Ratatouille

June 29th, 2007 by James Cook | Source:

Directed by: Brad Bird
Written by: Brad Bird
Starring: Patton Oswalt, Lou Romano, Ian Holm, Peter O’Toole, Brad Garrett, Janeane Garofalo, Will Arnet, Brian Dennehy, John Ratzenberger

Score: 7/10

When The Incredibles came out it was such a joy to see a new film from Pixar that wasn’t about talking animals or inanimate objects coming to life. Brad Bird did an amazing job bringing a human centric story into the world of Pixar. Bird is back and this time has incorporated the talking animal’s story with human’s story in Ratatouille. Unfortunately I found myself wanting more talking animals and fewer humans.

Let me just prefix this by saying, I did not hate this movie. I really enjoyed parts of it. I think it is miles ahead of last years Cars. I was just a little disappointed with it as a whole.

Ratatouille opens with a rat colony living in an old farm house in France. We are greeted by narration by Remy (Patton Oswalt), a small rat with big ambitions. Remy is not like the other rats in his colony, he won’t settle for eating garbage, he prefers finer cuisine. His nose is his gift, and with it he is able to sniff out the good stuff. However he is not appreciated within his colony, especially among his dad, the leader of the colony. He is given the task of using his nose to make sure there isn’t any rat poison in the food the colony finds.

The opening to the movie is excellent. I really enjoyed the interaction between Remy and the other rats and found it to be the funniest and most entertaining. After seeing the movie a part of me wished that it had just been about a rat colony.

Remy dreams of becoming a chef. He becomes obsessed with Gusteau (Brad Garrett). Gusteau’s is a popular five star restaurant in Paris, and Gusteau has written a cook book that Remy has been reading. Remy soon learns that his hero has died, and the famous restaurant is failing as a result.

Remy’s love of cooking leads to the colony being found by the owner of the house and separates Remy from them. The ghost of Gusteau acts as Remy’s guide, much like one Obi-wan Kenobi. Remy meets Linguini (Lou Romano), he is a clumsy chef who has no talent in the kitchen and who also happens to be the son of Gusteau. The two team up with Remy being the one behind all the cooking.

This is where the movie goes down hill. Something strange happens. Remy stops talking. For some reason the filmmakers decided to not have Remy and Linguini communicate through normal means. Now granted a rat being able to talk to a human doesn’t really make much sense. However because the two don’t talk to each other it forces Remy to control Linguini by his hair and it’s just not funny. Once Remy and Linguini meet the movie really hits a wall, and it’s unfortunate.

There are some funny moments between Linguini and Collette (Janeane Garofalo), the uptight chef who Linguini falls in love with. There’s also some great moments when the rest of the chef’s are introduced, including one chef who can kill someone with his thumb. Also Peter O’toole provides some creepy and fun moments as the evil food critic Anton Ego.

Overall, there is some fun to be had with Ratatouille. The animation is excellent and cartoon food never looked so good, but in the end it just wasn’t the complete Pixar package I was hoping for.