snooze-a-tooey!

Rating: 2/10 (5 September 2007)

I really don't understand the enthusiasm for this bland film. Sure the visuals may be stunning and clever, but without a plot that really grips who cares? The script seemed fractured and without focus. I kept trying to get pulled into the different characters' trials and tribulations, but I never felt that anything was really at stake emotionally.
The film tries too hard to to appeal to the "ordinary American" and ends up talking down to the audience instead. At times it tries so hard to be all inclusive that it seems to be apologizing for the subject matter wearing a face red with embarrassment. When Collette (voiced by the abrasive Garofolo) describes all the macho backgrounds of the restaurants cooks I felt I was watching a movie from the 70's or earlier. I think America has grown sophisticated enough to no longer think all people interested in the culinary arts are decadent sissy snobs. Think of the popularity of the Food Network, Iron Chef America, Emeril Lagasse, Thomas Keller, Wolfgang Puck, Mario Batali, Bobby Flay, etc.!
Instead of trying to prepare our appetites for an art form America already embraces, Pixar might have spent more time getting the script to show us the power of good food. The best moments involved O'Toole's Anton Ego. He was a character with interesting lights and darks that was underused. Patton Oswald's Rat was so boring. His conflict seemed superficial and the scenes with his family could have been cut at no loss to the storyline. Maybe a better actor could have given more pathos to the rat's plight, but a better script would have helped tons.