Ratatouille is PIXAR’s fun-filled animated movie that instantly brings to mind the immortal words of a UB40 song, “There’s a rat in my kitchen, what am I going to do?!”. However this isn’t just any rat we’re talking about here, but Remy (voiced very nicely by Patton Oswalt). Remy is no ordinary rat - he appreciates the finer things in life, in particular food - being disgusted by the trash his colony including father and brother eat (not actually sure if there were any female rats in this movie!), he embarks on a quest to learn how to cook. Inspired by the great Chef Gusteau (voiced by Director Brad Bird, who is well on his way to becoming a movie legend - he probably already is one in animated circles), Remy lives by the motto that “anyone can cook”. However not many people seem to agree with this and upon seeing him have more of the there’s a rat in my kitchen, what am I going to do? attitude and usually try to kill him. Who would have thought that being a Chef was so dangerous?!?!

Anyway, soon enough Remy finds himself separated from his colony and in the kitchens of Chef Gusteau’s restaurant. After several bad reviews including those by renowned critic Anton Ego (Peter O’Toole - I could have sworn it was Ian McKellan by the voice but apparently I was wrong!), Gusteau tragically died and his restaurant is struggling to keep going. Enter new boy Linguini (Lou Romano), a hapless gawky creature who via a series of accidents is seen to be trying to cook when he’s only the garbage boy. The Chef, Skinner (Ian Holm) is outraged but is forced to allow Linguini to try to recreate the wonderful dish he is thought to have created. We all know, of course, that little Remy was behind this… and so an unlikely partnership is struck up between the two. Remy knows how to cook, while Linguini knows… how to look like a human. More or less.

There are various subplots and inconvenient happenings along the way, such as Remy’s brother Emile (Peter Sohn) turning up - sometimes with many friends, Remy’s father’s expectations, Collette Janeane Garofalo), as the only female cook in the kitcehn, attracting Linguini’s attention, a legacy with a clause that will run out soon, and a few other bits and bobs. The usual stuff in this sort of film about the strained relationship between humans and animals is explored as well, in an effective way that fits in well with the plot of the film. Remy has vague notions that humans are interesting and not all that bad, but his father has rather more definite, and negative, feelings towards them - and he has good reasons to.

PIXAR have never been afraid to do things a little differently and there are two major aspects of this movie that you might well not have expected. One is that Remy and Linguini cannot actually talk to each other - they have to find different methods of communicating. The other is that, while Remy can look undeniably sweet and some of the other rats when shown individually can be appealing characters, when there are a whole host of rats together, they really don’t -and no attempt is made to make them so. This leads to one of the weaknesses of the film (to me anyway), in that when there’s a whole colony of rats actually running the kitchen and doing the cooking - it was just too disgusting! While you could want Remy to succeed, I didn’t find that you could really be rooting for the colony as a whole. It plays on our natural disgust of rats, but perhaps a little too effectively considering some of the later scenes. The only other thing I really didn’t like about the film was Collette’s character - sure we find out why she had to become so tough, but really I didn’t find her a likable enough character.

But enough of that - there is so much to like about this movie. It’s perhaps not as good as some other PIXAR movies, but it’s an extremely enjoyable movie. The music (by Michael Giacchino) is great, very atmospheric and very French (had I mentioned that the film is set in Paris?), and the visuals are nothing short of spectacular at times. The backgrounds capture the wonderful uniqueness of Paris perfectly and there is a lot of detail. The characters are also extremely well portrayed and very expressive. But really you would expect nothing less of a PIXAR movie. The voice acting is also top notch, I couldn’t really fault any of the cast at all. (Naturally, PIXAR stalwart John Ratzenberger’s can be heard, but I’ll let you find out which character he plays for yourself!) Even though he’s dead, Gusteau (voiced by Brad Garrett) manages to make an appearance as a figment of Remy’s imagination. As such he doesn’t usually have the answers to Remy’s questions - I mean, what’s a figment to do??!?

There is plenty of action and drama in the movie, and lots of humour. The dialogue can get a little bland at times but there are a lot of funny turns of phrases in there too. I think I found Emile to be the funniest character of the lot. While the plot overall was very good I did find a couple of bit’s slightly too predictable. However the main turning point in the movie for the miserable food critic was very nicely done. There are a few references to earlier PIXAR movies there too if you look hard enough.

All in all, Ratatouille was a very enjoyable movie and a worthy addition to the PIXAR stable. I didn’t quite feel it was worthy of 5 stars, but it only missed it by a rat’s hair. (Sorry, couldn’t resist the bad pun!!) I would be more than happy to see it again in the near future, which must be a good sign.


Other Information

Runtime: 110 minutes
Rating: Universal (there are some bits that I thought might frighten very young or very sensitive children, but that’s all)

Utterly Pointless Information

Before I wrote this review, I wouldn't have been able to spell "Ratatouille".

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Other PIXAR Animated Movies

Finding Nemo
The Incredibles
Toy Story 2
Cars

See also: My Top Ten Animated Movies

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This movie review was an entry to my Good Movie Write Off



Recommended: Yes

Movie Mood: Family Movie