Movie Review: Ratatouille
Ratatouille (2007)–****
There’s a scene in Ratatouille were a food critic is so overwhelmed by the food he eats that it alters his perception. It burrows deep in to his mind finding a moment so personal and pure that the food itself becomes the embodiment of all life’s joys. Anyone watching Ratatouille, director Brad Bird’s follow-up to his first Pixar animated film The Incredibles, will undoubtedly react the same way the food critic did.
I loved Ratatouille. I loved its sharp and superlative animation. I loved its unexpected telling of a rather formulaic story. I loved the moments of slapstick humor and the darker moments of dread. In fact, it’s hard to find a part of this movie I didn’t love.
When we are first introduced to Remy (voiced by Patton Oswalt), a country rat with dreams of making great Parisian dishes and not of stealing scraps, the film doesn’t seem to have a leg to stand on. Yet, the paced progression of his adventure romances us in a ways rarely seen in most studio animations (at least none since Bird’s The Incredibles).
The moment Remy fixes a soup ruined by the garbage boy Linguini (Lou Romano), we are hooked into Ratatouille. The Remy/Linguini cooking team (Remy with the nose for cooking controls Linguini’s hands) end up impressing food critics, the public and a certain female cook with an eye for Linguini.
Of course, Head Chef Skinner (Ian Holm), who is set to inherit the famous restaurant in which Linguini works until he discovers Linguini is the rightful heir, doesn’t like the new guy getting attention. Likewise, the food critic Ego (Peter O’Toole), who brought the once five-star restaurant down a star, doesn’t want to see any revitalization. Just when Remy and Linguini are in a position to take on both Skinner and Ego, Remy’s lowbrow rat family, from which he was luckily separated, finds him and wants to bring him back to the colony.
Sometimes the hardest part of writing a review is describing the story because it often necessitates talking about plot points out of context. Until you see the moments I’ve described, you don’t really get the full picture of the amazing success that is Ratatouille. It’s an unlikely success to be sure, this easily unbelievable story about a rat using a man as a puppet, but Ratatouille works because it does exactly what great movies are supposed to do: it makes you want to believe.
Yes, there is magic in Ratatouille, but its magic cannot be credited to the Pixar brand. Even more so than The Incredibles, the humor and heart in this film singularly reflect what writer/director Bird has to offer audiences as a true auteur of animated film. While the appeal of Pixar’s sensibility has waned thanks to its last two non-Bird releases (Finding Nemo and Cars), Bird has been a refreshing individual voice who can reinvigorate and reinvent what Pixar has to offer. Ratatouille is the best example of this yet. And thanks to Bird, animation’s master storyteller, Ratatouille is also the best film so far this year, animated or otherwise.
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