Eric D. Snider
Ratatouille
Movie Review
"Ratatouille"
Review by Eric D. Snider
Grade: A-
Rating: G
Released: Friday, June 29, 2007
Directed by:
Cast:
With the brilliant animated films "Iron Giant" and "The Incredibles" already under his belt, writer-director Brad Bird comes to "Ratatouille" with great expectations heaped upon him. Adding to the pressure is the fact that many people viewed "Cars," Pixar's last effort, as representing a slight decline in quality after such acclaimed efforts as "Finding Nemo," "Monsters Inc.," and Bird's own "Incredibles."
"Cars" must have been an anomaly, then, because "Ratatouille" is as almost as funny, joyful, and heartfelt as anything that Pixar's merry band of genius-nerds has ever done. We're at the point now where you can just say, "It's a Pixar movie," and that sums it up.
Our hero is Remy (voice of Patton Oswalt), a rat of undetermined age who lives with his colony in the French countryside near Paris. He is unique among rats because he has a refined palate. While everyone else sees mere garbage and feasts upon it, he sees the individual ingredients and is appalled by them. Like so many of his Disney brethren before him, he yearns for something more than this humdrum existence! He longs to dine on tasty foods exquisitely prepared. He wishes he were someplace where his gourmet sensibilities were appreciated, not mocked, as they are by his father (Brian Dennehy) and simple-minded brother (Peter Sohn). (Another thing Remy shares in common with his Disney brethren is that he does not seem to have a mother.)
An emergency forces the rats out of their dwelling into the sewers, where Remy is separated from the group and winds up, as luck would have it, in the crawl space at Gusteau's, the finest restaurant in all of France! The late Chef Gusteau (Brad Garrett) was famous for his "Anyone can cook!" philosophy. Remy has seen reruns of his TV show, courtesy of the old woman whose attic the rats used to live in, who frequently fell asleep in front of the TV. Now the spirit of Gusteau appears to Remy as a guide, a conscience, and a figment of his imagination, encouraging him to follow his dreams.
From Remy's vantage point in the ceiling, we see the kitchen at Gusteau's. The new chef is Skinner (Ian Holm), a short, angry little man who has sold out Gusteau's name to merchandisers, with microwaveable products like Gusteau's BBQ Dip 'n Ribs now in your grocer's freezer. The restaurant's five-star rating has dwindled to three, due in part to negative reviews from the great food critic Anton Ego (Peter O'Toole), an austere, humorless man who takes no pleasure in anything. The restaurant is surviving, but just barely.
Skinner is obligated to hire a clean-up boy named Linguini (Lou Romano), an awkward young fellow whose mother was a friend of Gusteau's back in the day. Linguini doesn't want to become a chef, particularly, recognizing he has no talent for the culinary arts; he can barely take out the trash without screwing it up.
Through a series of hilarious and strangely logical events (if you can accept that a rat understands human speech and knows how to cook), Remy and Linguini become partners. Remy can cook, but he's a rat. Linguini is in the kitchen and has the opportunity to make something of himself, but he has no skills. Together, they can do it. Or as Linguini sums it up to his new rat friend, "You know how to cook, and I know how to appear human!"
Soon Linguini is the toast of the town, elevating Gusteau's back to its original place of prominence. He prepares his masterpieces by putting Remy under his chef's hat, where the rodent pulls Linguini's hair like a rider controlling a horse's reins, guiding him to the right ingredients and preparations. No one can know his secret -- they would think he was crazy if he told them a rat was his mentor -- and Skinner becomes increasingly jealous and suspicious of this gawky new prodigy.
I am delighted by every aspect of the film, from Michael Giacchino's perfectly breezy score, to the whimsically bizarre storyline (how does anyone even think of something like this?), to the way that crazy story is brought to life reasonably and intelligently by Bird's nuanced script. There is a surprising complexity to the film, with multiple relationships being juggled all at once. There's Remy's connection to his dad and brother, his conflicting desire to be a gourmet chef, Linguini's crush on fellow cook Colette (Janeane Garofalo), Remy's association with Colette (they're both competing for attention from Linguini), Skinner's paranoia that there's a rat living in the kitchen. The rightful ownership of the Gusteau brand name comes into play, as does Remy's desire to stop being a "thief" (that's what rats are, you know). And somehow, Anton Ego figures into the whole thing.
The comparative ease with which computer-animated films can now be made has led to a rash of bad ones: "Hoodwinked," "Happily N'Ever After," "Everyone's Hero," "Madagascar," and so forth. Enduring those movies' gracelessness makes you appreciate it all the more when someone comes along and does it right. "Ratatouille" is packed with beautiful images of Paris, drawn to look quaint and old-style, though the film is apparently set in the present. There are imaginative camera angles and movement, and a stunning attention to detail. The characters move and emote with fluidity, not stiffly, the way some films would have it. Even the way Skinner pours a glass of wine, with that slight rotation of the bottle at the end of the pour, is perfectly rendered. Pixar has, once again, raised the bar on the technical side of making an animated film.
The non-technical elements don't lack, either, though it's fair to say it's not the most emotionally overwhelming thing Pixar has done. It doesn't pack the punch of "Toy Story 2" or "Finding Nemo," for example; the characters, while engaging and sympathetic, don't connect with the audience at quite that level. That's more an observation than a complaint, though. There really isn't much at all that I would change about this visual, imaginative feast.
Grade: A-
Rated G, with scenes of mild peril and some mild grown-up themes; should have been PG
1 hr., 55 min., including a 4-minute short, 'Lifted'
Copyright © Eric D. Snider.
This work may not be transmitted via the Internet, nor reproduced in any other way, without written consent from Eric D. Snider.
This item has 13 comments
June 29, 2007 at 11:40 am
I can't wait to see this one!!
June 29, 2007 at 8:15 pm
Saw it this morning. Wonderful and charming in the way that all Pixar movies have been, no doubt. It has sort of a "smaller" feel to it, though, in terms of its scope and characters, so in a sense it didn't feel quite as... ah, what's the word... *substantial* as things like Toy Story or Monsters, Inc. or Finding Nemo, but it's always great to see the different kinds of stories the Pixar people can create.
I agree that so many other animated films coming out just don't begin to compare to what Pixar is doing. It was cool to see the teaser for their next movie called Wall-E, about a robot. I was just thinking recently how the only other animated movie in recent years that I've thought was as good in quality as the Pixar films in terms of the animation, story and humor was Robots. Those same people are making a CGI version of Horton Hears a Who for next year that looks very promising.
But anyway, I feel a little weird that as an adult, these are the films I'm most excited to see among all of the new film offerings. But there's just a level of quality in imaginative filmmaking with the Pixar films that transcends all ages. I already can't wait to see Wall-E next year and Toy Story 3 when that comes out.
June 30, 2007 at 6:09 pm
"The new chef is Skinner (Ian Holm), a short, angry little man who has sold out Gusteau's name to merchandisers, with microwaveable products like Gusteau's BBQ Dip 'n Ribs now in your grocer's freezer."
I wonder if this was meant as a Pixar jab at Disney under Michael Eisner, and all the cheap, bad, direct-to-video sequels the company has churned out under Walt's name.
June 30, 2007 at 8:27 pm
I really liked this movie. It is rare to see a movie without a cliche message attached to it at the end, and this one had a refreshing moral that really made me think. It was fantastic how they learned that not everyone can cook, but a great cook can be anyone, and this can be applied to just about anything.
July 1, 2007 at 10:04 pm
My 4-year old didn't have any trouble with it, though she said later that parts of it were scary.
It's not up to par with the rest of Pixar's stuff, though. It's a fine enough story, but it just isn't engaging to me. It's not very funny, and while it has moments of brilliance, it mostly seemed lackluster. Gimme Incredibles, Nemo, or the Toy Stories.
July 5, 2007 at 5:05 pm
Long live Pixar! Long live Brad Bird!!
A friend of mine works at Blue Sky Studios (Ice Age, Robots) as a lead character animator, Horton's supposed to be Pixar-quality! We'll see! :-)
July 6, 2007 at 10:47 am
Yeah, I've seen a few images from Horton and it looks terrific, visually speaking. I also like the casting of Steve Carrell as the Mayor of Whoville and Carol Burnett as the Kangaroo. Not sure about Jim Carrey as Horton... could be great, could be too much. But at least it's only his voice. That increases the chance of it being great, IMO.
July 6, 2007 at 8:06 pm
Fantastic. THIS is the movie that deserves your money, not Transformers.
July 8, 2007 at 12:38 am
I stayed through the credits, and at the very end was a notice that the movie was "100% Pure Animation - No Motion Capture!" Which -- when you consider the fluidity and realism of each character, whether rat or human -- is pretty freaking amazing. I not only felt ridiculously entertained after watching this movie, I left feeling that I had experienced Art. Long live the Brad Bird - Pixar partnership.
July 12, 2007 at 4:31 pm
I agree with Eric that this should have been rated PG. I really enjoyed this movie as it was clever and it was aimed to please adults. I honestly don't know how young kids would follow the story but it was amazing CGI so that would probably keep them entertained for a little while.
July 18, 2007 at 2:58 am
I liked the movie - the animation art was fantastic - but the story and dialogs were not as thrilling. I missed here the light-touch subversive playfulness of the other Pixar movies (The Incredibles, Bugs' Life and Monsters Inc are my absolute favorites) and to me Ratatouille felt forced - so I am not going to buy the DVD with this one. Only 3 and half stars in my book.
I felt the main themes were a bit snobish and over-labored (how good food is amazing and precious, how tough it is to be a chef and a woman, how a cheap sell-out of a good name is bad, Paris is so great and refined, it is hard to be a low-class because you don't get credit for your tallent, etc.) to the point of annoyance. I think these points should be hinted at just once, they shouldn't be hammered in like 4 inch nails.
July 25, 2007 at 10:27 am
I really, really, really love this movie. I've seen it three times now, and every time it was worth the price to get in. The first time I saw it, when I left the theater I wanted to turn right back around and watch it again. I've only felt that way about one other movie I can remember--The Incredibles. I also left both The Incredibles and Ratatouille with a deep urge to DO something, to make, to create, to be excellent. I think that's the real message of those movies, and they communicate it very well.
This movie is, indeed, true Art. Animation is not a genre--it's an artform. And Pixar and Brad Bird are squeezing everything they can out of this new medium of CGI, all the humor and joy and beauty and refreshment you could find anywhere.
I agree that this movie may not have universal resonance of the sort you find in Toy Story and Monster's Inc. and The Incredibles. But it certainly resonated with me.
December 26, 2007 at 10:18 pm
I liked it as well, but did anyone notice ( or please correct me ) that the sets of the kitchen and the dinning room, were unbelievably like movie "The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover" very much an film for the experienced and strong stomached movie viewer. I loved it.
But can someone help me? What is the connection, beside a kitchen and restaurant in Paris?
Kevin