Objectionable items in (and around) Ratatouille **possible spoilers**

[angipoo]

OK, from the the posts on Dis, my family is in the minority concerning Ratatouille and I will say at the beginning of this post that this is my personal opinion - we DID NOT like the Movie, will NOT be getting the DVD. DD said she would watch it again "only if I had to". Let me say too, that we are very much into Disney and were extremely disappointed in this offering from Disney/Pixar.

My primary goal with this post is to inform parents before thay take their families to the movie that there are some potential objectional things they may want to be aware of. If you don't want to know possible spoilers or may be offended by specific references to objectionable material (I try to inform with the least amount of information necessary) - DON"T read any further (I'm not focusing alot on the plot, but I want to give fair warning).

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Still with me? Ok, here it goes:

1. This may or may not apply to you - it could have just been the particular theater we were in. The previews start and the first preview is for an R-rated movie with J-Lo (El Cantante) and the donkey word for rear end was used twice! Not the way I wanted to start my family movie and I think poor planning on someone's part.

2. During the Pixar short before the movie started there is a scene where a man is stuck in a window and you see about 3-4 second shot of the top half of his rear end.

3. In the movie, there is a scene where Remy is scurrying by an apartment and a woman has a gun pulled on a man and then she shoots it at him (but misses) and then the couple hugs.

4. When Linguini starts work, Skinner says "Welcome to H". This is the second Pixar movie where the h word is used - it was in Cars twice. I'm pesonally surprised that this is allowed in a G rated movie.

5. One of the characters possibly has a child he didn't know about and there are references to DNA testing to find out if he is the father.

6. Skinner gets Linguini drunk on wine.

7. One chef in the kitchen is reported to have been fired from one place after being caught fooling around with a person's daughter.

Again let me say, my goal is to inform. I wish I had known this before I went. I may have changed my mind about going, maybe not, but at least I would have been prepared to talk to my child about these things.

 

[all4fun]

#1 must have been your theater. When we saw it they did a preview of Transformers the movie and Wall.E (a new Pixar film).

#6 Skinner actually got Linguini drunk, not Remy

I was reading this to dh and he thought the part where the couple is fighting, she pulls a gun, fires, and then they hug (#3 on your list) was funny because it was illustrating how passionate parisians are (healthy or not). I admit that part went right over my head until he explained it that way.

 

[angipoo]

Thanks for pointing out the mistake. I edited it!

 

[tink_about_it]

The only one that I didn't care for was #3...other than that, I thought it was great!

 

[my3disneygirls]

I guess it's all a matter of opinon, In Robin Hood the snake gets drunk bacause he was trapped in a booze barrel. I hated Hunchback, I thought that scenes were too suggestive. Little Mermaid, which I love uses the word tramp. That is not something I want my five year old saying.

 

[autumnbaby9]

I haven't seen the movie yet but getting characters drunk is nothing new.

Snake in Robin hood (as already mentioned), Dumbo, Goose in Aristicats and i'm sure there is more....

Disney loves to put in adult refrences in their movies. Keeps the adults entertained while the children get to see the cartoons. More often than not the adult refrences go right over DD's head.

All I can suggest is to wait a couple weeks after a film is released and do some research on it before seeing it. Maybe even go see before the kids to make sure it is appropriate for them.

 

[gary4jenn]

I agree- I liked the movie, but if you removed all the gun scenes, the swear words (or the line that says "if you screw up I'll kill you" which my 4 year old promptly began repeating while in the theater) it would still be a great movie.

I know they want to put "adult" humor/entertainment in the film and I wouldn't even begin to think of myself as a conservative person so I find it disappointing that they decide these types of dialouge and visual violence are necessary.

I LOVE disney, but I really don't appreciate spending my hard earned money to go and have that kind of negative influence pushed on them as acceptable language/behavior.

I will buy the movie but I will remind my kids at each inappropriate part why it is not OK to act that way or say those things.

 

[eeyore3847]

My mother took my 3 and 6 year old to the movie. When they came home my 11 month old was acting crazy ( as babies do) and my 6 year old said - "quiet , I killed a man with this thumb" . Now she said that was in the movie!
I did not see it, but had to tell her twice "don't say that again"
it is kind of like open season which is not disney, but uses the word "bahookie"(sp) instead of But*. I don't mind that , but whe nmy 6 year old says her brother is a pain in her "bahookie" to another mom, It is time to put the DVD away for a while.

 

[angipoo]

I agree- I liked the movie, but if you removed all the gun scenes, the swear words (or the line that says "if you screw up I'll kill you" which my 4 year old promptly began repeating while in the theater) it would still be a great movie.

I know they want to put "adult" humor/entertainment in the film and I wouldn't even begin to think of myself as a conservative person so I find it disappointing that they decide these types of dialouge and visual violence are necessary.

I LOVE disney, but I really don't appreciate spending my hard earned money to go and have that kind of negative influence pushed on them as acceptable language/behavior.

I will buy the movie but I will remind my kids at each inappropriate part why it is not OK to act that way or say those things.

Well put and I totally agree! Why do "kids' movies HAVE to entertain adults and where is written that entertaining adults HAS to include crude humor or negative language or behavior? Movies made years ago could reference all kinds of situations without being crude - like Cary Grant movies.

We went to see Curious George because DD wanted to. It ws sweet, cute and I don't remember anything that jumped out at me as possibly objectionable. Was it a movie I would have chosen on my own? No, but we took our daughter because we enjoy the big theater movie experience and we try to take the opportunities to go.

I am going to write Disney and let them know how disappointed we were in this film.

 

[laceemouse]

We haven't seen the movie yet, and my kids are older, but I think most folks with complaints about "movie these days" seem to have forgotten what cartoons were like way back when we were kids. Most of the old movies had death in them (Bambi) lots of movies and cartoons had drinking and smoking (Pinocchio) and Bugs Bunny was often seen in drag! Does that make it alright? Well, not really. I just think many people are looking back at the "good old days" with rose colored glasses on!
I do agree, though, that it should be okay for kids movies to be geared towards kids. We did not let our kids see Shrek when they were very young, but now we all enjoy it (the third one was not so good, but we enjoyed the other two.) I agree with the PP who said maybe concerned parents need to read the reviews at plugged-in or even preview the movie before letting their kids see it. I have to say, we have never had a problem with our kids copying what they hear in movies, just lucky I guess!
As far as the previews shown with the movie, I would complain to the theater. We have never had an experience like that at a family movie, they had lots of options for appropriate previews!

 

[Merriwind]

One resource I really like is Dove.org. They review all movies and include ratings for sex, violence, nudity, drugs and other. At the end of the review is exactly why they gave them the ratings they did, how many of the h-word, what nudity, etc.

I use it before seeing any movie. I find them a little conservative on the overall ratings--if it's approved for ages 12+ many times I have through the details and decided the movie is fine for DD9.

If you use it, you can avoid unpleasant surprises at the movies.

 

[jessica52877]

I have NOT seen this movie, but I will say I am tired of kids films having all this stuff in it. My child doesn't need exposed to these types of scenes in a G rated movie (is that what this is?). I even think PG is a stretch for putting it in. Call me old school though. There is alot in other disney and other studios films that I find atrocious. There is nothing I can do but not watch the movie though if I disagree that strongly. Unfortunately usually you do not know of all the bad until it is seen. Thanks for the warning.

 

[design_mom]

One resource I really like is Dove.org.

I haven't used dove.org (I'll have to check it out), but another online source is www.pluggedinonline.com. (It's run by Focus On Family. I don't always agree with FOF, but their reviews are very specific about what they liked/didn't like, so I can read it and decide what's important to me.) Their review of Ratatouille is here: http://www.pluggedinonline.com/movies/movies/a0003288.cfm They mentioned quite a few of your concerns in their review.

We haven't seen Ratatouille (yet), but I had similar concerns about Cars. My then 5yo picked up on "hillbilly h-e-double-l" right away. And I didn't think the h-word, "tractor tipping," or Sally Cararra's tatoo added *anything* for adults or children. Sigh. But, overall, I really like the Disney Pixar stuff.

 

[tchrrx]

Just back from the theater. I will say, this is my least favorite Pixar movie. Not b/c of the 'objectionable' things, just b/c I didn't really care for it. DD7 did ask me halfway through the film, "What's wine?" I told her it was a type of alcohol, but she wanted to go into a deeper conversation. She knows that we disagree with drinking, so I'm sure she was wondering why it was happening in this movie. (The 'drunk' scenes in Robin Hood & Dumbo don't actually show them drinking do they? I thought they both just ended up in a jug. This movie actually calls it wine. Linguini says he doesn't drink, but the other guy talks him into it...)

 

[Tikicampers]

The previews are what bother me the most. We went to see a free kids movie at our local theater, and they had a preview for the Nanny Diaries movie. The last line in the preview was "You didn't tell us you knew a nanny, that's so (insert word for a very adult movie that most people wouldn't watch)." DS is so little, he didn't notice it, but I was upset. This is part of a kids summer movie program.
The Catholic Bishops also have a movie ratings site that gives more detailed information than your usual review. If you search google for Catholic movie reviews it should come up.

 

[Tam1067]

The previews are the movie theatre's choice, not Pixar's. When we saw Ratatouille, we saw previews for "Underdog" and a couple of other kid movies, and that's it.

I also really liked "Ratatouille" and would much prefer to hear a "hell" (to denote a place, not a swear word) or see the top of an animated sleeping guy's rear end than see smoking glorified which has been done in many, many films including Disney movies, throughout the years. I mean everyone has a rear end, and we've all seen them! There's nothing sexual about it in the Pixar short, either. But that's just me.

 

[Ali]

Slight hijack.....YOu know, I have these same objections, and I always read a review before we go to a movie, so because of that my 6 year old DS has seen only a few movies in a theater - CARS, Ice Age 2 (he saw ice age 1 at school when he was 3, unbeknownst to me), and Over the Hedge ( he was scared of the Bear and never wanted to see it again).

The problem with this is that he is already socially ill-equipped to deal with small-talk type stuff at lunch and recess times with the other kids due to his ASD issues, and me keeping him away from movies ALL the other kids see means he has even less to talk about with them. I don't know what to do here so I just stay away from the movie theater and we rent movies occasionally. We still haven't seen any of the Shrek movies, or any of the Star Wars movies, or just about anything else.

If anyone has any suggetions please let me know.

 

[angipoo]

The previews are the movie theatre's choice, not Pixar's.

That's why I said it may not apply, I wasn't sure.

 

[o2bacelt]

The scene with the couple, the gun and the kiss is a reference to an obscure film noire movie series, the three colors of white, the three colors of red and the three colors of blue.

I appreciate that Pixar is trying to entertain everyone. I love the obscure references and the outright hysterical charaterizations of things in their movies. It takes me several watches of a movie to get all the references and I still find some in older movies that I missed before.

Both my husband and I thought the movie was hysterical, my husband is a european and I lived overseas, and we both think the references are all spot on. The small apartment that Linguini lives in had my husband laughing since he swears he rented that place. The Ego character references several characters and the shape of his room is also another refeence to another character (the room is shaped like a coffin.)

I also loved the movie since I used to want to be a chef and I had worked in the restaurant business for years. The "Welcome to H" is right on in the restaurant trade and Collette's reference to being an "old boys club" is so right on. Skinner's Napolionic disorder is hysterical and between he and Gusteau they reference just about every chef on the planet.

I can understand the point of view of everyone having different levels of comfort with their children. We all have to do what we think is right.

 

[Mulan'sWarrior]

I was uncomfortable with the beginning of Happy Feet- good music but THANK GOD my children didn't know what the music was really about

Sally's tatoo in Cars could have been left out.

Saw Shrek 1 and 2 last week- I liked it but didn't appreciate all the "****" words and didn't like the cat being called p**** and the part where he was licking himself- my kids went on and on about that

Childrens movies need to be childrens movies- I don't want them to entertain me I want them to entertain the children in a clean way. Thats my 2 cents worth....