Movies that Break their Own Rules

The other day, I saw "How to Train Your Dragon". (Sadly, I did not get the chance to see it in 3D.) I decided that this was a movie that I wanted to own. Then, for some strange reason, I asked myself "Why do you want to own this movie?"

I wasn't really wondering why I liked this movie, but what makes this movie different from the movies that I don't like. For example, I didn't really like "UP!" or "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.", but I did like "Cars" and "The Incredibles". So, the questions is "Why?"

It all became clear to me when I analyzed why I like the movie "Ratatouille". When I first watched that movie, I enjoyed it. But, when it got to the part where all of the rats worked together to cook the food, I thought "This is getting ridiculous, I can't buy that." Immediately, I had another thought..."So, you bought the fact that rats could talk to each other, cook food, be loosely organized as a group, and control a human?"

This realization led me to a theory: In the first 20 minutes (or so) of a movie, the rules for the rest of the movie are defined, and cannot be violated. Example: If the rats don't talk in the first part of the movie, they had better not start suddenly talking for no apparent reason. There may be something in the plot that would made such a change acceptable, but generally, it would destroy the flow of the movie.

In the movie "UP!", I had a problem with the "good-guy hero" suddenly becoming the "bad-guy" for no real reason.

In "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs", I didn't like that somehow, the food at the end of the movie came to life with it own intelligence for no reason and started chasing the main characters.

I enjoyed "How to Train your Dragon", "The Incredibles", and "Cars". While all of those movies had elements in them that obviously violate reality, those elements were present during the entire movie.

So, that's my theory. Along with analyzing the plot and enjoying cutting edge graphics, it has become a new element by which I critique movies.

Does the movie break it's own rules?

(As a side note, this is my first blog post on my first blog. What do you think?)