Ratatouille and Cars Pixar Pop-up Pack (2 Discs) [2006] - Region 2 DVD

Ratatouille

As good a film as Pixar has ever put out, Ratatouille is a frantic, innovative movie, boasting some of the finest quality animation ever put on the screen. The film tells the story of wannabe-chef Remy The Rat, who becomes drawn into the mantra of legendary cook Gusteau, that anyone can cook. The deceased Gusteau's ghostly image appears to Remy and guides him to his restaurant, whose standards have been slipping since his death. Remy, through the manipulation of a lowly restaurant worker called Linguini, soon starts secretly cooking the food, and this unusual set-up proves to be a trove of treasures that Pixar carefully picks through.

Ratatouille's trick is to tie its cutting edge animation techniques to old-school essentials. At times harking back to the frenetic style you'd expect of Chuck Jones, it threads an original narrative through its story, which itself is packed with memorable characters (none more so than Peter O'Toole's superbly-voiced restaurant critic). It perhaps runs a little too long, but it's so well-written and so lavishly entertaining that it's a churlish complaint to have.For in an era of cynically-produced family movies, Ratatouille is really something special. With an appeal that spreads across generations, and a quality that puts it right up there with Pixar's finest, it's an outstanding piece of cinema, and one set to be enjoyed for many, many years. Unmissable. --Simon Brew

Cars

There's an extra coat of hot wax on Pixar's vibrant, NASCAR-influenced comedy about a world populated entirely by cars. Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson) is the slick rookie taking the Piston Cup series by storm when the last race of the season (the film's high-octane opening) ends in a three-way tie. On the way to the tie-breaker race in California, Lightning loses his way off Route 66 in the Southwest desert and is taught to stop and smell the roses by the forgotten citizens of Radiator Springs. It's odd to have such a slim story from the whizzes of Pixar, and the film pales a bit from their other films (though can that be a fair comparison?).