I just saw "Ratatouille" tonight, and I'm baffled as to why it's receiving such rave reviews. It's not bad, but it's not that good either. It just...is. It's as forgettable as "Ghost Rider." Hardly anything stands out. The story is stale, there's very little humor (unless you enjoy endless slapstick), and the characters are shrug-inducing. The animation is very good though. It's impressive to see how far Pixar has come technically. I just wish that the story was better executed. There's only so much humor you can get out of a kid being controlled by a rat.
Ironically, most of the humor came from identifying which Disney movie stories were almost outright copied in the script. There is, of course, the very obvious nod to "The Little Mermaid" when the father rat warns his naive son to "stay away from humans, they're dangerous" among other similarities. And there's the "American Tail" reference with him being separated from his family, drifting through the sewers, and finally running into them in the big city. And then there's the very odd similarity between the head chef and Gollum. Many of his facial expressions nearly had me yelping out, "Gollum! Gollum!" or "My Precioussssssss!" as he leaps for the papers the rat steals.
A friend called this film delicious. To me it tasted like stale graham crackers. It's fine in a pinch, but it's not all that great.
Overall, it's not bad or great. It's just ok.
(By the way, I felt the same about "Monsters, Inc." and "Finding Nemo." So now you know if you can heed my review. If you loved those movies, you'll enjoy this. If not, then heed me...heeeeeed meeeee!)