What makes it different from others?

People are voting emotionally.

i know i wasted 90 mins of my life.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

But this 11-minute short film tries its best to change that fact. It is connected with Ratatouille, but if you have seen other short films based on Pixar or animated movie in general, these are usually a concrete addition to the story involving some of the main characters. This is not really the case here. The human characters from Pixar are not featured in here, but the rats are. But it's really more of a history lesson to audiences. Remy and Emile give us a short summary of why rats are not as bad as everybody says. This involved references dating back to Queen Vistoria, the Plague and even the Beatles. It's a decent short film all in all, but I would not say it is a must-see, not even for people who loved "Ratatouille". It's just so different than the feature movie, in terms of story as well as animation style. It's very fast and creative, but delivers the information almost too quickly to really remember any of these when the film is over. And I did not like the ending with the rushed-in monologue. Still, a solid watch. By the way, the writer and director is Jim Capobianco, who also worked on the "Ratatouille" screenplay and got an Academy award nomination for his effort there. Do I perceive rats differently now after watching this? No, I don't. But that is only because I liked them before already. A lot.

I like Pixar very much, and I very much enjoyed Your Friend the Rat. I do prefer the movie Ratatouille, but this short film does compliment it quite well. It mayn't be one of Pixar's very best, I think there are Pixar short films with a little more heart(ie. Geri's Game and Presto), though Your Friend the Rat is not devoid of that quality, and I can see where people are coming from when they say it's a tad stuffy. However, it is one of Pixar's most interesting, mainly for the structure of the story and how much it teaches and the wonderful animation and the techniques used. Your Friend the Rat also has moments where it is funny, the black plague sequence is for me the highlight of the short, the characters are delightful and the voice work is solid. All in all, I personally put other Pixar short films over this one, but it is still very interesting, and not one to be ignored. 8/10 Bethany Cox

As a previous owner of fancy rats, I thoroughly enjoyed this accurate recap of the history of rats, and the artists' humorous take on it. Rats are a misunderstood species, given their connection to the plague. I think what the writers were trying to do was to point out to Westerners that our view on rats is based on generations of fear and bad information. It's unfortunate that the tone sounded "stuffy" or "preachy" to the other reviewers - I personally didn't think it did at all. Perhaps people were just not expecting a history lesson.Rats make great pets - they are independent like cats, smart and loyal like dogs. It still amazes me when people would come over to my house and be shocked that my rat has the run of the place. And shocked that she comes to me when I call her name. I've had to tell them many of the things that were in this film - now I can just refer them to this film and not have to repeat myself over and over.Aside from the content, the animation was great - a mix of CGI and traditional styles. I love the angular look of the traditional segments, which were reminiscent of the style of Chuck Jones.

If you have the DVD of Ratatouille, then you would have this short animated "documentary" showing a short history of rats. Presented by brothers (from the film) Remy (Patton Oswalt) and Emil (Peter Sohn), they plead the case for rats by illustrating the historical and scientific facts about the species and their interaction with humans. These include the plague, their strength, being pets, being experimented on - because they have the same combination of organs as humans, and some more stuff. Also starring Lou Romano as Linguini, Tony Russel as Disclaimer Guy, Sigmund Vik as The Norwegian Rat, Jim Capobianco as Director voice and a quick bit of footage from A Bug's Life with John Ratzenberger as P.T. Flea. It is obviously better to see Ratatouille before this. Good!