The video game Ratchet & Clank has come to the big screen as a science fiction family animation and is now on DVD.

Ratchet is a “Lombax”, with a cat-like face and human body and tail. Perhaps this does sound like the animation equivalent of the half-man, half-beast from Greek mythology. But he’s hardly as mysterious as this. This pretty young thing is younger than your average mythological character and he works in a garage and gets into trouble. Despite his humble position in life, he’s a dreamer and has big dreams of being a hero.

The dreamer

Dreaming is a natural thing. We dream in our sleep and imagine what life can be like somewhere else.

When we dream, we may think that there’s more ‘over the rainbow’ than what life is offering now.

Day dreaming can make us wish for or believe something better in life is coming.

What happens when you get your dream? And the dream goes nightmarish?

When dream meets reality

Ratchet’s dream is to be a hero with the Galaxy Rangers who are really guardians of the galaxy. (This is not a reference to Guardians of the Galaxy, the movie).

Circumstances propel Ratchet and his dream forward in a short period of time. Then he’s part of the Galaxy Rangers for real.

A pleasant enough dream turns nightmarish, though. Real life can be a nightmare sometimes.

The obstacles of ‘real life’ are almost insurmountable. Chairman Drek is hell bent on destroying planets with his ‘deplanetiser’. The Rangers have to stop him.

The Galaxy Guardians’ story is like watching a news story over a long period of time, where the ‘good guys’ can’t resolve the problems easily. The evil plan of Drek is awfully difficult to keep down.

Good advice

Ratchet’s dream of being a hero was blown up out of proportion and then he encountered cold, harsh, reality. It’s hard out there.

Just as Ratchet is about to give up, his boss, who is a mechanic, has some good advice for Ratchet (though he does not dispense with advice usually).

He tells Ratchet that a dream doesn’t have to be big. He does not have to be a hero. A dream can be about doing the right thing.

That’s good advice when the rubber hits the road. Ratchet has to face the nightmare out there and Drek’s evil plan. It’s not about being the hero for the sake of it. It is about acknowledging the world and the problems in it and doing something good about it, and in Ratchet’s case, with a little help from Clank.

Ratchet & Clank, Year: 2016, Country: USA, Canada, Hong Kong, Released on DVD in USA/Canada on August 23, 2016