Ratatouille – first peek

I watched Ratatouille about two weeks ago when I was in Bangkok. I was pleasantly surprised when I found out yesterday that it has not been screened in Singapore yet. This would mean I am one of the first in Singapore to have seen Pixar‘s latest offering (minus those thieves who watched it on pirated DVD or peer-to-peer filing sharing). Yippee!

It’s a great movie! Pixar never fails to disappoint (except Cars (2006) which was too Americanised).

The movie is about a rat who aspires to be a chef, and a young kitchen helper who can’t cook. Both of them discover in each other a complement and establish an extraordinary co-dependent relationship. The rat needs the boy to be his puppet in the kitchen and the boy needs the rat to help him cook so that he can keep his job.

It was a brave step for Pixar to star a rat as lead, as rats have never been marketable unless their features are vastly distorted e.g. Mickey Mouse and Jerry (of Tom & Jerry). If you look at the poster above, the rat in Ratatouille is a realistic replica of one – long snout, dirty hair and long tail. What’s worse, putting a rat together with food – not to mention fine dining – imagine posters on McDonalds or Burger King advertising rat toys as Ratatoullie giveaways. Mothers would freak.

There’s artistic integrity here as opposed to pragmatic marketing concerns.

I took some photographs in the cinema as I find it interesting to watch a Hollywood production with Thai subtitles. Here are the pictures.

Don’t look at me like that, I’m cookin’, not stealing!

Which herb goes best with my cheese that has an unpronounceable atas name?

The human is coming – let’s run!

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