Ratatouille suffers from the same syndrome plenty of animations suffer from these days, it’s got a pretty look but no real writing to back it up. That’s a shame here, because the animation is better than any Pixar film I’ve seen to date. The quick judgment is this: If you have a child less than 13 you’ll do fine sending them to this. If you don’t I’d call this a skip.
The story is a simple “fish out of water” one. Remy (voiced by Patton Oswalt) heads to the city after a disaster befalls his rat den. He’s separated from his family but he’s always maintained a deep and passionate love affair with cuisine, specifically French cuisine. When he finds himself at the front door of his favorite restaurant in all of France… well, you get the idea.
I have a theory on why Pixar seems to slip a little bit with each release. I think the trouble lies with the reality conundrum of animation. When Pixar creates a new reality, a new world with their own rules, such as A Bug’s Life, Finding Nemo, and Monsters, Inc. it tends to work for me story wise. When they attempt to morph the current world into a Pixar reality, such as The Incredibles and Ratatouille they don’t seem to be able to do justice on either front. The reality and the fantasy collide there into a jumble of shoddy ideas.
Most of the issues with Ratatouille come directly from the script itself. They create problems for themselves by doing things like creating a Grandma with a shotgun. Now, I understand this is all in good fun, but if you’re making a movie for kids, why would you use firearms for the comedy? Wouldn’t this have worked as well with a rake? Another example would be the main character, Remy, who speaks flawless English to his rat buddies. That’s a common thing and clearly everyone accepts this. But why then can’t he speak to his human pal Linguini? Why choose fantasy on one front, and reality on the other? In doesn’t get you anywhere insofar as the plot goes and in fact it just makes things more difficult in terms of joke delivery. A talking rat is fine for an animation. A rat talking to a human is fine too. I mean, haven’t you already chucked reality once you’ve decided a rat can cook? So why take it only halfway and satisfy neither realm?
As I said before though, this one looks awesome. No one on the animation team should feel bad about their accomplishments; it’s the story that fails them. This movie portrays food so beautifully that you should eat a meal before entering… otherwise your mouth will water. The characters themselves are also distinct and cool looking. From Anton Ego, the evil food critic, to the tiny little head chef who tries to make Remy and Linguini’s lives horrible, the feel of characters is great.
One last note — there is a part near the end of Ratatouille meant specifically for critics. It’s a scathing comment, something to the effect of “No criticism has ever mattered as much as the worst art.” I beg to differ. If I can save someone eight bucks and two hours of their life I’ve done them a far better service than a movie maker who wants them to wander off like a drone to watch something that isn’t “art” at all. Pixar makes movies to make money. This isn’t some high school student writing poetry, this is an organization that wants to compete. In doing so they open their work up to criticism. I may not be creating art here, but neither is Pixar. They’re creating a story that they want people to enjoy, and if that story falls flat for me then honesty trumps any hokey concept of “never judging art.” Pixar should be better than this weird aside, which a general audience won’t care about either, and it only reinforces just how desperate their writing team has become for content.
