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15 October 2007
Ratatouille Beautifully made; but it fails on one crucial level: kids don't really enjoy it. →[More:] I thought it was good; it's a swipe at class warfare and elitism. It is, however, too subtle and maybe too earnest to really entertain the audience its being marketed to.
I thought the same about The Incredibles. I was enthralled by that movie; it was gorgeous and witty and, well, incredible. My daughter was bored. I separate my DVDs from hers on the DVD shelf, and The Incredibles is in my section.
Ratatouille had a bit of the same problem, but not to the same extent, IMO. I think it could have succeeded with the kids much more just by cutting 15-20 minutes.
Huh, it never really occured to me that children wouldn't like Ratatouille, although I suppose that makes sense, given some of the grownup themes (letting down your family, aesthetic snobbery, etc). Wonder how well the toys sold... I can't imagine a kid saying, oooo, Daddy, Daddy, buy me a stuffed rat!
Huh. My daughter adored both Ratatouille and The Incredibles. Her current obsession is PeeWee's Playhouse (she howls with laughter), so her tastes are a bit atypical.
She's still a young 'un. She's five. But she really loves going to the movies. Actually the only movie she ever fidgeted in was Cars. (I couldn't blame her. It's my least favorite Pixar movie by far.)
i know i want to see it. It's on my netflix.
i like that Thomas Keller did the recipe and is in it and that they have a different star chef in different versions for different countries.
i think the Spanish version as Ferran Adria.
2 large aubergines
3 medium courgettes
2 medium onions
2 red or green peppers
4 large tomatoes, or 1 x 14 oz (400 g) tin Italian tomatoes, well drained
2 cloves garlic, crushed
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 level tablespoon roughly torn fresh basil
salt and freshly milled black pepper
Begin by wiping the aubergines and cutting them into 1 inch (2.5 cm) slices, then cut each slice in half; the courgettes should be wiped as well and cut into 1 inch (2.5 cm) slices. Now put the whole lot into a colander, sprinkle generously with salt, press them down with a suitably sized plate and put weights (or other heavy objects) on top of the plate. Let them stand for about 1 hour – the salt will draw out any bitterness along with excess moisture.
Meanwhile chop up the onion roughly, deseed and core the peppers and chop these up too. Skin the tomatoes (plunging them into boiling water for a couple of minutes is the best way to loosen the skins), then quarter them, take out the seeds and roughly chop the flesh.
To cook the ratatouille, gently fry the onions and garlic in the oil in a large saucepan for a good 10 minutes, then add the peppers. Dry the pieces of courgette and aubergine in kitchen paper, then add them to the saucepan. Next add the basil and seasoning of salt and pepper, stir once really well, then simmer very gently, covered, for 30 minutes. After that time add the tomato flesh, taste to check the seasoning and cook for a further 15 minutes with the lid off.
A study? Have people studied kid's movies? (if so, how odd!)
This was just based on my experience of looking around in a packed cinema (during the third act) and seeing a lot of really bored kids... fidgeting, falling asleep, complaining, etc.
Some kids will really like it; but overall, I do think it's a bit long, a bit slow and bit heavy (there is one scene which I most kids will not be able to watch) for a kid's movie.
I'm not damning it; it's great cinema... but it's not Toy Story.
My recipe is just like Delia's except that I use whatever I have available, and don't bother fiddling with the aubergine - I've never had a bitter one yet. And I don't skin tomatoes.
i was about to launch into a rant about how i live in a mostly rural part of the country where we're lucky to get fresh produce at all, let alone fancy-schmancy ones like aubergines and courgettes, and if i even dared to ask the produce manager at my local ingles if he could get aubergines and courgettes he'd be likely to look at me with a blank expression and say "do whut?"
then i used google and found out that they were eggplant and zucchini, respectively.
then i used google and found out that they were eggplant and zucchini, respectively.
see 'hanger steak' (london broil), 'creme fraiche' (sour cream), 'frites' (french fries). Giving something a a more pretentious name is an easy way to jack up the price a few bucks.
nope, jon, it's just what they're called here. Now if they're ever called aubergine and courgette in the US, for sinister marketing purposes, that's another matter entirely.
I bet I'd've liked it when I was a little kid, mainly because kitchen stuff always fascinated me. I liked when I got to help with peeling potatoes and mixing things, and it was a Big Deal when I was allowed to scramble my own eggs for breakfast. It's a clever, lively, funny story, beautifully depicted on the screen, and with interesting characters.
As for the dish, I made some recently, kinda singed it when reheating it, and yet a bunch of vegetarian friends liked anyway.
My favorite U.S./Australian (and I assume English?) split is "rocket" vs. "arugula." "Rocket" sounds so modern and bold and crisp and zesty.
(Also, I can't imagine kids like the culinary ratatouille, but I suspect that's because I can't deal with eggplant and squash and therefore can't really imagine myself liking ratatouille.)
i actually like the name "london broil" better. "hanger steak" sounds too much like "swinging steak", which sounds a hell of a lot more appetizing than rocky mountain oysters. but not by much.
Although many butchers will label a cut of meat "London Broil," the term does not refer to a specific cut. The cut of meat traditionally used is flank steak, but top round roast/steak is also commonly used.
A hanger steak is a tender cut of beef steak which is said to "hang" from the diaphragm of the steer. (The diaphragm itself is a tougher muscle, comprising the outer skirt steak.) The hanger is attached to the last rib and the kidney. It resembles flank steak, but is a vaguely V-shaped pair of muscles with a long, inedible membrane down the middle.
The hanger steak has traditionally been most popular in Europe. In French, it is known as the onglet, in Italian the lombatello, and in Spanish the solomillo de pulmon. In the United States, it has only recently become popular; formerly, it was not separated as an individual cut.
It is also known as the "hanging tender", and occasionally is seen on menus as a "bistro steak".
[This is all lifted from Wiki articles but it jibes with what I've read in cookbooks and learned on the job in kitchens].
Yup, I never called it "zucchini" until I moved to the US. It's not a pretentious thing, it's just called a different word in different parts of the world. Heaven forbid.
occhiblu, All I'm saying is that if *I* (a 39-year-old with a massive attention span) thought that it drug near the end, I am pretty sure most little kids (who are used to quick-cut stuff like television commercials) will be yawning. *shrug*
I could always be wrong.
It's always easy to criticise the work of others, but (in certain cases) criticism provides a useful service for others. I'll certainly continue to warn off anyone who is thinking of taking a toddler to see it. Save your £20 and wait for the DVD... then, when they wander off in the third act, you won't wonder why you blew a Saturday.
My favorite U.S./Australian (and I assume English?) split
Almost all of these major 'splits' are British in origin (excluding the really 'slangy' ones)... which is why one is often asked to choose between American English and International English when installing newer software.
Creme fraiche is its own wonderful entity and isn't exactly sour cream in the American meaning of sour cream.
I love the stuff, and use it when making scrambled eggs (instead of milk). It's a very useful thing to have around. Soured cream (which I like to have with Mexican) is (as you say) a very different beast.
Oh God, I love creme fraiche! There's almost always a tub of the reduced fat stuff in my fridge. I agree that it's different from sour cream, even though that's what it is. Sooooooo good.
My two-year-old niece is obsessed with Studio Ghibli's My Neighbor Totoro. She's seen Monsters Inc and liked it, but not to the same extent that has to watch it every day (much to the "joy" of my sister!). I watched it myself over the weekend and it's pretty good. Although whoever thought up the cat bus must have been on some quality substances...
I thought Ratatouille was too plot-oriented and mature for younger kids, too. It did drag a bit, and I found myself falling out of it. However, it was during this movie that I found a ganglion cyst on my finger so I as pretty preoccupied with my mysterious, impending doom.
Oh yeah, creme fraichw is great in eggs. It's also really good if you stir a little into risotto right at the end. Also in stews. And soups. Soooo good.
Plain ol' yogurt, vice milk, in scrambled eggs is pretty good in a pinch, too. Anybody else around here like huevos revueltos? Yogurt kinds smoothes out the bite of the chiles a bit.
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