Another Orange Wednesday, another 2 for 1 film for Dave and Jean. This time it was Pixar's new movie Ratatouille.
Before the movie, Pixar gave an incredibly funny Pixar short about an Alien learning to drive a spaceship. Although probably less than 5 minutes in length, this short alone was worth the entrance fee. A description is omitted here since it would fail to do it justice and simply spoil it for any who haven't seen.
The movie itself was about a genius/crazy rat named Remy. Genius in that Remy used his hightened sense of smell to become the worlds greatest chef. Crazy in that he was willing to risk his life and the lives of family and friends for food, ingredients and a cook book. Another perculiar character trait of his was his views on stealing, which he refused to do when he was near dying of starvation but was willing to do later to save face in front of his brother. In summary, Remy was odd.
Ratatouille explores very deep issues in a very soft light hearted way. Remy himself is caught between two worlds, neither of which he feels he belongs to. For his family he "pretends" to be a rat, for his love of cooking he pretends to be "human" (via using a simple minded human as a giant puppet, which may seem a bit odd but still makes more sense than him dressing up in clothes and walking on stilts). In addition, he had to deal with the obvious racisim against him and had to work 10 times harder just to be considered equal.
Jean felt Remy was someone she could relate to. Being Chinese in England can very much feel like being a rat in a kitchen at times. Jean often found it hard to adjust to life in the UK. From the occasional snigger from a kid saying, "Ni hao," as he walked past to out-right racist remarks there was always a reminder coming just around the corner that this wasn't home. Even well meaning individuals didn't help with comments such as "I find it really funny when they shout in Chinese." At the same time, Jean had left China for a reason and had grew further away from it with the passing of time. If she couldn't stay and she couldn't leave, what should she do?
Ratatouille looks at all of this, but makes it suitable for children. It keeps the humour coming throughout and some viewers may not even notice the more serious notes. Emile, Remy's brother, is never far from the screen to ensure things don't get to heavy, despite being incredibly overweight himself. Emile is a fun loving rat, never lets things stress him. Eats anything, overweight, absolutely NO taste at all with zero potential of ever being anything remotely like a chef. Here was a character Dave could relate to.
The overall story line was fairly predictable. Useless guy meets crazy mouse, form a cooking team. Guy becomes great head chef, finds female chef, live happily ever after. The "villians" of the story being the former head chef who isn't keen to lose his job and a very strict food critic who works in a coffin shaped office on a skull looking type writer. The comment is made that he is incredibly thin for a man who likes food to which he replies,
"I don't LIKE food, I LOVE it! And I ONLY SWALLOW what I LOVE!"
This reminded Dave of a similar comment Aline had once made during a game of "Truth or Dare", but that was about a rather different topic.
When the movie was over, Dave checked his phone. 1 missed call. Why? Why did he only ever seem to recieve calls when he was in the cinema? How did people know? Was there a website somewhere advertising what times Dave would be unable to answer?
Overall a good film.
