But strange things can happen on Halloween and last night was confirmation in my mind that Halloween is, indeed, EVIL.

Well, for a few years now, we’ve made a small family tradition out of watching a long movie (usually Pride & Prejudice), eating our favorite sweets, and shutting all the blinds and turning off all the lights around the house to avoid being “trick or treated”.

This year though, we did things a little deffrinit.

We went out to dinner at Pete’s Place around 4pm to fill up for the rest of the evening. Most of their food is tasty, a good value, and extremely greasy. Both satisfied and bloated, we went back home to get ready for the night.

The next variable was that we were to break our yearly P&P tradition by watching a different movie called North & South, recommended by some friends of ours. Although we were certain that no long, drawn-out, BBC romance/drama production could ever dethrone P&P, we tried to clear our minds to give the new kid a chance.

That guy is perfect for Halloween… And she is Clueless

Not only that, but instead of candy this year, we each got our very own container of Ben n’ Jerry’s Ice Cream! Yum! (Ok, there was little candy going around too)

So we settled in and popped the first disc into our DVD player. It was a two-disc movie.

It was horrible! A terrible movie. Within the first hour, at least six characters had died (of which we felt no emotion for because we didn’t know who they were! We had a body count of 8, by the end), the two main characters hated each other for some unknown reason, and everything was gloomy and despairing. It made no sense whatsoever! Such a far departure from our beloved P&P!

By the end of the first disc the two main characters met in a seemingly unrealistic and unimportant way. They both got off trains headed separate directions at the same exact time. The guy pulls out a flower from her old home in the South (of somewhere, we think they were near London) and after briefly discussing a business matter they started kissing! And the disc ended!

What is up with this movie!? So we furiously popped in the “2nd” disc, unsure of where the movie could possibly go now that the lead characters were already in love (suddenly). And the first thing we see is her, alone, in the same train they were in at the end of the last disc holding that silly flower, followed by a caption: “Two Months Earlier“.

What?! Now we have to go back in time? They’re going to explain everything AFTER we’ve seen the climax? How lame is that?

Anyone who has seen this movie before knows what happened .

My Dad was the first to figure it out, after which point we burst into hysterics for about 15 minutes, marveling at our own stupidity. My Mom was actually slapping her thigh… I didn’t even know people really did that (it seems like a compulsory reflex when you are unable to breathe). Of course, with a 4+ hour movie, it’s not likely we’ll try it again soon… it was the worst movie experience and best family experience we’d had in years .

Confused, tired, and with sore tummies (from laughter and ice-cream) we sought relief in our beds. Then I realized my next mistake:

After a restful slumber of about 30 minutes, I was up the rest of the night belching, pacing, and with a fast heartbeat.
So I listened to a 3 hour marketing conference, prayed, and made mind maps in an attempt to figure out my crazy life before finally going to sleep at 5:30am. Then I woke up at 8am because we needed to do a window job.

I persuaded my benevolent father to leave me alone for a while so he rescheduled the job for 11am.

A good father he is.

About 20 minutes later, I realized I can’t sleep at 8:30 in the morning.

I hate Halloween.

Note to Parishes: Thanks for putting the discs in backwards.

It’s about a rat who aspires to be a great chef, in Paris. Despite my underwhelming enthusiasm as to the film’s potential, what I found when I actually saw it was a heartwarming story of relationships, personal achievement, and art. (and rats too)

It also helped that the animation is second to none, the humor is clean, and and the casting is great! The visual presentation is simply stunning.

The creativity and humor in the film really caught me off-guard. I belly-laughed my way through several sequences, especially when Remy (the rat protagonist) is “controlling” Linguine (the human protagonist).

Fear the the “Critic”

Linguine just got a job as a chef (sort of) but can’t cook. He has to rely on Remy who is an excellent cook, yet can’t be seen by anyone in the kitchen. Remy controls Linguine to make him a 5-star chef by pulling on his hair (from inside Linguine’s chef hat). As silly as this gag is, it proves to be fantastically funny. (A certain scene has Linguine rummaging crazily through the kitchen looking for ingredients to “fix” a recipe. He takes an ingredient from from a fellow chef saying, “apparently, I need this” as his body quickly begins moving away)

While the message and controversies are in small supply, the simple tale of virtues, persistence, and art is still beautiful and enjoyable. It’s the kind of simple story you might find in a classic children’s book, yet filled with between-the-lines messages that you might only find in a sophisticated art journal.

At any rate, this is definitely a film I can heartily recommend to just about any audience… and that’s saying a lot these days.