Like clockwork, you can be confident that Pixar Pictures will release a new, state of the art computer animated film every year. While computer animation has lost its novelty, it hasn't lost its effect- CGI has the ability to make animation seem more realistic. With cell animation you see the idea of a rat, in Ratatouille, you simply see a rat, albieit a anthromoprihized one.
And that rat is not named Ratatouille. Ratatouille is, as the helpful Wikipedia cookbook tells me, "a traditional Provençal vegetable dish that can be served as a meal on its own, accompanied by rice, potatoes, French bread, or as a side dish." Yes, the newest Pixar film is a satire on gourmet culture. The protagonist is a rat named Remy (voice of Patton Oswald), a finicky rodent who tires of eating the garbage that is father and brother usually dine on. One day, he spots a TV show from an obese chef named Gusteau (Brad Garret) whose motto is that "anyone can cook." While it is debatable that the chef had a species known for propagating the Black Death in mind, Remy takes it to heart, and eventually winds up at Gusteau's (who by this time has died) three star restaurant in Paris. At the same time, a dorky American kid named Linguini (Lou Romano) shows up, and manages to get a job sweeping the floor. Due to a convoluted series of circumstances, Remy manages to cook secretly while Linguini gets the credit, bringing success to the restaurant for the first time in years.
And although you can guess pretty much where the story is going to go from there, Ratatouille is entertaining throughout and never dull, which is not to say the film is flawless. For one thing, far too much time is spent on Linguini's personal life, which doesn't really lend itself to animation. The scenes in which the young pseudo-chef tries to hook up with a colleague named Colette (Janeane Garofalo) seem like something out of a TV sitcom. They are not bad, exactly, but are unnecessary in this movie. Where the movie really shines is when it involves the rats, which is impressive considering the fact that Rattus norvegicus happens to be my least favorite mammal. Director Bird and his animators manage to keep Remy and his family cute but genuinely rat-like, which must have been a difficult line to walk. The character animation for the animals is particularly impressive, it's just entertaining to watch their facial expressions and how they move.
With this movie, it's pretty clear that Bird (who also made The Incredibles) is trying to take the Pixar film to a more adult audience. There were lots of kids in the audience (all who seemed to enjoy the movie) but I doubt that they got much of the satire of fine cuisine, just as I doubt that they got much of the political commentary of The Incredibles. I liked the fact Pixar is trying to appeal to everyone with their films, but it seemed a little forced here. The best film from the studio (and one of the finest of all animated films) was Finding Nemo, which had more actual drama in it (with a father desperatley trying to save the life of his son) than many art films. That was enough to draw everyone in. The satire in Ratatouille is entertaining, but it's a few steps away from being esoteric. The movie is fun, but never reaches the highs of Nemo, or the Toy Story pictures, which were more simple, but also more profound, and amazingly, more fun.
Ratatouille (2007)