Great CGI doesn't pull this film's chesnuts off the flambe.

Rating: 4/10 (18 May 2008)

I must concede, when you think about old Disney films - the requirement to suspend disbelief was always paramount. Take 'Lady & The Tramp', say - two dogs, having a romantic, candlelit dinner and being serenaded by a couple of Italian Chefs. No bottoms are sniffed at anytime, and nobody looks in danger of being neutered against their will... Yet, I loved it, I would say 'at the time' but the truth is that I still kinda love this old time Disney schmaltz. You know why?...Because, despite the ridiculous situations and prepositions, they STILL pull it off. If only for a second, they have carried you away somewhere on their whimsy, and lost you in the elaborate fantasy. There shouldn't, therefore, be any problem in taking this concept a little further down the food chain. After all, if you can love stray dogs once you realise they have feelings too, its surely only another leap of faith to love the rat that wants to cook your dinner. Really?! Try watching this film WHILST eating your dinner, and then come back and tell me it was a great idea. And, therein, is where I believe the problem lies - plausibility.
This film is, at times, either VERY plausible or not quite enough. Sometimes its even both at the same time. Whilst being an achievement in itself, this creates a nightmare dichotomy between some of the very best CGI to be seen anywhere before, and some of the very WORST character development and storytelling in Disney history. The realism of a rats perspective- including sense of scale, angles, the movement of us humans looming overhead etc is a small wonder to behold. Oddly enough, the development for the subsidiary characters actually seemed more rounded than the main ones. Of those I enjoyed most were the shady Sous Chefs and Chef De Parties, and also the Old Lady in the beginning. To true Disney tradition, their stylised figures and expressions, uttered delightful snippets of comical dialogue. All of which, were beautifully rendered and animated. This was alongside only, the movement of the rats themselves, which is almost unnervingly lifelike. To be honest, disturbingly so- in light of the saccharin sweet morality tale being told here. This, for me, is where it all becomes beyond the joke. If you could imagine a liberally- sensitive sitcom funded by the Bible Channel about a cute family of botulism microbes that escape the factory in a carton of Petit Filous, then you're more than halfway towards understanding how literally hard to swallow Ratatouille is. Its more interesting how acute the story's desire is to not offend anyone's beliefs, to the point where even the concept of ghosts is meticulously avoided, in favour of Gusteau being only a 'figment of Remy's imagination'. This kind of compromise only serves to dilute the concept further.
Don't get me wrong, if you're gonna animate rats then they SHOULD look and move like rats...but please don't imbue one with the on screen personality and moral virtue of Tom Hanks and expect me to swallow that garbage. If I must- then please sprinkle some Warfarin on the piece of crap telling me that the rat discovers two magic clumps of Remy's hair that directly control his arms like joysticks.... Its a pity Brad Bird hadn't made an equally magical couple of discoveries when selecting his writing team. Even one with an idea of keeping a story tight and accessible to all ages would have been a Godsend - sorry Divine Intervention of a Figment Of My Imagination Instructing Me To Do The Right Thing By My Fellow Creatures-Send. And to bring all this Old Testament style righteousness kicking and screaming to the last century, there's always the addition of the lone female character that's had to fight her way up in a man's world, a well-worn - but by no means tired device, and hopefully guaranteed to please a good proportion of one's target audience...the gender friendly scatter-gun.
Surprising though it may sound, Its not been my complete aim to spoil this movie, or indeed, include any spoilers. There are many visual merits to this movie most of which seem to take place in the first half...these are well worth viewing and for this reason I have given it a 4. If you make it to the end without leaving the room/hitting the 'fast forward' button then you have my eternal admiration.