, superb animation, and I think setting the film in Paris added to the movie, I thought the human characters were far more multi-dimensional than other animated movies I've seen over the past few years. An excellent animated movie, up there with the Incredibles for the genre in my opinion.

- Delicious!

My husband & I saw this at the Cinema (without our children) and loved it! The story of Remy, the rat with a genius for cooking is fantastic. It moves along at a cracking pace using all the creative, high energy, visual effects that you would expect from PIXAR but without losing emotional connection. SPOILER Alert: The morality story of how this lowliest, most vilified of creatures has the talent and finds the spirit to climactically topple the opinion of society's most revered judge, the aptly named food critic Anton Ego (superbly voiced by the one and only Peter O'Toole - who undergoes his own journey of transformation) is wonderfully uplifting. As others have mentioned the sight of a kitchen crawling with rats is so uncomfortable, that it also makes you question your own prejudices, and whether you really believe that `Anyone can cook'. There is a wonderful extra on the DVD where Remy and his brother explain the bad press rats have had and how The Plague was not their fault...!

Then of course there is the sensory experience in the film. A lovely depiction of the sights, sounds and smells of Paris, the wonderful way Remy tries to explain flavour and fusion of flavours to his brother depicted by colour and music and not least, the food preparation itself. You can almost taste the soup and of course the fantastic ratatouille that Remy prepares at the end.

By the way a tip if like us, you have children under 10. They loved the DVD with the English-descriptive setting turned on (initially by accident, but hey!). This narrative fills in many of the visual cues that they would otherwise miss.

Lifted - the failed alien abduction was hilarious and is also included on the DVD along with loads of other fascinating extras.

Entertaining, taste-bud and thought-provoking stuff, top marks.

- An amazing film and blueray, simply the best !

Wow .. what an absolutly stunningly buitifull film ratatouille is ! The story is as meaningfull as it is funny and will have you laughing and crying at the same time ! The visuals are amazing and the hi-def animation is a wonder to just watch ! but luckly for us we have ears so we can hear the awsom surround sound that this film offers as well. Disney have realy out done them selves with the quality of this blueray and I found my self on many occasions just pausing the film so i could walk up to my screen and just look at the detail !! which on occasion is just daw dropping !
The extra features are, as usual from disney plentafull, very well thought out and give you plenty of things to watch and play with.
You must buy this film, not doing so is doing yourself, your hi-def telly and your bluray player an injustice ! This is what HD was made for !

What I watched it on.
Panasonic 42px60 (plasma 1080i)
playstation 3 blu-ray player (HDMI)
JVC th-v70r surround sound (optical) (dolby digital 5.1) (inc tannoy m1 front L/R speakers)