Review of Ratatouille Movie

I'd been looking forward to seeing this since I first heard about it. The awesome Brad Bird doing a movie about food, I was guaranteed to love it.

I went with three children aged 8, 6 and 4 and we stocked up on the usual popcorn and sprite. The animated short at the start was ok but not up to the usual standard of Pixar.

I think it started badly for me when I realised we had a narrator. This device can ruin a movie and I think it interferes badly here. Add to this that the rats had American accents but the humans had French ones and you get the sense that some unfortunate compromises were made.

The plot is utterly straightforward, misunderstood rat Remy loves food and cooking and Chef Gusteau on the TV. Old lady on farm where they live wakes up to find him in living room, catastrophe ensues and the entire rat colony escapes and Remy ends up lost. He eventually discovers (with the help of ghost/imaginary now-deceased Chef Gusteau) that he has ended up in Paris and is actually outside Gusteau's restaurant.

He sneaks in to find nasty evil replacement chef and new clueless garbage boy. After soup disaster, he fixes it for garbage boy and through some usual plot devices they end up friends. Chef thinks garbage boy made amazing soup and asks for it again. Remy and boy (Linguini) figure out a way to work together where Remy sits under his hat and controls him like a puppet by pulling his hair.

Lots of japes and excitement. Sub-plot involving Linguini's real identity. Nasty restaurant critic Anton Ego straight out of a Tim Burton movie. Romance, arrogance, failure, recovery.

Half way through the younger kids started getting restless and the 6 year old said "I thought this was supposed to be a funny movie. No one is laughing".

There are a bunch of problems with the movie. It's clearly made for adults and not kids but has the silly sentimentality that seems to be compulsory in kids animated movies rather than anything more sophisticated. It really doesn't satisfy anyone and falls between two stools.

The animation is wonderful but that's not why I enjoy movies. There is nothing to care about in it. Nothing of the emotional quality of Toy Story or The Incredibles. It reminds me most of Monsters Inc which I think of as Pixar's worst movie. Lots of activity but no real heart. 

The only great moment is when the critic eats the ratatouille. That's what I was looking for all the way through. But 30 perfect seconds in a run of the mill humdrum story is not enough.

Let's hope Brad Bird recovers with the next one as he is a man of incredible (pun intended) ability.