Ratatouille Movie Review, Film Still and Poster

U.S 2007
Director: Brad Bird & Jan Pinkava
Cast: Patton Oswalt, Brad Garrett, Peter O'Toole, Lou Romano, Peter Sohn, Janeane Garofalo
Release Date: June 29th 2007
Rating: G
Running Time: 1 hour 50 minutes 55 secs

Review of the Movie

Ratatouille film still 1


RATATOUILLE
Storyline:
Cast:
Ending:
Overall:

I hate rats! But I love Pixar! So when Pixar "handles" rats, there's no other option for me but to love Rats. At least for Remy. But loving Pixar is not the sole reason to love this movie as well. Abundant reasons to love Ratatouille. If Pixar is not a familiar name for you, then these titles probably refresh your memory: Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Finding Nemo and The Incredibles, with those latter two have won Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2003 and 2004, respectively.

Remy (voiced by Patton Oswalt) is a male rat living in his colony with his chubby brother Emile (Peter Sohn) and Father, Django (Brian Dennehy) who is also the leader of the colony. Remy is one of a kind, a gifted rat whose great taste for food can only be matched by his desire to cook. Remy is inspired by the greatest chef in France (in Paris) named Auguste Gusteau (Brad Garrett). While watching Gusteau's show on TV at a house nearby, an incident happens which force Remy to be separated from his colony. Alone and hungry, Remy is guided by Little Gusteau (which actually Remy's own imagination) to go into a restaurant. But what for does he go to a restaurant? To steal the food like all rats does? No...Little Gusteau reminds Remy that if he ever wanted to be a chef, than cooking is the only option to satiates his need. But could Remy ever finally cook? When all the people working in that Restaurant hates Rats, especially if Rats were found in a restaurant, it's banned indeed. Luckily Remy befriends Linguini (Lou Romano), a clumsy and newly employed young man. Since Linguini is often yelled at by Skinner (Ian Holm), the owner of the restaurant and is also facing another threat from the ever famous/notorious Anton Ego (Peter O'Toole). Both they try to overcome their problems through unique and funny ways.

Ratatouille is an animation movie that combines the human's world and the animal kingdom (Rats, in this matter). And It's often tricky to make the audience believe that those worlds could interact with each other, even for elementary kids. But the writers of Ratatouille cleverly chooses to make the Rats muted when facing the human and could only be able to nod or shake its head. But this decision doesn't instantly make the movie less enjoyable or awkward. We see the world from Remy's point of view, so we hear a lot of Remy talking to himself or to his brother & father and also hear Linguini communicates with his fellow chefs or merely saying things to Remy.

Watching this movie, I didn't get to bring my little cousin or anyone! So I did hope that the movie would be so exciting to make the audience absorbed to what they saw, and indifferent to my being there, fortunately that was the case. Ratatouille is a very (and very) entertaining movie, it never leaves you feeling bored mainly for several key reasons. First, it dares to use Rats, an exciting and challenging concept to make them adorable creatures which set off the audience from the ordinary-funny-figures routine. Second, the use of soft and rich colour palette which mainly resort to warm-earthy tones, this is highly smart for a movie depicting gastronomical world. Third, the interesting storyline which give the audience a slowly-growing emotional attachment to Remy as we see how Remy fight for his own destiny and future and dreams. Once the emotion of the audience is attached to the main character, there's a big sum of guarantee the audience will stick to watch the movie till it ends.

And while probably other animation movies try to bombard the audience (perhaps for the young ones) with morale messages that sometimes we got weary of it, it simplifies the message to the old but everlasting adage "Anyone can cook!" hmm sorry, I mean "Anyone can reach for their dreams". Ratatouille storyline may seem a bit complex at times, but it flows naturally, and the smart thing is, when I got bored with the view of kitchen and all its utensils, the scenes shifted to the scenery of Paris when Remy was chased by one of its antagonists. Moreover, it doesn't follow the old road to happy ending, you know, where the protagonist seems to gradually win everything. Yes, it's a heartwarming movie with happy finale but the road to go there filled with quite-unexpected turns. Sorry, but if I tell you more, it would be a sure spoiler.

Ratatouille is a must to see, no matter how old you are, this Pixar movie gives you a warm feeling at your little heart, that just could probably go bigger and bigger. Besides there's a twist that comes out of the blue (concerning Anton Ego in the Restaurant) and well, it personally "opened my gate" and made me home sick. And for that, I would have to give Ratatouille an extra credit...