PIXAR @25: Ratatouille "Of mice and men"

What we can be is a million times more than what the majority thinks of us now.

It's another wild imagination for Pixar Animation Studios to pick a rat and let him step foot on the most forbidden place for his kind: the kitchen. But it's another lesson we've come to learn as kids: that "anyone can cook, but only the fearless can be great".

Ratatouille (2007, directed by Brad Bird and Jan Pinkava) introduces Remy the rat (Patton Oswalt), possessing both the talent and the will to become a chef. With the help of his inspiration and owner of Paris's most famous restaurant Chef Gusteau (Brad Garrett), he always takes the risk, do the rat work of stealing spices and food scraps, and cook innovative cuisines food critiques would always beg for. But of course, achieving the chef toque is no easy task.

Remy represents most of us who are bound by our physical differences and the fear of the majority's approval. But then we learn we can always achieve when we believe and take the risks. We learn not to drop off our dreams too easily just because of what other people think of us.

Just like the monster-kid relationship in Monsters Inc. (2001), we witnessed another impossible friendship from a rat and a human being named Linguini (Lou Romano), and especially this time, he could'nt seriously hear Remy talk. But then it also represents a mysterious bonding that somehow, can never be understood by the majority.

The movie also taught us to appreciate the art of cooking, highlighting Remy's exceptional knowledge about food and his biggest challenge yet in cooking for the grumpy food critique Anton Ego (Peter O'Toole). Except that his biggest problem was simply being a rat and no one could possibly imagine themselves gobbling even a delectable cuisine cooked by a rat.

I remembered my dad saying he doesn't care about who cooked the food he's chomping down, or how it's cooked, as long as he didn't see either and it's delicious. The scene when Remy's whole clan were cooking the Ratatouille dish still chills me to the bone when I remember it. If I would ever eat one, I'll just have to remember what my dad said.

What we look like shouldn't matter in a way, as long as we're determined to say that nobody can ever get in the way to reach our dreams.

Ratatouille Fact Sheet

1. The Pixar filmmakers had to tour Paris and research about its cuisines  and the art of cooking to perfectly portray it in an animated film. 

2.  Earning a total of $621M worldwide, Ratatouille also garnered an Academy Award for Best Animated Film and five record-breaking nominations.

3. Director Brad Bird first had his doubts about the peasant Ratatouille dish, not until the legendary French Laundry chef Thomas Keller took his stand in the unique dish.

4. Remy and Bird had one thing in common: they both had the itch to create new things and "add something new to the world."

5. Ratatouille (stirred chunky stew in French) is a French vegetable side dish made of zucchini, eggplants and tomatoes. 

PIXAR @25: The Incredibles "No capes!"

Sometimes when our family becomes our weakness, it becomes our strength.

The movie's inpiration coined from director Brad Bird deeply moved me, as, for some reason I could relate to the concept of being torn between two things and thinking there's nothing left but to choose, when in fact I didn't have to at all.

With Pixar's release of The Incredibles (2004, directed by Brad Bird) came another touching but hilarious feature film for worldwide audiences of all ages. And for the first time our childhood characters were all clad as human beings in real superhero costumes. Another first time? They're a family of supers.

To complete the debut celebration, we witnessed how, surprisingly, heroes were despised after the innocent majority decided Mr. Incredible and the rest of the "mutants" destroyed enough of the city and they should stop their work. "Blending in" became the heroes' motto since then as they hid their identities and powers amongst millions of civilians.

As Bob Parr (aka Mr. Incredible, voiced by Craig Nelson) itched for some action and chased his old dream as a famed superhero, he didn't know the price he'd pay for--his family. Suddenly we witness it's not about saving the city we've long perceived in a hero routine, but saving his family instead.

It didn't take long for Bob to realize he could do what he loves without leaving his family behind, because in times when he's weak, his wife and children were his strength.

I was taught that in a family, it's about giving part of yourself to each one while also leaving a part for your self-growth. When both parties have fully accepted it, the concept of sacrifice and difficult decisions would hardly exist anymore.

"I can't lose you again!" This scene when Bob tried hard to say he wanted to work alone because he couldn't risk losing his family again always makes me cry, thinking how his family could weigh a thousand times more than his passion as a superhero.

I'll never forget Edna's (Brad Bird) comical advice as well, saying there should be no cape in Bob's new suit, given the tragic endings of most heroes because of their capes.

Maybe Bob's family did weigh a lot more than his life-long dream, because his wife and kids were already his dream come true.

THE INCREDIBLES Fact Sheet

1. The movie's inspiration came from director Brad Bird, sewing it from his experiences when he struggled to meet the demands of his family and his mounting opportunities in filmmaking.

2. The Incredibles is the very first Pixar feature film to use human cast, with the character's attitutdes adapted from Bird's family members (click here for detailed story).

3. Pixar created Universal Man, a highly "morphable" model capable of creating hundreds of unique background and side characters for the movie.

4. It reaped an Academy Award for Best Animated Film and Best Sound Editing. It also became Pixar's second highest grossing film with more than $629M in worldwide box office receipts.