Disney Sundays
For some reason, I get into a Disney mood each Sunday. After coming home from church, I tend to want to watch a Disney animated movie or consume some other Disney content. I also want to look at my budget and plan another trip to the parks. I wasn't really interested much in Disney before getting married. I never thought I'd go to another park and I didn't enjoy most Disney animated movies (or many of the live-action ones). I was even roped into seeing Frozen without knowing what it was and I freaking hate that movie and the resulting fandom. Mostly the fandom. Anyhow, my wife encouraged me to go to Walt Disney World on vacation in 2016 and it was freakin' magical, to say the least. I wish I could go back in time and re-live that vacation. But since I can't, I'll have to just take my wife and daughter again some day soon. Regardless of when I'll make it back there, I tend to get into a Disney mood every Sunday and I'm unsure why.
To try and satiate my Disney mood each Sunday, I've been watching Disney and Pixar animated films. As I recall from my childhood, some of those movies are a little scary or have generally unpleasant moments in them. Some are just bad. I was hoping that each feature would be just as terrific as they are revered to be, but some fall short of their reputation. And then there are the Disney/Pixar animated movies that don't have much of a reputation, and sometimes you learn why that is by watching them.
Today's selection was Ratatouille, a movie I had not seen before. Like I said, I wasn't really interested in this type of movie for years, so I missed this one. Released in 2007, I remember some buzz about this movie upon release. Since Pixar has few misses in their library of animated movies, it doesn't surprise me that there was any amount of buzz about the film. Among a large library of hits such as Toy Story, A Bug's Life, and Cars, there must be some misses, and Ratatouille is definitely a miss. From boring storytelling, uninteresting characters, and a lackluster villain, the movie is just poor quality from start to finish.
The main character is a rat with a unique set of culinary gifts. He eventually teams up with what is essentially a dishwasher at the restaurant of a famous now-deceased chef. By pulling the human's hair, the rat is able to cook popular dishes and receives great acclaim. There's a head chef who doesn't care for this and blah blah blah. It's a stupid plot. Halfway through the movie the villain gets ousted from the restaurant and I thought the movie was over. I was relieved because it was done! But I was wrong! There's still at least a half hour of nonsense before the credits roll. This is a movie I will not be purchasing in any form and I won't be watching again. It's crap and there wasn't even much of a life lesson in it. I know this isn't much of a review, and it's not intended to be. I just wanted to type about how bad Ratatouille is. I would rather watch it than I would Frozen, but at least Frozen had memorable moments.
I guess I'll just have to relegate Disney Sundays to strictly the movies between 1987 and 1999 or something if I want to watch something of relative quality. Otherwise I'll have to just call these Sundays "Budget Sundays" because it will just consist of me adjusting my budget to save for a trip to the parks.