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Pixar’s ‘Ratatouille’ c’est magnifique
Walt Disney famously proclaimed, “I hope we never lose sight of one thing: That it was all started by a mouse.”
Now Pixar has completed the circle - with a rat.
With Ratatouille, writer-director Brad Bird (The Incredibles) has made not only Pixar’s zaniest movie, but the movie that best reflects the secret to the company’s storytelling success: not being content merely to follow the recipe. As the character Chef Gusteau (Brad Garrett) explains in the film, “Anyone can cook. But only the fearless can be great.”
Remy (standup comic Patton Oswalt), a rat with an acute sense of smell and taste, idolizes Chef Gusteau and his freewheeling outlook on life. This rat wants to be a great French chef too. Unfortunately, his confused brother Emile (Peter Sohn) and his disapproving father (Brian Dennehy) fail to see the point of Remy’s ambitions. Why not just take whatever food you can find and wolf it down like everyone else, they wonder?
When Remy is separated from his family after a harrowing and astoundingly animated journey through the sewers, he ends up in Paris at the restaurant once run by Chef Gusteau. There, he meets Linguini (Lou Romano), a clueless kid who needs a job but can’t cook to save his life.
Remy and Linguini (but mostly Remy) think up an ingenious and very silly scheme in which Remy will hide under Linguini’s chef’s hat and control Linguini’s actions marionette-style, like a tiny Geppetto to Linguini’s Pinocchio.
They eventually get the routine down pretty well, but have some tough nemeses to please, including the eternally irritated head chef Skinner (Ian Holm) and the dour food critic Anton Ego (Peter O’Toole), whose voice positively oozes condescension.
Speaking of critics, most of them have been very positive about Ratatouille. Yet I’m baffled at how one review after another says, in essence, “Wow, it’s such an adult movie. Will the kids really like it?”
Of course they’ll like it, if the kids who laughed at the comedy and hushed at the drama at my screening are any indication. Granted, haute cuisine may not be as easy to sell to kids as toys that come to life or cars that can talk. But if The Incredibles was Bird’s James Bond movie in superhero garb, then Ratatouille is his Looney Tunes movie in a chef’s hat and apron.
In addition to the slapstick of Remy and Linguini, there are several chases that move with amazing grace and speed, zipping under, over, through and around Paris. Bugs Bunny, the Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, and Pepe le Pew would be proud, as would animation legends Chuck Jones and Tex Avery.
And the visual delights aren’t limited to physical comedy. We get to see what great taste looks like, in more ways than one.
When Remy and Emile sample various kinds of food, Bird and his animators visualize what they taste by having fireworks, swirls and spirals swoosh around their heads in a marvelous display of imagination. Then there’s the actual food. Only Pixar could make digitally animated cuisine look so sumptuous.
Beyond that, children and adults will all be able to relate to the struggle of knowing that you could be great at something, and not being able to express it. It’s the kind of universal emotion that Pixar taps into with unmatched potency.
There are a few hiccups in the storytelling, stemming mostly from the fact that Bird came in late to save the initially troubled project and maybe overplotted it just a touch. But to dwell on such minor flaws would be to miss the point, just like those critics trying so intently to find the kid appeal in Ratatouille.
Bird said in a recent interview, “I can’t think of one other art form that has its audience so narrowly defined. If you work in animation, people tell you, ‘Oh, it must be wonderful to entertain children.’ Yes it is. But that’s 10 percent of the audience I’m going for.”
Pixar doesn’t make films for children. They never have. They make films for everyone by keeping their imaginations and their movies open to so many possibilities.
Some people have said they wish that Pixar could take their magic touch and sell it. They do already. It’s called a movie ticket. Buy several to Ratatouille and savor its delights.
GRADE: A+
Permalink | Comments (5) | Categories: Reviews
Comments
By MisterG
June 29, 2007 9:39 PM | Link to this
As long as it’s better than “Cars,” I’ll be there. In fact, who cares? It’s Pixar, and I’ll be there just the same, if only to enjoy whatever brilliant little short opens the film.By Sir Critic
June 29, 2007 1:41 PM | Link to this
It’s not quite their best ever, but it’s up there. Top 2 are definitely Toy Story 2, and The Incredibles. These next four are interchangeable: Ratatouille, Toy Story, Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo. Bottom two are definitely A Bug’s Life and Cars.By ME
June 29, 2007 12:37 PM | Link to this
Can’t wait to see it. And ER I love what you say about Pixar … that they don’t make movies for children, but for everyone!! Sounds like its their best yet?By Allie D.
June 29, 2007 11:58 AM | Link to this
This review comes as no surprise. I’m very excited to see this movie. And the phrase “One of the best of the year” has not been uttered hardly at all in 2007… I was starting to get anxious.By SRCputt
June 29, 2007 10:54 AM | Link to this
It is the best movie of the year so far.