LOS ANGELES -- More than any other Pixar animation, the sophisticated cooking comedy Ratatouille came closest to disaster.
Tomorrow, however, it arrives on DVD as an artistic triumph, scoring one of the highest critical rankings of 2007. Deservedly so, even though it is geared to an older crowd than Pixar's Finding Nemo, Monsters, Inc. or the Toy Story franchise (so it may not delight your youngest children).
Ratatouille, the inspirational story of a Paris sewer rat who yearns to be a gourmet chef, is also a success. Worldwide box office is now a handsome $554 million, justifying the $150 million budget.
But what happened in between the moment of potential disaster -- with the storytelling faltering, original director Jan Pinkava was jettisoned with just 18 months to go and replaced with Brad Bird of The Incredibles fame -- and now is nothing short of a miracle for an animation.
The word "disaster" does not sit well with producer Brad Lewis, a six-year Pixar veteran. "That maybe wouldn't be the way that I would verbalize it," Lewis tells Sun Media.
"I think all of our films, at one time or another, have been really bad films along the way. You just look at them and go: 'Holy crap, this is going to be terrible!'
"In this case, it took a slightly more drastic change (to fix it) and mostly that was because of where we were in the process. At 18 months to go, you can't take any more chances. With Brad Bird, you're not taking a huge chance: The guy is one of the most talented in the business."
Lewis' insights on Ratatouille are echoed by John Lasseter, the Pixar co-founder and filmmaker who now runs the animation departments at both Pixar and the parent Walt Disney Studios.
"Every single movie we've created has had times when it truly is the worst motion picture ever made," says the man who directed Toy Story and, more recently, Cars. "You sit there and look at the story reels and go: 'This is terrible!'
"But we don't say it's a problem. We don't say it's a train wreck. We don't say we're in trouble or going down in flames. We just know this is part of the process. And we work and continue to work until it's good, because we wouldn't have started it if we didn't believe it could be great."
The artistic struggle on Ratatouille is not delved into on the DVD. Instead, Pixar keeps it fun. The standard DVD has Bird introducing his deleted scenes and hooking up with famed California chef and French good specialist Thomas Keller in his kitchen at the French Laundry.
There is also an hilarious alien abduction short, the Oscar-nominated Lifted, plus another short in traditional 2D animation, Your Friend the Rat, which is a funny yet science-serious story about the history of rats among humans. It even singles out Alberta for its success in repelling invasion rat species.
The high definition Blu-ray DVD, which also comes out tomorrow, adds to the extras. Those specials include the Gusteau Gourmet Game in which you help out Linguini in the kitchen.
DVD is crucial in the life of a film today, says Brad Bird. "I'm the guy who made The Iron Giant, so I know!" That stunning animation was a box-office flop after being mishandled by Warner Bros., but it gained a life on DVD in subsequent years and become a legend. Bird then migrated to Pixar at the request of Lasseter, his old college buddy.
Bird, says Lasseter, knows how to give characters heart. "Humour, I'm never worried about. We're a bunch of funny nuts so we can makes things funny."
Giving the characters heart is the key to a Pixar animation, Lasseter says. "That, to me, comes directly from character growth of the main character."
In this film, the hero is the rat Remy, voiced by comedian Patton Oswalt. Oswalt has a repuation for spontaneous riffing. But he did not have to in this movie.
"I didn't add a single thing to it. I read what he wanted me to read. Why do I need to add my BS to this perfect script? If I just read it as is, people will think I'm great."
