Ratatouille (2007)

Movie Info

Remy is a rat with a nose for food.  He dreams of being a master chef and following the motto of famed chef Auguste Gusteau that anyone can be a chef, Remy hopes he can succeed.  Unfortunately, Remy’s family sees Remy as a rat like the rest of society and encourages him to just live like the other rats.  When Remy is separated from his family, he finds himself at the newly reopened Gusteau’s restaurant.  Teaming with a young employee named Alfredo Linguini, Remy is able to pursue his dream…even if Alfredo is taking the credit.  With pressure as Linguini’s popularity grows and the return of Remy’s family, Remy finds Gusteau’s motto might not be true in his case.

Remy…a rat willing to make sacrifices for his craft

Directed by Brad Bird, Ratatouille is a Pixar-Disney venture that followed Pixar’s Cars in 2006.  The film was released to critical acclaim and a big box office draw.  The movie won the Academy Award for Best Animated Film and received nominations for Best Original Score, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Original Screenplay.

I am not the biggest Pixar film though, I have loved Brad Bird’s animated ventures like The Iron Giant and Pixar’s The Incredibles.  Ratatouille is closer to the other traditional Pixar movies like Finding Nemo and Toy Story than Bird’s other movies.  It isn’t a bad film, but I find little connection with it.

Dude…Gusteau…I’m trying to sleep

The story is very simple on the outside.  You have the basic “society says _____ should behave this way” and the character must choose to follow social conformation or strike out on their own to be an individual.  Ratatouille does this through a rather joke loaded script and does make some choices along the path which do not follow the “norm” of these free-thinking character movies.  Decisions surrounding the end of the film do keep up a mystery of where the plot will actually lead and that is one of the better aspects of the film.

Me and the Little Chef are going now…

I also cannot fault the voice cast of Ratatouille which is also is strong.  Comedian Patton Oswalt is good as Remy and Lou Romano plays the simple minded Linguini.  The movie also has Janeane Garofalo, Ian Holm, Brian Dennehy, Brad Garrett, James Remar, Will Arnet, and director Brad Bird as Anton Ego’s butler.  Pixar regular John Ratzenberger plays Mustafa and though his part is rather small in screen time, Peter O’Toole does a great job as food critic Anton Ego.

The animation for Ratatouille is also top notch.  The movie has a real feel and substance.  It isn’t really going for realism, but despite that, the cartoon characters of the movie feel natural and have substance.  Add to that the great Paris setting and the food, and you have a great combo.

Sorry…even for a children’s film, this is dumb

It is rather stupid, but one of my big problems with Ratatouille is the hair thing, and even on a second viewing, I can’t get past it.  Remy finds he can “control” Linguini through his hair.  The movie is rather “realistic” (if you can believe a cooking rat) and smarter than this.  I found it amusing when he bit him, but I wish the makers had found a way around this puppeteer aspect of the movie…in my opinion (though it provides easy laughs), it hurt the movie instead of helped it.

Ratatouille is a movie for kids but loaded with things for adults.  I don’t always love that mix since I think that a kids’ picture made for kids can be enjoyable to adults if it is genuine and true (like Bird’s The Iron Giant).  A movie doesn’t have to be for both adults and children or be a movie for adults and masked as a kids’ movie through animation.  This is a big problem with movies for children right now, and Ratatouille is a great example of a movie that slightly misses the mark as a result.  Pixar followed Ratatouille with WALL-E in 2008.