Surprisingly conventional

Rating: 5/10 (12 December 2007)

Modern animated features have often been marked by profound ruminations of life and death 'Toy Story', 'Madagascar') or by hip references to popular culture (the 'Shrek' movies). But 'Ratatouille', this year's smash hit, it by contrast a very conventional animation, a straightforward cartoon story inspired by the simple pun that gives the film its name; indeed, it reminded me in some ways of 'Wallace and Grommit', although (obviously) without the northern English flavour. I liked the animation of France (Citroen D-Seies included) and Peter O' Toole is very funny, voicing a snooty restaurant critic, but I think a chance was missed to make the rats as physically repulsive as most people find them in real life; a cuddly rat is sort of missing the point. And overall, I found (as an adult viewer), the same joke stretched a little thin by the end of the film; a film where a woman shoots up her own house to kill a rat (as happens early in this movie) is not one to encourage dark thoughts about the nature of life.