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Your Friend the Rat

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Your Friend the Rat (2007)

November. 06,2007
|
7
|
G
| Animation Family
Rent / Buy
Buy from $1.99

Let's face it, rats are not the most beloved creatures on earth. However, maybe this little tale about the history of human and rat interaction will change the world's tune. At least that is the hope of Remy, the star of Ratatouille, and his reluctant brother Emile as they guide us through world history from a rat's perspective. Why can't we all just get along?

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Reviews

BlazeLime
2007/11/06

Strong and Moving!

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ReaderKenka
2007/11/07

Let's be realistic.

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Arianna Moses
2007/11/08

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

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Rexanne
2007/11/09

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

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TheLittleSongbird
2007/11/10

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

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Michael_Elliott
2007/11/11

Your Friend the Rat (2007) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Very funny and highly entertaining "learning" films has the rats from Pixar's RATATOUILLE telling us the history of rats and explaining why humans should make peace with them. We get to learn various things like how they help us in science experiments, how they are worshiped in India and we get to learn about their earliest days on Earth. I was really shocked to see how funny this short was and it really wanted to make me watch the feature, which I'm sure is a good thing. There were several jokes that had me laughing out loud including the wonderful one where the rats were hit with an atomic bomb and we're told they suffered no side effects but then we see them walk out with three heads on the one body. The black plague sequence was also extremely funny as well as the scenes where we learn that rats can get into your home by the toilet. I enjoyed that they also mixed up the animation a little here as it wasn't all CG. The final joke with the rats trying to keep the disclaimer off the screen also worked very well.

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khrome23
2007/11/12

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.

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bob the moo
2007/11/13

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.

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