Ratatouille Movie Review

With Ratatouille, Brad Bird proves, once and for all, that what Martin Scorsese is to film, he is to animation - others may do the same thing, but he does it just a little bit better. Bird's first two fastball strikes on the big screen - The Iron Giant and The Incredibles - were both mind-blowing, highlight reel pitches, but Ratatouille is more of an unusual curveball that nicks the corner of the plate, firmly striking out the animated auteur competition. Perhaps more than Scorsese, it's more apt to compare Bird to Steven Spielberg (a clear inspiration), another filmmaker who took traditional cinematic storytelling and turned it into childhood magic. Ratatouille is the best animated movie in well over a year, and one of the most magical, enjoyable movie experiences you'll have at the theater this summer or any time else this year. It's not quite as flawless as Iron Giant or The Incredibles, but it does make the factory-produced CGI films of the past year look like they exist within an entirely different and lesser medium.

The first thing you'll notice about Ratatouille is how incredibly detailed a world Brad Bird and his team have created. No offense to recent films like Shrek the Third or Surf's Up, but this is a whole new level of detail for the genre. It's the look of a XBox 360 game compared to PS2 (or even a PS1 in some cases). Every frame looks simply amazing. (If there's an option where you live to see it digitally projected, you owe it to yourself to do so.) As we watch Remy the rat (voiced by a perfectly cast Patton Oswalt) turn up his rodent nose at the garbage that his brethren happily shove down their throats, the animation is not just endearing and cute but overwhelmingly detailed and accomplished. If you judge CGI animation in terms of sheer technical achievement, from the character design to the voice work, Ratatouille is as much a step up for the medium as the original Toy Story was.

After an awful incident with his brothers in the French countryside, Remy - a rat who's obsessed with gourmet food - becomes stranded in Paris and stumbles across Gusteau's, the restaurant founded by his culinary idol. After working his way into the kitchen, Remy forms an unlikely partnership with the floor-mopper Linguini (Lou Romano) and turns the nervous guy into the best chef in all of Paris. Along the way, Remy's loyalty is tested, Linguini finds love with the career-driven Chef Colette (Janeane Garofalo), the kitchen boss (Ian Holm) tries to sabotage the new guy, and everyone worries about the most powerful food critic in town, Anton Ego (a brilliant Peter O'Toole, who gets one of the best monologues of his career near the end), bringing the whole house of cards crashing down.

On a storytelling level, Ratatouille doesn't quite match Iron Giant or Incredibles. It's a little too light at times and takes a bit too long to get to where it's trying to go. Having said that, any weaknesses in the storytelling in Ratatouille are easily offset by the atmosphere of the piece. Just as the French are notorious for taking hours to eat dinner, Bird and his team let the film "breathe," making a movie that could be considered more for adults than for kids. While there are enough amazingly choreographed action scenes to keep the little ones entertained, most of the dialogue and the overall mood of Ratatouille is going to appeal more to the older siblings and parents than the rugrats.

Ratatouille is one of those movies that you'll definitely enjoy while watching and walk out smiling, but it's in the replay and the memory of it that the film really shines. Images from will come back to you again and again and, like the city it so beautifully glorifies, it will make you long to return for a second visit. Ratatouille is like a great meal, incredible while you're eating it, but even better in memory, particularly after gorging yourself on the rest of the fast food on the summer movie menu.

Trailer :




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