Ratatouille

Rating: 6/10 (14 December 2016)

I recently watched the Disney Pixar film Ratatouille, while the movie did have its moments and I did enjoy it, I still thought there was much more room for improvement. Much like other Pixar films, the movie had stunning visuals and graphics including a diverse vibrant color scheme as well a distinguishable voice cast. The movie emphasized each characters love for food with breathtaking displays to illustrate different aspects of food such as texture and aroma. The visuals of the characters and the food were fairly realistic. The movie was lighthearted, sweet, but only mildly entertaining if you ask me. In a nutshell, the film is about a dirty sewer dwelling rat named Remy who loves to cook and a young timid man named Linguini who happens to be the biological son of one of the most prestigious and world renowned chefs, but he can't cook anything to save his life. Linguini inherits his fathers high class french restaurant after his passing and must team up with Remy in order keep the restaurant alive. The irony of the story is my favorite part about the whole film. A dirty street rat with a refined pallet and a passion for fine foods is the only one capable of keeping a high class restaurant from being shut down by a food inspector. There were a few things that really bothered me about this film though. For starters, the main character, Linguini, shows no growth as a chef from the beginning of the movie to the end. He was introduced as an awkward spineless, unintelligent young man who was thrown into an unfamiliar situation. After being guided, controlled and taught about cooking and the kitchen by Remy, Linguini still was just as incompetent a chef as he was in the beginning of the film in regards to cooking. It's because of his lack of growth as a chef that I feel his character was nothing more than a shield for Remy the whole time, protecting him from both prejudice and physical harm. I believe Linguini's character is an accurate representation of how some people in our society today hide behind masks in order to be socially accepted. I believe the message the film was trying to portray is in order to be at peace, we must accept reality for what it is and to stay true to yourself. Overall the film was touching but could be better.