Underwhelming

Rating: 6/10 (27 October 2008)

Ratatouille fails to deliver the Pixar experience that we so know and love. The animation is perfect, which is now expected, but the narrative lacks wit, passion and drive and left an expectant reviewer underwhelmed.
Many of the characters in Ratatouille are peripheral to the plot and here lies the problem. The story is rather linear it does not twist or turn, it is happy to focus on Remy's escapades. The characters that do have a firmer foothold within the story are not entertaining or fun... There is no endearment.
By far the best character has to be Anton Ego voiced wonderfully by Peter O'Toole - an egotistical, self-assured food critic... And that is what is missing from Ratatouille the quirkiness of character so evident in previous Pixar animations.
Ratatouille is an improvement on the just sufferable Cars but apart from the last fifteen-minutes of the film and some funny moments, which there were not nearly enough, it was a rather sombre and just about satisfactory affair.