Visually stunning, but story was a flat soufflé...

Rating: 7/10 (2 August 2008)

My wife and I, huge Pixar fans both, came into this movie with high expectations given what critics had said about it.
Visually, the critics were spot-on. Much of the movie feels as if it is not animated at all. Within 10 years of so, Pixar will have us believing they work work with live actors, I'm sure.
But technical proficiency does not a masterpiece make; there must be a good story to tell. And this movie teeters on the brink of not having that story.
Assuming "Ratatouille" was made with children in mind, most children below age 10, maybe even age 12, won't get this movie. They'll love the cute rats and cheer for the heroes, but will miss the nuances of the story.
What hurts this movie's accessibility is a soup with many ingredients: Thick accents, an uninteresting secondary hero (Linguini), a villain (Skinner) who is not adequately developed and back-storied, and a plot scenario that never seems to be able to create a sense of urgency. I can easily imagine a lot of youngsters wondering what exactly the big deal is.
It doesn't help matters that the role of Linguini is fitfully written and voiced by an actor without much experience; Lou Romano was just a bad pick. Ian Holm's turn as Skinner could have been done much better.
Janeane Garofolo's Colette isn't properly back-storied, either; it's amazing that this movie can run for nearly two hours yet still leave so much on the table in regards to its characters.
There is some good, however. Patton Oswalt is great in the title role, and Peter O'Toole's exceptional turn as Anton Ego left me wishing he'd had a bigger role. Brad Garrett's Gusteau also gets too little screen time.
In summary, this movie doesn't rise to the level of greatness found in some of Pixar's best films ("Toy Story 2," "The Incredibles," "Cars"), but it isn't a total bust, either. The word "charming" has been used to describe it before and I guess it fits. Better for grown-ups than kids, and definitely for a time when you're not needing to get an adrenaline rush from your movie.