After last year's disappointing Pixar feature Cars [2/4], the buzz about Ratatouille has all been about one question; did Pixar get its groove back? I just came back from a screening of the film, and hopefully my review shall answer that question to your satisfaction.
I should hope that the Batman & Robin Movie Gradation Scale needn't be explained again anymore, but if you truly need a refresher, just check my earlier Flimsy Film Reviews.
Story:
The film stars two unlikely heroes; Remy, a rat who dreams of becoming a critically-acclaimed cook, and Linguini, an awkward French man who finds himself credited for Remy's cooking. Working together, Remy and Linguini become the most famous cook (notice the singular there) in all of Paris. But the pair face challenges from Skinner, the unpleasant head-chef, Anton Ego, an overly-critical food critic, and Remy's uncouth clan of fellow rats.
While certainly not an epic story in any sense of the word, the plot is perfect for an animated film, and is perfectly in taste (food puns; there will be many) with what one comes to expect from a Pixar picture. However, this film differs slightly in that it's longer than most (around the same length as The Incredibles [0/4]), and as such there are a great deal of twists and turns. Is this bad? Good graceous, no. It's one of the many charms of this film.
Character Development:
Whereas Cars was very bad in this department, using outdated stereotypes as opposed to real emotional personalities, Ratatouille has succeeded. The characters of Linguini and Colette, the aforementioned hero and his girl, are the best-explored characters in the whole movie. It may not seem it, but I'm a romantic at heart. But by romance I mean something believable, something with emotional pull to it, not just the obvious pairings of so many shippers in the online community. You really cheer for these two in the film, even me with my cold, immobile heart.
Remy's less explored than I had imagined the title character would be, mostly by virtue of him being quiet for a lot of the film. However, 90% of the stuff we do get is pure gold. Patton Oswalt is a very enthusiastic performer, and he brings his geekiness from his real-life obsession with comics to his character's obsession with food. His feelings of ostracization is also well-performed.
The villain Skinner was excellent. Ian Holm plays the perfect snooty, pompus French chef. One of the many nuggets this film offers.
Some of the background characters, like the rest of the kitchen crew and the rat pack leave something to be desired, but they're very much background characters. Not knowing everything about Remy's dad isn't the end of the world.
Comedy:
This film isn't exactly what you'd call "hilarious" or "a gut-buster," but it is indeed a very funny film. Most of the humor is witty humor, which if you're a clever person is certainly not a bad thing by any stretch of the imagination. It has a very adult sense of humor, while still appealing to the kids in the audience. The filmmakers don't presume to insult your intelligence like so many other CGI animated blockbusters by stuffing it with groin kicks and asinine pop culture references (though Chef Boyardee is mentioned). It's not stuff you'd be holding your sides for, but rather would promote a delightful (and appropriately quiet) little chuckle to oneself, with a few laugh-out-loud moments.
Music:
The music perfectly gives off the atmosphere of a pleasant little Parisian bistro in the evening, almost throughout the entire film. It was sublime.
Graphics:
Pixar only ever gets better in this regard. The people over there are artists, pure geniuses. Everything looks real, even when it looks cartoony. Skin looks like it's actually flesh, and not just a skin-colored layer on a polygon. Every hair on every rat is accounted for. Food looks like food. Paris looked like it had been filmed in person, and merely digitally enhanced to make it look almost dream-like. I often find it hard to believe that such magnificent art can come from a computer program. If you're into visual stimuli, go see this now.
Crazy Old Lady with a Shotgun factor:
Oh yeah, it's got that.
Life Lessons:
I very much liked the moral of this story. It teaches all the viewers, young and old, that art, true art and creativity and uniqueness, can come from anyone. It teaches you that if you have the passion, that you can do almost anything, and that one should not judge by appearences or preconcieved stereotypes. When I have a child, I am sitting them down in front of this film and hope they pick up something from it.
Direction/Did Pixar Get Its Groove Back?:
Brad Bird is an animation God, especially to the fraternity of geeks that I belong to. He knows how to tell a story. So is this a true Pixar film? Does it have that classic Pixar feel to it like the classics? Short answer, yes. Long answer, it has and yet it's also breaking new ground. It doesn't feel exactly like the classics such as Toy Story, Monsters Inc., or Finding Nemo. Those films were somewhat different in that they were more tender than Ratatouille. Each one had a very emotion plot that tugged at the deepest, thickest heartstrings burried deep within our sternum. Dealing with issues of abandonment, unconditional love, and just putting every ounce of being into reuniting with the absolute center of your world, these classics are an emotional roller coaster ride that pit the character's deepest hopes and dreams against absolutely impossible odds. In Ratatouille, there isn't that same sense of emotional urgency; Remy desparately wants to find his place in the world, but his is not a struggle of absolute life or death. The challenges are tough and many, to be sure, but they do not seem absolutely insurmountable.
However, where this film fails to recapture these basic elements, it replaces them with some new elements that are just as good. This is a very uplifting film, I will not mince words. I felt literally better when I left the theatre than I did when I entered it. Just the power of the human spirit shown in this film really makes you feel at ease with yourself. You get to watch as the lives of many, of both mice and men, are forever changed by these two unlikely heroes, and it just makes you feel happy to be part of it. My compliments to the chef!
FINAL SCORE:
0/4
Wow, my first Perfect/Near-Perfect score of the year. I was hoping I'd see one. Now there's finally a nominee for the 2007 Vesty Award for Best Picture, to be decided sometime after December 31st, 2007.
This movie has everything an animated film, especially one from Pixar should have; 2lbs chopped excellent characters, a compelling story wrought with hurdles and served with a light Hollendaise sauce, a peppering of intelligent humor, 1 cup creme de romance, calorie-friendly life lessons, a pinch of warmth, and the delightful aftertaste of a happy ending. Ratatouille is a 7-course meal for the senses that has great selections from both the adult and children's menus. If you trust my taste in films, then please, trust me when I say this is a film you'll be wanting seconds of.
Bon appetit!
- Silent G
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