Parent Movie Review: Ratatouille
Ratatouille gets a solid “okay”. Good, not great.
There are some scary parts for very young kids. If you have kids that are sensitive to bad guys and danger then you may want to skip this one. We see a woman firing a shotgun at rats, several car chases, a few harrowing rides on various things. Most disturbing for GG was the sight of dozens of dead rats in mousetraps, hanging up for effect.
I’m not really sure about the main “message” of the movie. I guess it’s kind of “you can do anything, even if it doesn’t seem possible”, but the deeper one seemed to be about friendship and being loyal to your friends. Oh, and not stealing.
As with most kid’s movies, there are a lot of missing parents. Remy the rat (main character) has a dad who is pretty clueless and there is no mother. She’s never mentioned. Another main character has lost both mother and father.
There were a few images that had no place in a kid’s movie – looking in on a random apartment where a woman is holding a gun to a man’s head, there is much anger, she shoots into the ceiling while he is holding her arm, and then she changes her mind and throws the gun down and they embrace in a passionate kiss. I have no idea why anyone thought that would be appropriate for children.
GlitterGirl liked it but didn’t love it. TwinkleToes did lots of pointing and excited breathing.
The animation was very good. There was a good bit of humor thrown in and I laughed a good bit. Out of five crowns, I give it two and a half.
July 10th, 2007 at 8:39 am
RQ,
Thanks for this. DH and I were going to take DD to see this as her first movie, but the more I hear about it, the more I think we’ll wait. I’ve also heard it was a bit long.
Thanks!
July 10th, 2007 at 8:48 am
Shrek the Third is a much better choice for a first movie
http://chinaadopttalk.com/….movie-review-shrek-the-third/
July 10th, 2007 at 8:51 am
Shoot -2 and a half crowns – I am SO dissapointed – the previews looked SO good! I cannot fathom why they would put that stuff in a kids movie! Well Disney, that’s my 2nd huge movie disspointment for the year…Priates 3 was hard to follow (not that it’s a kids movie; it was just a hu?? too)!
Thanks for the reveiw RQ (and for GG and TT updates…I LOVE this blog!)!
twOH
July 11th, 2007 at 9:52 am
Had a similar reaction to this film. My 8-year-old was pretty disturbed by the rats-hanging-by-the-neck scene in particular, definitely gratuitous and out of place in a kids’ film. The weird scene with the gun-brandishing/kissing couple thankfully flew right over her head. For the couple of grisly/weird bits, I think this film would have been more accurately rated PG.
July 14th, 2007 at 9:41 am
I agree it was Ok but not great. Kylee (2yo) was not interested at all— She likes movies with singing– so she played by me and Dad and he let her slip out of the row and she decided to run around the theatre. I was so embarrassed— she is fast. Luckily it was a very small theatre and a matinee with not many people. She loved every minute of “Happy Feet” but this one did not cut it with a 2yo. I wish I had read your review first!
July 16th, 2007 at 9:55 am
Hmmm. My 8 yr. old loved the movie. When the scene with the rats hanging in the window was on, she leaned over to me and said, “looks like the markets in China”.
My kiddo has been back to China a couple times and since I lived in Paris and talk about it a lot, she loved the whole Paris setting (and so did I).
Like anything, I guess it depends on the kid and their experience.