Film Review #87: Ratatouille

I have very mixed feelings with this film.  While I don't think it's bad, I don't think that it's at the top of Pixar's game either.  That's the way the general public on average feels about the three films between Finding Nemo and Wall-e.  Being the finale in this trilogy of "meh", Ratatouille has an assortment of strange yet functioning ideas that still keep Pixar more unique than it's competition, combined with some likable characters and a few funny jokes here and there.  While it will certainly entertain the children, it probably won't entertain that many from my generation or older.  

PLOT: Set in modern day Paris, a rat named Remy has a strong desire to get away from eating garbage and learn how to cook like humans.  When the owner of a famous restaurant sadly passes, and it is left in the hands of a greedy little Chef Louie that only wants to profit from the name rather than make quality food.  

One day, when Remy is sneaking around in the kitchen, he accidentally starts mixing the soup together, until being caught by a young chef named Linguini.  But everyone in the restaurant seems to love the soup, so Linguini is hired to be the head of the soup.  Instead of killing Remy, Linguini decides to keep him around so that he could keep his job and hopefully learn from him.  From there, the story gets kind of complicated, involving something about Linguini being the rightful owner of the restaurant, to trying to impress this food critic.  To be perfectly honest, I don't exactly get it.

What's Bad?: There isn't anything REALLY bad in this movie, but there are some things that aren't interesting.  For example, I never really cared about any of the main characters outside of Remy, and I found the Chef Louie guy kind of a weak villain.  I just expect the finest out of Pixar, considering the only amount of decency I could get from Disney at this time was in their DVD releases.

What's Good?: I thought that the animation of the humans was kind of cool.  It was in stark contrast to the animation style of the previous few films that had humans, and I thought it was quite refreshing.  

While the story also gets REALLY confusing (even for a guy who follows Christopher Nolan movies well), the story still stays true to the Pixar tradition.  It isn't contrived or formulamatic like other animated films were at the time (Meet the Robinsons, Shrek the Third), and it is able to hook a general audience because the main character is reasonably likable.  

Overall: Ratatouille is a reasonably charming film and while it's not on par with the finest animated films made, it's still manages to be a well thought out and organized animated adventure.  See it, if you want.

Final Grade:  B