Ratatouille Review

Disney-Pixar's Ratatouille

Ratatouille (rat-a-too-ie) is a very strong entry into the stellar Pixar lineup and delivers on the promises made in the trailer. I'll avoid the recap, there are enough of those all over the net, and you are probably familiar with the premise of a rat living in Paris who longs to be a chef. The picture focuses heavily on this main character, Remy the Rat, and this is refreshing for a Pixar film. There are a number of great action sequences, you can almost set your watch to them, as they appear every 7 minutes or so, and though they are clearly there to keep the kiddies awake through all the "book" scenes, are integrated well-enough into the story to be successful. Particularly successful is the water pipe sequence early in the film. There is a great payoff when the camera slowly raises to reveal Paris on a beautiful summer evening.

Another item in the film that was clearly a "problem-solver" is the narrative between Remy, the protagonist, and the famous chef that is the figment of his imagination. Its a tad awkward, but its better than having the main character be silent for 80% if the film. There are a few strange "acting" moments, when things are made overly broad to communicate them more clearly, but not enough to spoil the picture by any means. As always in a Pixar film, the characters are very well developed, believable, and certainly have you rooting for them.

Ultimately, the story is strong, there are many beautiful sequences, and the characters are memorable, but it never achieves the epic of Finding Nemo or The Lion King. Feel free to post what y'all think if you see it.

Odds & Ends: the end credits stylistically look remarkably like the drawings done for Monsters, Inc.; the opening short is like a slapstick version of M. Night Shyamalan's Signs... very entertaining; the original director of Ratatoille was replaced, and some of the "fixes" I refer to above seem like they stem from this change; the title is not that name of the main character, as I thought, but does play an important role in the film; the preview for Pixar's next adventure WALL*E looks great, and even further from the mold then this one.