Since 1995 with the release of Toy Story, Pixar has been making excellent computer animated movies. I have seen and loved all of their movies. They somehow keep managing to top their previous movies with every new one. I've been looking forward to seeing Ratatouille for months and the movie lived up to my expectations.
Remy was an unusual rat because he was more discriminating about what he ate. He didn’t want to pick through garbage like the other rats. He actually wanted to be able to cook and looked up to the famous French chef Gusteau, something that his father and brother Emile didn’t understand or support. Remy ended up in Paris after things went wrong where he had been living. He still had his dream of cooking and he risked his life by being in the kitchen of a well-known restaurant.
Linguini was a young man working there who found himself in danger of losing his job because he couldn’t cook. He befriended Remy and the two came up with a way to work together to become a great chef. Emile and Remy had to be very careful so no one in the kitchen figured out what was going on. Chef Skinner, the head chef, was very suspicious of Linguini.
The animated short Lifted played before the movie began. It was very cute, funny, and entertaining. The animation was very well done and featured gorgeous visuals. There was some hand drawn type of animation shown during the closing credits.
The plot of Ratatouille was mostly concerned with following your dreams and not letting others deter you. Remy wanting to be a chef didn’t seem like a very attainable dream for a rat. Things seemed stacked against him, but he didn’t give up. It also touched on the importance of being true to yourself and not living a lie just to make others happy. Those messages were handled well and delivered in ways that weren’t heavy handed. I expected there to be some sort of message included in the movie since every other Pixar movie has done the same thing. They give the movies heart and make them so much more than just animated movies. That is what makes Pixar’s movies so wonderful.
Most of the movie dealt with Remy’s adventures once he arrived in Paris. It didn’t take him long to find the restaurant where he met Linguini. Remy only delayed his escape from the kitchen because he just couldn’t resist fixing a soup that was messed up. The rest of the movie was about Remy and Linguini figuring out how to work together and keep Skinner and the other cooks from discovering their secret. The plot was a bit more complicated than the plots of most other animated movies which might bother some people. There were a couple of subplots introduced that I thought blended in well with the main story. I do think this is a movie that adults and children both can enjoy. The movie was almost two hours long and did have a few slower scenes, so it could be too long for some viewers, especially younger children. I didn’t have a problem with the length and was never bored by what was going on.
Humor was used throughout the movie in ways that worked very well. Remy did a lot of things that made me laugh, like when he was trying to cook a mushroom with Emile looking on when a storm was fast approaching. The way that turned out was hilarious. The scenes when Remy and Linguini were figuring out how they would be able to work together were very funny. Chef Skinner became obsessed with figuring out what was going on which caused him to do all kinds of things that made me laugh. Some of the things that were done for humor were a little silly, but that didn’t bother me at all. I really liked that the movie didn’t resort to gross humor with burping or farting jokes like so many animated and family movies seem to do anymore.
Cooking played a very big part in Ratatouille. Remy was trying to figure out how to eat better when he was still living in the country with his pack who were perfectly content to eat from the garbage. Remy managed to see cooking shows about Gusteau and even read his cook book. Once he was in Paris and working with Linguini, the two of them did a lot of cooking. Several scenes were shown in the kitchen of the restaurant. Those scenes did seem accurate to me - except for a rat cooking of course. Some of the terms associated with cooking and the different positions in the kitchen were briefly explained in a way that didn’t detract from what was going on.
Pixar has a history of featuring unique characters in their movies. Their movies have featured talking toys, bugs, monsters, fish, and cars. Humans have been minor characters in most of the movies and not even seen at all in a few of them. The Incredibles was the only Pixar movie to have people as main characters though they weren’t normal since they were superheroes. In Ratatouille, there was a mix of human and rat characters. The rats were able to talk to each other and even understand humans. The humans couldn’t understand the rats and only heard squeaks if a rat was talking. Remy and Linguini came up with a unique way to work together that I really liked. Many people think of rats as disgusting animals and wouldn’t want one anywhere near them, let alone actually cooking their meal in a fancy restaurant in Paris. I’ve heard that some people had concerns about how well the movie would do since Remy is a rat. That never bothered me and I wanted to see the movie from the first time I saw the preview in the summer of 2006 when I saw Cars.
Ratatouille continued the fabulous animation that Pixar has become known for. The countryside that was shown at the beginning of the movie looked very realistic and beautiful. The way hair looked throughout the movie, either on the different rat or human characters, was great. Individual hairs could be seen moving on the rats and people’s heads. There were a few sequences that involved water or rain in some way. The rushing water looked amazingly realistic. In one scene, Remy was in a sewer and the reflection from the water was visible ripping across the wall in a very believable way. The movie also included several gorgeous visuals of the skyline of Paris. Those looked so real that I almost forgot I was watching an animated movie.
Remy and Linguini were the main characters, with Remy being a bit more developed. He loved his family, but wasn’t content with a life picking food from garbage and sniffing out rat poison. He loved good food and had a talent for cooking which led to him working with Linguini. The voice of Patton Oswalt really fit the character. Linguini was a young man who was very unsure of himself when he arrived at the restaurant. He was sweet and kind but he did let his new found success after he was working with Remy go to his head. Lou Romano’s voice worked very well for the character.
Gusteau was the well-liked chef that Remy looked up to. Gusteau believed that anyone could cook, something that earned him the scorn of some critics. I really liked the voice that Brad Garrett did for the character. Even though Skinner was the chef in charge of the kitchen, he never seemed to actually cook anything. He tended to run around yelling orders. He became very suspicious of Linguini. I didn’t recognize that Ian Holm was providing his voice when I saw the movie.
Janeane Garofalo’s character of Colette had a soft spot for Linguini though she was also tough as the only woman working in the kitchen. Anton Ego was a very stuffy, arrogant, food critic who had once skewered the restaurant in a review. He wasn’t pleased that the restaurant was receiving praise. Peter O’Toole’s voice was absolutely perfect and matched the appearance of the character. None of the other chefs working at the restaurant were featured that much. They were mainly just shown in the backgrounds of scenes. Several rats, including Remy’s father Django and brother Emile were also around without being very developed. John Ratzenberger once again provided a voice for a character like he has done in every Pixar movie. Director Brad Bird also provided a voice for a character.
Voice Talent
Will Arnett - Horst Brad Bird - Ambrister Minion Julius Callahan - Lao/Francois Brain Dennehy - Django Janeane Garofalo - Colette Brad Garrett - Gusteau Ian Holm - Skinner Peter Oswalt - Remy Peter O’Toole - Anton Ego John Ratzenberger - Mustafa James Remar - Larousse Lou Romano - Linguini Peter Sohn - Emile
Brad Bird - Director
Ratatouille was a wonderful movie that I really enjoyed. The movie had breathtaking animation and a plot with heart, two things that Pixar excels at combing.
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