Very Disappointed

Rating: 5/10 (9 July 2007)

I had a decision to make. I had time to see one movie on Sunday. Either Ratatouille or Transformers. I was never a fan of the Transformers show when I was a kid. So I read various reviews on the two movies on non-IMDb websites to get a gist of both films. Unlike IMDb, both films were getting positive but not great reviews over all. Ratatouille had far more positive reviews than Transformers so I picked Ratatouille.
Simply put, Ratatouille is just average at best. The animation was nothing spectacular. I guess the novelty of Computer animation is wearing off. It was pretty close it not the same as the old style cell animation.
No matter what tricks or special effects a film uses, it doesn't mean anything unless the story is good. The story in Ratatouille was just average. It was cute in spots but tedious in other places. A lot of the supporting characters were played up only to be discarded quickly and the main villain had no setup at all. You only knew he was the bad guy because he had the standard bad guy sinister look - that was it.
An animated feature film should have some truths inside it. It should touch on the real world with real emotions and Ratatouille missed it in a big way. Rats around food is just gross, even cartoon rats, especially if the animators spent months or years to get the look "just right". Maybe if it was dog trying to cook but a rat was just wrong.
The best animated features are those that contain at least a nod to the adults in the audience who brought their children to the show. Remember in The Incredibles, the superhero family had real family issues to deal with. You could turn to an adult sitting next to you and say "Ain't that the truth" or there could be the inclusion of jokes that kids find funny but adults really find funny because they were directed at them. Ratatouille had none of this. In fact the film wasn't that funny.
Brad Bird get credit for at least taking a chance with the characters and the plot but the execution missed for me. I was very disappointed.