Good but it could have been so much better... if made by the French

Rating: 7/10 (21 October 2007)

*spoiler* Remy, a country rat with aspirations to be a great cook, inspired by a (deceased) TV chef and restaurateur is separated from his family and becomes a chef with the help of a clumsy and untalented young man. *end spoiler*
I enjoyed the film but in looking back at it I cannot really understand why. The story is a fairly hackneyed "you can achieve your dreams" type affair with a bit of the "not everyone is special" message of The Incredibles thrown in for a bit of (slightly grating) good measure. The animation is good but I cannot help feeling that a stylised two dimensional approach (similar to that used in the end credits) would have been better. In fact, watching it again, I cannot help feeling that I'd like to have seen The Incredibles filmed in the style used in the end credits. Please can someone who isn't Japanese out there go and make a good 2d film.
There seems to be some confusion over the potential audience as there is little or nothing of the slap-stick humour which might entertain a child and there are few enough laughs even for the adults. With food as a central theme of the film strangely little emphasis is placed on it.
The film is set in Paris, but to no purpose as we never see a proper representation of the city, but for the Eiffel tower hovering in a few wide shots and an old Citroen parked in a back street this might have been anywhere. Similarly I would like to have heard some clichéd french accents as some fun could have been had with that - Remy's middle American accent was particularly grating.
Admittedly the film never explain how Remy can read, understand humans or manipulate someone using their hair but if that worries you then you really need to think hard before seeing an animated film as almost all cannot stand up to any sort of scrutiny.
For all the negatives I did enjoy it and there are a few great moment, the segment where the food critic tastes the titular Ratatouille is pure genius.
While Ratatouille it is not up to the standard of The Incredibles I think you'd be hard-pressed to feel cheated if you went to see it, it's certainly a million times better than the execrable pile of total pump that was Cars.
WARNING If you come from the the Christian right (neither correct nor Christian in this Christian's opinion) or the Aryan Brotherhood of Justice or whatever the loony right in the US are calling themselves these days then you may be forced to shoot a few abortion doctors over the fact that -oh my dear sweet God!- one of the main characters may have been BORN OUR OF WEDLOCK and NO ONE BURNS HIM AT THE STAKE BECAUSE OF IT!