Positives sadly Do Not outweigh the negatives.

Rating: 6/10 (4 April 2018)

Summary: The other nominess for 2007's best animated feature film must not have been that great then. Despite a promising premise that had the makings of a classic story, the story itself isn't consistent with it's internal logic. This leads to some frustrating and inexplicable moments and contrivances and makes you wonder what exactly the movie's message is. Wonder if the character of Ego made critics afraid of being someone like that. The movie is still enjoyable with some good humour, and a love for food.
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Although I wasn't too interested in the first few minutes, that changed once the 'imaginary' Gusteau showed up. Coupled with the atmosphere and the premise of a 'ghost' helping a rat and his grandson help each other, I thought it had the promise of becoming quite a classic. However, the inconsistency of the plot with the internal logic of that world led to some really annoying scenes and contrivances. I did however really like the humour and the kitchen dynamics etc until Linguini becomes the owner. My four main issues are - everyone calmly accepting everything Linguini says about rats, Linguini & Colette suddenly being in love, Linguini freaking out over Remy 'stealing' food from a restaurant Linguini owns thanks only to Remy's work and finally, and ambiguous (at best) message.
Despite this being a world where humans have no reason to believe rats can understand them or have any form of intelligence, it does make sense for Linguini to accept it, and it is clear that wasn't an easy feat. However people later on just calmly accept this, instead of questioning Linguini's sanity. Why would Skinner even think the rat was of any importance? A more logical conclusion for them would have been that Linguini is this eccentric chef genius who believes he needs a rat on his head to do his best. That scene where all of Linguini's staff walk out on him, I thought it was because they decided he was off his mind. But . . . they just didn't want to work under a rat? Colette only returns because she remembers 'Anyone can cook', after all. And later Ego also simply accepts this instead of throwing up, on realising his food was somehow made by rats.
Where on earth did the romance come from? They didn't even spend much time together until then?
I simply didn't get the scene where Linguini flips out when Remy 'steals' food from his restaurant. Linguini owed everything he had to Remy. The restaurant might as well be Remy's. I guess they were going for a Linguini getting over-confident and later regretting it arc. Not only is that overly clichÃ©, it is very lazily executed.
Finally, what exactly is the movie's message? 'Anyone can cook'? Linguini sure can't. That humans are being speciesist to rats, and we should instead live in harmony?
I really liked the good parts of the movie, which makes these annoying flaws all the more frustrating, as it prevents me from fully enjoying the movie.