great movie

While I enjoyed the movie, no one has mentioned what I thought was a pretty disturbing scene near the beginning. As Remy (the rat) is scampering through the rooftops of Paris, he observes a couple in a heated argument. By heated, I mean the man is grabbing the woman's arms and she is screaming and pointing a gun at him. Remy keeps going, and then there's the sound of a gunshot. Remy returns to see that the gun has gone off, the couple is still struggling, but then the man overpowers the woman and kisses her, she struggles at first and then seems to be overcome with passion and stops resisting and becomes what one may assume is a willing participant. I was a little disturbed by the domestic and sexual violence (physical struggle, forced embrace) presented in the scene, and think that for children, this would be an important point to address, and something to know about should you/your children be survivors of family violence.

While the animation was amazing in this film, overall I felt much of the content was too deep and/or dark for a G rating. There were several incidents involving gun usage (Remy see a domestic dispute involving a gun) and other forms of aggression (Collette pins Linguine down with knives). The characters don't speak to each other very nicely. Most disturbing of all was when Remy's dad takes Remy to a shop whose window is filled with dead rats hanging in traps. It was upsetting to my 4 year old. I also think that many of the complexities of the message regarding stealing and giving credit where credit is due are too nuanced for small children to understand.

I took my 3 and 5 year olds to see this movie. I would not have taken them had I seen it first. There is a LOT of violence and implied violence, including gunshots, knives, and abduction (two bound and gagged characters whose later release is not shown nor made clear enough for young viewers). The language (stupid, idiot, loser, shut up) was a problem, too. Parents of kids under 8 should preview this film. I don't allow my children to play with "toy" weapons, threaten others, or use impolite language. There is one mild "love" scene with kissing, but nothing that kids haven't already seen Mom and Dad do in the kitchen. The main problem is the violence. Think twice about taking preschoolers or young grade schoolers.

Interesting idea, but missed the mark of creativity achieved by The Incredibles, Toy Story and Monsters, Inc. I am concerned that the phrase "welcome to hell" is used in a G-rated movie. I am concerned that the main character is an illegitimate child, born out of wedlock, only discovered when his famous father died. G-rated movies, rated thus for safe family viewing, need to reinforce strong family values.

It was okay. There is some violence and drinking.

The last Pixar movie I saw was Finding Nemo, and then I decided I had grown out of Disney movies. Then my sister dragged me to this, and I was pleasantly surprised. I'm 12, and I still thought this was fantastic. But parents, be warned; lots of violence (including guns and kitchen violence)and some drug reference (wine.) Other than that, bring your kids to this and enjoy!

There are a couple of scenes that could have been left out (the dead rats in mousetraps hanging, stomachs to the window, in a dark storefront window at nighttime in the rain - scared my kids) and the overly long gun scene at the beginning. The animation is awesome, and the story/message is great. I also personally didn't like hearing the father rat say "Shut up" to his son. All in all though, it is nice to see a Disney movie that has a G rating that is appropriate for little kids. The movie is one we enjoyed enough to buy the DVD.

This was my 4-year-old son's first real movie-theatre movie. It was a mixed bag from his point of view, not interesting enough to hold his attention for the whole time (he announced he wanted to leave about 3/4 of the way through). He has watched "Cars" over and over again, but this one seemed to leave him cold. [SPOILER FOLLOWS] I was surprised that the "social behavior" category in the CSM review didn't mention the very central plot point that Linguini is Gusteau's son with his, ahem, very close friend, Madame Linguini. "Madame" means that she was a married woman, and her last name means that it wasn't to Gusteau. Very French, but not very kid-friendly, although if your kids are old enough to notice it, they might ask and give you a chance to talk to them about what it means to be faithful to your spouse (and not). Tricky territory, and not exactly suited for discussion with young ones. Skinner plying Linguini with wine could be a questionable scene for no-alcohol households, but possibly also a good opportunity for discussion afterwards. Speaking of Skinner, my son found him very scary for some reason. Maybe it was all those close-ups of his big teeth and pencil-thin moustache. ;)