Logan Simon
Dr. Waggoner
Intro Comp
10/31/16
Ratatouille
Like
every Disney movie, Ratatouille is a
movie meant to inspire our youth. When it came out in 2007, I was a part of
that youth. Ratatouille appears to be
a simple movie about a rat who is gifted with an extraordinary sense of smell
and uses it to become a chef. As I’ve gotten older and gained more knowledge, I
know now that it’s impossible for a rat to actually become a chef. However, as
kids watch this movie, the underlying message is simple: anything is possible.
There are many great themes to this film, but there are also a lot of negative
messages that should never appear in a children’s movie.
Along
with the aforementioned positive message, some other positive themes are to
believe in yourself and to not let anybody stop you from pursuing your dreams.
As a part of the rat community, Remy is looked down upon by his father for
taking an interest in a human activity. His brother hangs by his side, warning
him about his father’s words to stay away from the kitchen and the cookbooks,
but Remy doesn’t care. Eventually, Remy befriends a young chef in a French restaurant.
When the food critic finds out his food is being made by a rat, he immediately
wants to shut down the restaurant. However, Remy believed in his abilities and
persuaded the critic to give him one shot. Remy took this opportunity to make
his signature dish, and got to live out his dream.
A very
noticeable negative theme is the presence of domestic violence. The movie
includes a scene with a couple arguing and the man grabbing a hold of the woman’s
arms. The woman responds by screaming and pointing a gun at the man. As Remy
continues to walk, he hears a gunshot go off. Though nobody was hurt, the man
is then seen trying to kiss the woman. The woman resists, but the man is
persistent enough for her to give in. This scene puts images in kids’ brains
that when you’re in a relationship it’s okay to grab your partner and point a
gun at them. Another scene shows a grandma firing a gun at will trying to kill
rats. When she first sees the rats, there’s no hesitation from her. She
immediately goes to grab her gun, unloads a case of bullets, and then continues
to shoot.
Overall,
Ratatouille is an excellent movie. I
enjoyed it as a kid, and I enjoyed watching it now as a college student. There
are some really great things kids can learn from this movie, but there’s also
some things that shouldn’t have been included. The messages about pursuing your
dreams, following what you love, and always believing in yourself are great
themes that even adults can still use today. However, the scenes involving
domestic and sexual violence have no place in a kids’ film. With a G rating,
parents should feel okay taking their children to this movie and not have to
worried about them getting scared, but that’s hard when these kinds of scenes
take place. Personally, I didn’t pay attention to the violent scenes as a kid,
as there are only a few of them, and I’m sure the majority of children don’t
either. The movie has a happy ending, and I believe the positive messages are
much more prevalent than the negatives.
As a kid who also enjoyed this film, I can say that I agree with all the points you made about this film. As a child, I did not necessarily remember those negative scenes, but looking back on it some of the scenes were inheritantly promoting negative actions. Especially the point about Domestic Violence as that is a huge issue in our culture today and is not something that should be represented as "okay" to youth audiences. Overall, I thought this was a well done and thought out blog post.
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