Dein Freund, die Ratte

Remy and Emile, those two lovable rats from RATATOUILLE, offer a brief course in how rats spread around the world. They divide rats into two species: black rats and Norwegian rats (the latter not coming from Norway). This is false. As I learned at my mother's knee, rats come in three varieties: rats; rats with wings (pigeons); and rats with furry tails (squirrels). I'm sure the Walt Disney Company and their employees would not argue with my mother. No one ever did successfully.

Animated in a a variety of styles, this very amusing cartoon shows what happens when you work on a movie about cuddly rats for years on end.

As a previous owner of fancy rats, I thoroughly enjoyed this accurate recap of the history of rats, and the artists' humorous take on it. Rats are a misunderstood species, given their connection to the plague. I think what the writers were trying to do was to point out to Westerners that our view on rats is based on generations of fear and bad information. It's unfortunate that the tone sounded "stuffy" or "preachy" to the other reviewers - I personally didn't think it did at all. Perhaps people were just not expecting a history lesson.

Rats make great pets - they are independent like cats, smart and loyal like dogs. It still amazes me when people would come over to my house and be shocked that my rat has the run of the place. And shocked that she comes to me when I call her name. I've had to tell them many of the things that were in this film - now I can just refer them to this film and not have to repeat myself over and over.

Aside from the content, the animation was great - a mix of CGI and traditional styles. I love the angular look of the traditional segments, which were reminiscent of the style of Chuck Jones.

This is an extra from the DVD release of RATATOUILLE. It is a documentary about rats that some might find stuffy--like some sort of public service lecture or an episode of BILL NYE THE SCIENCE GUY. However, since I am a history teacher, I liked it--particularly the segment on the Black Death. Plus, while the text of the film is indeed dull, the graphics and laughs are excellent (I particularly liked the obscure reference to Francois Truffaut). Interestingly, while the movie RATATOUILLE is pure CG, this features what looks like traditional hand-drawn animation--and very high quality animation it is. So even if you don't like the topic or dialog, you can't help but respect the animation.

Who says learning can't be fun?

This short film was on the Ratatouille DVD as an additional extra. On other Pixar DVD's the character driven shorts tended to be funny and like mini-films (eg Mike's New Car) and I expected the same from this one as well. The clue is in the title though because this film is actually a sort of educational piece presented by Remy and Emil. In the film they make the plea for rats as being grossly misrepresented by record and perception. To remedy this they present the history of the rat, where it came from and why it has gotten such a bad reputation down the years.

It is a clever chance of pace for the added short film because it takes the creative humour of Pixar and makes a bit of an attempt to do something new. For me it mostly works and I found it to be quite interesting but not at the expense of entertainment value. The laughs are not that strong but the style of delivery means it is continually amusing. Talking of style of delivery the main thing I liked about it was that the animation was a lot more creative and impressive that the all-CGI film itself. Yes, the CGI is quite brilliant as usual but I appreciated the mix of styles and techniques employed here. Not sure if it was deliberate to achieve this but to me it felt like the studio reminding the viewer that it is not the computers that make all this seem easy so much as the animators behind it – regardless of style.

Overall then, not a hilarious short film but an interesting and entertaining one. Amusing throughout, the simplified run through history is well presented but for my money what makes it worth seeing is the range of animation styles all coming together in this film.

I like Pixar very much, and I very much enjoyed Your Friend the Rat. I do prefer the movie Ratatouille, but this short film does compliment it quite well. It mayn't be one of Pixar's very best, I think there are Pixar short films with a little more heart(ie. Geri's Game and Presto), though Your Friend the Rat is not devoid of that quality, and I can see where people are coming from when they say it's a tad stuffy. However, it is one of Pixar's most interesting, mainly for the structure of the story and how much it teaches and the wonderful animation and the techniques used. Your Friend the Rat also has moments where it is funny, the black plague sequence is for me the highlight of the short, the characters are delightful and the voice work is solid. All in all, I personally put other Pixar short films over this one, but it is still very interesting, and not one to be ignored. 8/10 Bethany Cox