Heroes large and small? Michael finally gets to watch Ratatouille. Big Man Japan Bites Dog. Brad Bird returns to the show with Ratatouille, the best Pixar film. Michael attempts to shame Podmanity for never watching the films. The only perfect film is formulaic and entirely predictable. The villain is not really that bad. Hitoshi Matsumoto returns to the show as director and star of Big Man Japan. Getting big to defend Japan from monsters. Legacy superhero and the superhero’s legacy in boredom culture. Using a faux expose documentary to examine aspects of our broader culture. The impact of Man Bites Dog. Careful cultivation of one’s image. Getting your head run over by a film’s ending.
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Ratatouille
Released: June 22, 2007
IMDB | Wikipedia
Director: Brad Bird
Writer: Brad Bird
Starring: Patton Oswalt, Ian Holm, Lou Romano
A rat named Remy dreams of becoming a great French chef despite his family's wishes and the obvious problem of being a rat in a decidedly rodent-phobic profession. When fate places Remy in the sewers of Paris, he finds himself ideally situated beneath a restaurant made famous by his culinary hero, Auguste Gusteau. Despite the apparent dangers of being an unlikely - and certainly unwanted - visitor in the kitchen of a fine French restaurant, Remy's passion for cooking soon sets into motion a hilarious and exciting rat race that turns the culinary world of Paris upside down.
Big Man Japan
Released: May 19, 2007
IMDB | Wikipedia
Director: Hitoshi Matsumoto
Writer: Mitsuyoshi Takasu, Mitsuyoshi Takasu
Starring: Hitoshi Matsumoto, UA, Itsuji Itao
In this hilarious mockumentary, middle-aged Daisato (Hitoshi Matsumoto) -- a second-rate, third-generation superhero -- annoys his neighbors with the noise and destruction he causes on the job. But a heroic public image is the least of his concerns. Besides defending Japan from bizarre monsters, he must deal with an agent seeking to brand him with ads, a superhero grandfather with Alzheimer's and a family embarrassed by his incompetence.
