Rat in mi kitchen

Rating: 6/10 (11 December 2016)

Ratatouille had a troubled history despite Brad Bird getting the screenwriter and director credit as well as taking the Best Oscar for Animation. The original director was (Czech born) British Oscar winning animator Jan Pinkava who only now gets a story co-credit for this this film. His vision apparently needed to be Pixar-fied.
Yet underlying this movie is Pinkava's vision, when the story gets boring and predictable I see Hollywood at play as the film gets derivative, you know joining the dots from A-Z.
Maybe the dirty smelly scavenging rats represent humans with Remy being the most well read and cultured example. Remy does not want to go through rubbish every night he wants to cook and is inspired after taking legendary chef, the late Auguste Gusteau's cookbook, 'Anyone Can Cook.'
Remy rises from the sewers of Paris to Gusteau's restaurant where he sees Gusteau's ghost or is it a figment of the rat's imagination? The restaurant is now run by head chef Skinner who believes in the commercialisation of Gusteau's name.
Remy hides under the hat of the incompetent, bumbling Linguini new to the kitchen and shows him how to cook by pulling his curly hair, fellow chef Collete teaches him the basic but it is Remy who provides the inspiration that wows the customers and arouses the interest of renowned and intimidating food critic Anton Ego who took one of the stars away from Gusteau. Skinner is also suspicious of Linguini's skills, in fact he smells a rat.
This is a breezy film, with rats in the kitchen cooking the food rather than taking it away although we do see that as well. The love angle is boring and predictable as are the few obligatory chase scenes in the streets and river of Paris. Yet I could not help wondering how Pinkava's film would had turned out.