Critical Mass - Ratatouille
(Originally posted at Youth Ministry Exchange)
Pixar's latest offering, Ratatouille,
tells the story of a rat who wishes for something more and a young man
who pretends to be something he's not. Together, they resurrect a
once-popular restaurant that has fallen from its perch atop French
cuisine since the death of its founder. Remy (voiced by Patton Oswalt)
is a rat who aspires to be a chef, much to the chagrin of his father,
Django (Brian Dennehy), leader of their rat clan. Through Remy's
attempt to create something more tasteful out of a mushroom the family
is swept away into Paris, becoming separated along the way. Remy is
guided to a restaurant by the angelic appearance of Gusteau (Brad
Garrett), the former proprietor of Gasteau's who passed away after the
restaurant lost its five star rating. Remy then meets up with Linguini
(Lou Romano) who is the restaurant's garbage boy, and who unknowingly
bears a secret with him that the current head chef, Skinner (Ian Holm)
would do anything to hide. Linguini discovers Remy's cooking talents
and they team up to create a new buzz around the restaurant, helped
along by Colette (Janeane Garofalo), and drawing the attention of food
critic Alton Ego (Peter O'Toole), whose poor review of Gasteau's caused
the demise of its namesake chef.
Ratatouille
is masterfully animated by Pixar, once again proving that they are the
masters of 3D computer animation. With each new film out of Emeryville,
Pixar creates characters that look more lifelike and environments that
are just this side of real. The music by Michael Giacchino is catchy,
but doesn't stand out like previous Pixar scores have. The film is
directed and written by Brad Bird, who previously directed The Iron Giant and The Incredibles.
This
film has been given extremely high reviews from many sources, having a
score on Rotten Tomatoes of over 90%. However, I feel like it's missing
something. Ratatouille seemed to be a long ride that never really arrived anywhere. It lacked the memorable characters of Toy Story and the emotional depth of Finding Nemo. Pixar has been synonymous with great storytelling since Toy Story
debuted, but this film feels like it never got past the novelty of a
cooking rat. There were funny moments, but none that stood out. There
were several chase scenes, but all of them seemed overly frenetic at
first, then repetitive after that.
The voice actors did a fine
job, but some of the French accents were very difficult to understand.
Peter O'Toole does a masterful job as the uptight food critic, stealing
the end of the film. Pixar voice regular John Ratzenberger makes his
appearance as well, though I didn't know which character he was until
looking it up later.
For youth, Ratatouille would be a tough draw. There isn't the slapstick comedy that Cars employed, and there isn't the subtle humor of Toy Story.
Unless your kids really want to see a movie about a rat that cooks, I
can't see the appeal. The younger kids in the theater didn't seem to
enjoy it much--30 minutes into the movie several began shuffling
around. My own children kept asking if we could go home. There is a
scene of one character intentionally getting another character drunk in
order to get him to confess something. Also, it is implied that there
is a child born out of wedlock, but this is never specifically stated
in the film.
I wanted to love this movie. I wanted to add it
to my video collection along side of each of the other classic
Pixar/Disney films. Pixar set a high standard for themselves, and up to
now, they constantly raised their own standard. The funniest scene of
the day was actually in Lifted, the alien abduction themed short film screened before the main feature. Ratatouille is
often just on the cusp of good moments, but ultimately fell flat for
me. Maybe it would be better on a second viewing, but with so many big
movies out this summer, it probably won't get many of those.