I don't get why this is so popular

Rating: 3/10 (9 December 2008)

I don't get it. After such awesome films like "The Incredibles", "Finding Nemo" and "Monster's Inc." you think you could trust on Pixar to put out top notch animation, engaging characters and a great story. I'm not sure what happened with this movie, because only 1/3 of that equation makes it....the animation.
I'm not going to get too in depth with the story, which itself is pretty dull, because there's enough reviews that do that. Basically it's about a rat who can cook, and the human he uses as his puppet.
There are plenty of characters in this movie, and yet you manage to care about none of them. Pixar, Disney, heck even Warner Brothers have proved time and time again that it's possible to make a movie involving animals (no matter which animals they were) that you care about, along with a compelling story that holds your attention throughout the entire thing. They failed massively on both fronts here.
Enter Remy, the rat who can cook, but as you can imagine a rat cooking your food is disgusting, no matter how cute he may be. Linguini is an inept, dull, bumbling idiot and he never changes throughout the film. Colette is your stereotypical tough girl trying to prove something in a mans world. The rest of the kitchen staff are barely worth a mention as they serve as a dull backdrop and little else.
The voice acting is OK, I really was surprised as to why they decided on Janeane Garafalo (who I LOVED until recent years when she's seemingly gone crazy (political, etc..) Why not just get a French actress? And what executive looked over the story board and said "oh yeah...Janeane Garafalo." People like Will Arnett and Brian Dennehy are wasted and nearly invisible as it could have been anyone voicing those very minor parts. John Ratzenberger of course surfaces as it is his custom to voice some character in every Pixar film.
The ONLY interesting characters worth a mention are Anton Ego (Peter O'Toole) and Skinner (Ian Holm) as a ruthless well known food critic/head chef and owner of Gusteau's (respectively.) They seem to be the only actors putting any effort into the voice expression of their characters. (O'Toole as usual is excellent whether it be live action or animated.)
Remy is cute. I'll give him that. Kids will like him, he's otherwise pretty boring. I'm sorry but the idea of rats in the kitchen no matter how cute is still unappealing to me. The small ghost of the deceased master chef Gusteau is just an odd addition, I never fully got why he was there other than to act as a sort of Jiminy the Cricket or "shoulder angel" to Remy and even then he didn't really do anything.
In a nutshell, just a real BORING movie for both kids and adults. The animation is excellent, but I would expect nothing less from Pixar. But the story and characters are pretty much complete crap (except for O'Toole and Holm's characters.) My advice, just skip this one and cross your fingers that Pixar's next venture is vastly better.