Your Friend the Rat (2007 Video) User Reviews

Some may find it a bit stuffy, but I liked it

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 12 February 2008]

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?

Your Friend The Rat

[jboothmillard · 6/10 · 27 February 2008]

If you have the DVD of Ratatouille, then you would have this short animated "documentary" showing a short history of rats. Presented by brothers (from the film) Remy (Patton Oswalt) and Emil (Peter Sohn), they plead the case for rats by illustrating the historical and scientific facts about the species and their interaction with humans. These include the plague, their strength, being pets, being experimented on - because they have the same combination of organs as humans, and some more stuff. Also starring Lou Romano as Linguini, Tony Russel as Disclaimer Guy, Sigmund Vik as The Norwegian Rat, Jim Capobianco as Director voice and a quick bit of footage from A Bug's Life with John Ratzenberger as P.T. Flea. It is obviously better to see Ratatouille before this. Good!

While not one of Pixar's best, it is one of their most interesting

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 24 February 2012]

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

Entertaining and interesting but particularly of note for the range of animation styles employed

[bob the moo · 4 May 2008]

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.

fun and informative

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 28 May 2016]

Remy (Patton Oswalt) and brother Emile (Peter Sohn) are rats doing a presentation of why rats and people should be friends. It's a Pixar 11 minute companion short to Ratatouille. It explains the Black Rat and the Black Death that came with its flees. They are later pushed out by the Norwegian Brown Rat which came from China. Remy and Emile are Brown Rats. Spreading globally following mankind, they are hunted by humanity.

The chemistry between Remy and Emile is fun. The information is presented in a fun, irreverent way. It's a very nice short and works perfectly accompanying the movie.

Uh...

[TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews · 6/10 · 8 November 2009]

This is one of the two shorts on the 2-Disc Special Edition of Ratatouille. I think it is one of those that you love or hate. It wasn't my cup of tea, but if you're a big fan of the flick itself, you may like it. I get that this may have been fun to do when working for a long time on one project, to blow off some steam, the way special effects people will sometimes playfully do key-frame stuff that obviously will not wind up being used in the film. And I'm, of course, not blind to how many different styles of animation that this uses, and how unusual that is. It is pretty creative, well-edited, never stands still. If you are not up for all the information(which I can neither confirm or deny the truth of, I don't know enough to judge it), or the intentionally and jokingly preachy tone, well, you'd better be up for the comedy, or this will not be for you. The voice acting is fine. I did not personally find this particularly funny, except for maybe the ending, though I can definitely imagine that others will. There's nothing offensive in this. I recommend this solely to those who think this might interest them. 6/10

Rats have no lobby

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 22 June 2015]

But this 11-minute short film tries its best to change that fact. It is connected with Ratatouille, but if you have seen other short films based on Pixar or animated movie in general, these are usually a concrete addition to the story involving some of the main characters. This is not really the case here. The human characters from Pixar are not featured in here, but the rats are. But it's really more of a history lesson to audiences. Remy and Emile give us a short summary of why rats are not as bad as everybody says. This involved references dating back to Queen Vistoria, the Plague and even the Beatles. It's a decent short film all in all, but I would not say it is a must-see, not even for people who loved "Ratatouille". It's just so different than the feature movie, in terms of story as well as animation style. It's very fast and creative, but delivers the information almost too quickly to really remember any of these when the film is over. And I did not like the ending with the rushed-in monologue. Still, a solid watch. By the way, the writer and director is Jim Capobianco, who also worked on the "Ratatouille" screenplay and got an Academy award nomination for his effort there. Do I perceive rats differently now after watching this? No, I don't. But that is only because I liked them before already. A lot.

One of the more ambitious Pixar shorts

[CubsandCulture · 10/10 · 1 January 2021]

This plays more like a Hysteria (1998) segment than anything connected to Ratatouille (2007). I think that's why it has such a low rating here. But for my part I loved it. The educational story is daft, random enough to be really funny and charming; it's really hard to do exposition driven shorts like this and not have them dull. But that is very much not the case here. The short also has a very large visual scope given that it works through several forms and styles of animation. It is all delightful.

All things rat

[Prismark10 · 7/10 · 12 December 2018]

This is a Pixar short to Ratatouille.

It is a broadcast on behalf of the Rat Preservation Society.

Although as you learn that as rats can survive a nuclear explosion, they do not need much aid in preservation.

Remy and his brother Emile tell the audience why rats and humans should be friends as they go through the history of rats and how they have populated the globe.

Funny, informative and nice animation.

History of the Rat

[kosmasp · 8/10 · 13 September 2022]

Or is it year of the Rat? No pun intended - but you will get schooled here (the no pun intended covers this one too, if you were wondering). It has been a minute (way more than that of course), since I watched Ratatouille. But I think this works as standalone too. If you are aware of the bigger picture (again no pun intended).

This is also fairly long for a short movie. And then there is the voice cast - not sure what contracts they have, but I am just glad when they can have the stars do the voices again. You can tell they are having fun too. This takes us on a ride and tells us who is looking at whom and why ... well I won't get too much into it. But of course this is not real life - this is about a fictional world. That may expand parents issues with their kids wanting to have a mouse (or rat) as a pet ... this is the downside when something is so good and/or cute ...

Humorous and Interesting for Various Styles of Animation Employed

[gpeevers · 7/10 · 3 April 2019]

Cute little short assembled partially from all the research that had been done about rats for film Ratatouille. Features Remy and Emil from Ratatouille in there full computer animated form presenting documentary style evidence of their reasons that mankind and rats should get along better. The documentary portions utilize a number of hand drawn animation styles including the Walt Disney Educational films of the 60's and 70's.

The various styles of animation are very evocative and add to the story and the humor.

Ends with a humorous disclaimer (by the producers) about some of the ideas espoused by Remy and Emil, much to their chagrin..

When I circulated a flier recently informing my circle of . . .

[oscaralbert · 8/10 · 16 September 2018]

. . . True Blue Loyal Patriotic Normal Average 99 Per Center Silent Majority Union Label Progressive Working Stiff Citizens that we had an opportunity to view something called YOUR FRIEND THE RAT, most of them assumed it was some sort of recent Fox "News" puff piece concerning our deplorable Game-Show-Host-in-Chief. This seeming foray into the uncharted waters of "Truth in Advertising" on the part of The Storm Trooper Network drew high attendance to our screening of YOUR FRIEND THE RAT. You probably can imagine my chagrin, therefore, when these viewers complained about a "bait and switch" (on either my part, or Pixar's, apparently) over the fact that YOUR FRIEND THE RAT features a couple of literal rodents; NOT the rapacious crew currently looting the U.S. Treasury, wreaking havoc upon our Once Great Homeland's environment, and colluding with the lowest echelons of the Rat Fink Ranks across the globe. However, the graphics used during YOUR FRIEND THE RAT actually DO have a lot to say about the current wildfire-like spread of Rodent Culture across the face of America. "A male and female rat pairing can produce 15,000 descendants within a year," warns the narrator of YOUR FRIEND THE RAT, as animators produce an illustration of a world overrun by these pestilent rodents. If there is any moral to this story, it seems to be that EACH AND EVERY supporter of the current traitorous Rat Regime MUST be rooted out ASAP, deported to Antarctica (which the narrator claims is presently rat-free), and left there for AT LEAST a seven-generation cooling off period (which is A LOT longer in human years than that to which the literal rat population is habituated).

Some good some bad messages

[pancakelover-42820 · 1/10 · 24 December 2019]

Most of it is promoting friendship but near the end it expresses animal testing. Showing through diagrams that rats willingly go into laboratories and are happy doing so. Let alone they enjoy going to space. It makes me sick. Society sees animals as objects and servants to humanity's behalf. People disgust me

If you are a rat lover, you will love this film

[khrome23 · 3 December 2009]

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.

Dreadful messaging

[willow-111 · 1/10 · 21 December 2022]

Great idea to put out a pro-rat 'infomercial', the whistle-stop tour through history was nicely done and there is a lovely range of animation styles...

But the whole thing was ruined for me by the appalling pro-animal testing messaging and repeated references to humans/people as "man".

The whole thing comes across as if it was scripted in the 1980s not the 21st century.... Sorry Disney/Pixar, you need to do better. WE knew better when this short was made and even more so now - it really hasn't aged well. It's disappointing that your output doesn't better reflect current sensibilities and instead perpetuates old fashioned exclusive language and the myth that there is any benefit to torturing animals in the name of science.

Very Funny Rat-istry Lesson

[Michael_Elliott · 12 December 2009]

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.

It was great humor and you get the answer to why people hate mice

[MK_Movie_Reviews · 5/10 · 23 August 2021]

This is rat history of all over the world. Nobody likes rats including me, but Mickey Mouse is the superstar of all the time.

And this short film taught us why mice are clever creatures.