A great animated fable packed with enthusiasm and absolutely amazing animation

Rating: 8/10 (30 July 2007)

After last year's horrendously average and overrated Cars, I was unsure how to approach Ratatouille. It looked impressive, and it looked like another great entry into the Pixar/Disney lineup. But then, so too did Cars. But something about Ratatouille struck me as immediate, as something that needed to be seen now and not simmered over later. And thankfully, albeit with a few minor flaws, the film comes out as being just as excellent as I could have hoped.
Ratatouille tells the story of Remy (voiced by Patton Oswalt), a rat who has a keen sense of smell. So keen, that he outright refuses to eat just about anything that his rat colony/family finds in the dumpsters or just laying around. He is put to good use as the poison checker for the colony, but still chooses to search out good food, and not just anything. He dreams of being a famous chef, but is hindered by the fact that he is a rat.
What follows is a bitter sweet story of just finding the place to belong. I will forego the mention of the various subplots and surprises, but I will incur that Remy does meet up with the lousy cook Linguini (Lou Ramano), and the two become partners in cooking at the famous Gusteau's Restaurant (as just about anyone who knows anything about the movie can tell you).
Even with its bizarre storyline, and even more bizarre main character, Ratatouille is a treat from start to finish. Never once did I not feel like I was watching something from anyone other than a master storyteller, and even at its most fantastical moments, Ratatouille warms with animated joy at just the thought of continuing the storyline. Unlike many other animated films that go around in circles over its simplistic plot and overused morality tale, Ratatouille takes its moral tale, and wraps it around all sorts of plot elements. Children will love it for how comical and cutesy it is, but the adults will love it just for how layered and dense the story is.
What it also packs is a wallop of enthusiasm totally devoid from almost the entirety of Cars. While the former moved along slower than animated movie I have ever seen, and was dull right to its very core, Ratatouille is exactly the opposite. It runs at just the right pace throughout the film, and each and every actor delivers their lines with finesse and conviction. They are devoted to these roles wholeheartedly, and are putting some actual effort into their lines. It may help that the majority of these actors are not big time Hollywood superstars, but what also may help is the fact that they all seem to have an interest in these characters and this story, and are not just in it for the paycheque at the end of the voice sessions. They are all clearly having fun with it. Even Peter O'Toole, who plays the menacingly wicked food critic Anton Ego, seems to be amused by his role.
In fact, all of the voice actors do great with their roles. Oswalt gives a great balance of naivety, desire and pathos to his main character. I know there was some trouble trying to market the idea of a rat trying to make it in the human world, but I think Oswalt's voice skills helped greatly flatten this idea out into something great. Ramano also does great as Linguini, giving just the right amount of struggle in his voice to truly make his neurotic character truly interesting. Supporting turns from O'Toole, Brad Garrett, Janeane Garofolo, James Remar, and in particular, Ian Holm, are all very well done, and help make the film truly wonderful. Their French accents are all quite amusing. I also liked the small addition of John Ratzenberger, always a great voice to hear in a Pixar movie.
The only thing that harms the film is that it runs too long. Director/Screenwriter Brad Bird had this same issue with his other excellent Pixar film (and Oscar winner), The Incredibles. Both pack in so much, and as a result, drag in places that should be more fairly fast paced. Here, these dragging scenes take place near the beginning (Remy does not meet up with Linguini until at least a half hour into the film), and part-way through the middle. All the elements are there, they just do not all add up into something blazingly fast paced. I can appreciate all of the little things Bird is doing to make the film appeal to more than just the children in the audience, but he almost lost me a few times doing it. A little bit of extra trimming could have helped avoid this problem.
The animation on the other hand, is brilliant. There is no other word to describe it. Just the one scene where Remy realizes that he is in Paris, and overlooks the entire Parisian skyline, is enough reason to see the film. It looks fantastic in every scene, and never does the beautifully rendered scenery or characters look any less amazing than they did in the scene before. Pixar has really fine-tuned their style over the years, and it shows in how astonishing these characters look, even down to the minuscule little details like a few stubbly hairs on Linguini's chin. It just looks that realistic.
On the whole, Ratatouille is not a perfect film, but it is still far greater than the likes of Cars or even this year's Shrek the Third. It was clearly put together so lovingly, and created with so much care that it cannot be seen as anything less than great. The animation, the story and the voice acting all come together to create what is probably going to be one of the best animated films of this or any year.
8/10.