Ratatouille: A Review

For the first time since Finding Nemo, I actually went to the theaters to see Pixar's new film, 'Ratatouille' which opened today across the United States. Within the last two years or so, I've not been too impressed by Pixar's films 'Cars' and 'The Incredibles' as something about them turned me off. Ratatouille almost came close to the same point, but I decided to give it a chance in the hopes nothing about the film would make me cringe.

Ratatouille had a lot of surprises in it that I had never seen for a Pixar film; the rats face danger in a much more believable world than past Pixar protagonists and the comedy isn't too drawn out. I'll not go into details about the film being as many people have not yet had the opportunity to see it, but I will say that you'll most likely come out of this film wanting to try your hand at cooking and pleased with the money spent on the ticket.

The main spotlight is shared between Remy (who looks overly more like a mouse than a rat) and his human counterpart, though at times the story seems to put more emphasis on the 'garbage boy' than Remy himself. It isn't such a bad thing, being the film quickly develops Remy's own personal history, behaviors, and beliefs about life in general and although the film is primarily supposed to be about the rat it is more about two completely different beings working together in order to better themselves and those around them.


Ratatouille receives a Gold Curtain, which is the highest mark I can give a film.

I just got back from seeing it an hour ago. I'm with you on every count there. Great film. Pixar has certainly outdone itself.
Think Wall-e will be that good?
Bonus points on the little short they had before the movie. Very funny.

I think Wall-E has potential. After 700 years, a female robot from a probe shows up and he falls in love with her.


The short was hilarious. Bonus points for the Wilhelm Scream at the very end.

I didn't know that about Wall-e. I just knew it was about a robot that finds change after 700 years. Should have known it would be a chick.

Rocked!!

I loved Ratatouille: plain and simple. from the animation which flowed beautifully to the story line. I found it to be cute and very comedic.


I plan on seeing it again: Who wants to come along.

really worth seeing
Backwoods

Note from Simon: this post contains spoilers.

I had the opportunity to see this film yesterday and I have to agree that this is definitely a movie worth seeing. One aspect of this film that I truly liked was the way the characters were developed into complex beings, each with their own quirks or faults if you will. No on was either all good or all bad as is the case of some of the cheaper fare that is passed of as entertainment for the masses. I think the best example of this would be the character; Anton Ego the food critic. Sure he starts out as someone full of malevolence and is a source of dread especially for Remy and Linguini who must find some way to please his palete or risk death by pen in the form of a scathing review. As it turns out though, he is only doing what the public wants and he himself proves to be vulnerable to a well prepard dish of Ratatouille...

Peace :D
NIMHmaniac

I had the opportunity to see this film yesterday and I have to agree that this is definitely a movie worth seeing. One aspect of this film that I truly liked was the way the characters were developed into complex beings, each with their own quirks or faults if you will. No on was either all good or all bad as is the case of some of the cheaper fare that is passed of as entertainment for the masses. I think the best example of this would be the character; Anton Ego the food critic. Sure he starts out as someone full of malevolence and is a source of dread especially for Remy and Linguini who must find some way to please his palete or risk death by pen in the form of a scathing review. As it turns out though, he is only doing what the public wants and he himself proves to be vulnerable to a well prepard dish of Ratatouille...

Peace :D
NIMHmaniac

People haven't seen the film yet---this would count as a spoiler.

I'm agreeing with Zohar here. And this comes from someone who always ends up spoiling surprises himself.

Ooooops... My bad. To those of you for whom the suprise was spoiled, I offer my sincere apologies and in the future, I will try not to let this happen again.

Peace :D
NIMHmaniac

Pssssst. Might want to alter the pose for those who haven't seen this thread. ;)

Pssssst. Might want to alter the pose for those who haven't seen this thread. ;)

Already did. ;)

I had the opportunity to see this film yesterday and I have to agree that this is definitely a movie worth seeing. One aspect of this film that I truly liked was the way the characters were developed into complex beings, each with their own quirks or faults if you will. No on was either all good or all bad as is the case of some of the cheaper fare that is passed of as entertainment for the masses. I think the best example of this would be the character; Anton Ego the food critic. Sure he starts out as someone full of malevolence and is a source of dread especially for Remy and Linguini who must find some way to please his palete or risk death by pen in the form of a scathing review. As it turns out though, he is only doing what the public wants and he himself proves to be vulnerable to a well prepard dish of Ratatouille...

Peace :D
NIMHmaniac

People haven't seen the film yet---this would count as a spoiler.

It's a good thing I didn't read his post... you almost ruined it by quoting it though. I look forward to seeing this movie but I think I missed it and will have to check it out on DVD.

There's so much I want to talk about on this topic...

First comes the fact that Pixar shows respect to international viewers of the movie. The English words and signs were changed into symbols that show the same meaning, and the American flag on a television screen changed into a globe. I haven't seen the film in the US so I can't say much, but I'm assuming all of the newspapers and books, etc in the film were written in English despite the French setting. If not, I'm wrong. If so, here's a fact. In the non-English countries, all of the articles and books were written in French due to the fact that using English text throughout the film was unnecessary for non-English viewers. (Again, I don't know about the US version of the film, so apologies if I'm wrong.) I really enjoy how this is done in Pixar movies.

I read in a movie pamphlet which explained how the film didn't just draw Paris and use it to get a true realistic look of the city. Instead, they used images of Paris with how the imagination sees it. I don't know too much about the city, but what I know is that the setting was beautifully described for the eyes of the viewers. I have to say though, I've been there and I know for a fact that Paris is a beautiful city that's not as modernized as Tokyo or Hong Kong, and still shows great European detail in itself. I think the creators have noticed similar facts when they went to Paris and did a good job showing it in the film. I don't know how the French would take it, but the scenes that joke about French people (or culture) were pretty funny.

Although many people tell me I look into movies too deeply, as my personal opinion, some factors of conflict in the film are connected to The Secret of NIMH a lot. Examples being how humans treat rodents and why , and both show conflicts from the point of view of the rats in terms of stealing food and maybe some more. For better or worse, a main difference of Ratatouille and Secret of NIMH is obviously how a connection was established between humans and rats. I've looked at many movies in which rodents are the protagonists (which I bet a lot of you have), but the only movies I can think of that have done this are Ratatouille and The Rescuers movies (and more perhaps). The Secret of NIMH doesn't do it (although realistic connections are discussed), An American Tail doesn't do it, and The Great Mouse Detective doesn't do it (in fact, humans don't have ANY affect in the scenes of this movie at all). Returning to the main point, I think friendships between rodents and humans aren't very realistic, but they are definately more hearwarming and makes us happy inside. This movie does so especially because Remy's father always talks about humans and rats and how they don't go well.

I'm honestly glad they didn't make the rats anthropomorphic by making them wearing clothes this time. Not that I don't like the idea, but it makes the film original. It gives a realistic feel and greatly reflects on how rats are the main villain at a restaurant...

I think all of the "mice and/or rats movies" have different perspectives due to how the story goes. Sometimes human contact is unnecessary, sometimes it is, and sometimes (or often), they wear clothes. I think Ratatouille was original in terms of this, the major connection established between a rat and a human despite the "language barrier", the rats not wearing clothes, etc etc. Plus the movie was beautiful with the help of the foods and the fact of being set in one of the most famous and beautiful cities in the world. I think Pixar gave a new and in ways improved look to movies with rodents as main characters.