Review: Ratatouille
BEAUTY AND THE FEAST
Creator and creativity are jointly celebrated in a culinary adventure from the wizards at Pixar.
AUG 24, 2007 - IF THERE EVER WAS a case of the appetiser being tastier than the main course, it’s with Lifted, the Pixar animated short that precedes the Pixar animated feature Ratatouille. (The promotional material helpfully informs us that it’s pronounced rat-a-TOO-ee, but no, I didn’t know what that meant either, until dictionary.com very kindly explained that it’s “a vegetable stew of Provence, typically consisting of eggplant, zucchini, onions, green peppers, tomatoes, and garlic, served hot or cold.�) The short begins with a flying saucer descending in the vicinity of a house in the middle of nowhere, and what follows are the butterfingered efforts of a novice alien creature at tractor-beaming the sole human inhabitant (of the house) into the spaceship.
Lifted is so dazzling, so inventive – and so gaspingly hilarious, the high point being the part where a senior alien creature, a sort-of Yoda of the control panel, decides that enough is enough and rolls up its sleeves in an attempt to undo the damage – that anything that follows is bound to pale in comparison. But if Ratatouille is a bit of a letdown, it’s only in the sense that not every Pixar feature can be a Toy Story 2 or a Monsters, Inc. or The Incredibles (whose director, Brad Bird, is the master chef behind this one too). The company has set such inhumanly high standards for animation storytelling that something that would represent a career-best elsewhere comes off as merely good in the Pixar universe. And Ratatouille is exactly that: by Pixar standards, merely good.
The hero of this story is a rat, and we’re not talking metaphorical here. Remy has four feet, a furry coat, whiskers, tail – he’s you know, a rat. And he’s a picky rat. Rather than subscribe to the eat-anything dictum of the other members of his species – as one of them puts it so eloquently, “Once you muscle your way past the gag reflex, all kinds of possibilities open up� – Remy is something of a gourmet. When he’s struck by a bolt of lightning that singes the food scraps he’s holding – a stalk of mushroom, a block of cheese – he instinctively realises that what he has now is a bit of barbecue. All it needs now is a bit of seasoning, preferably saffron.
With these special talents, it’s only a matter of time before Remy becomes a full-time cook – in a Parisian restaurant named after (and founded by) the late Gusteau, whose motto was that “Anyone can cook,� and whose spirit becomes Remy’s mentor-conscience much in the way Jiminy Cricket became Pinocchio’s – by collaborating with a human named Linguini. (A hidden Remy issues the orders, and Linguini executes them – because, of course, no one wants to eat in a restaurant where a rat is doing the cooking.) And the countertop is thus set for much slapstick, adventure – and even a dash of romance (though, understandably, Linguini’s scenes with co-worker Colette have very little of the chemistry he shares with Remy).
Even if it takes a bit of swallowing to accept as a cordon bleu chef a creature more readily associated with the bubonic plague than bouillabaisse, it isn’t difficult to guess where this archetypal story is headed – at least for those who saw Happy Feet. Like the tap-dancing penguin protagonist in the latter film, Remy too is a misfit amongst his own, who will go on to vindicate his uniqueness. And while Ratatouille is, like your average animated feature targeted at family audiences, a repository of inspirational messages – about following your heart, about always doing your best, about believing in the goodness in others – what’s remarkable about the film is how it transcends these fortune-cookie philosophies to make a grand statement about art and artist.
It isn’t just Remy’s garbage-munching rodent world that’s content with mediocrity. Skinner, the scheming master chef who now manages Gusteau’s, is less interested in running his kitchen (the restaurant’s rating has fallen from five stars to three) than developing a line of frozen dinners – in one of the film’s more amusing touches, the animators give this cartoony-evil character a pencil moustache to twirl – and it’s people like him that are responsible for the emaciated state of France’s most feared food critic, Anton Ego (a.k.a. The Grim Eater, who won’t swallow if the food isn’t up to his exacting standards). It isn’t much of a stretch to extrapolate this scenario to the movies today, where we walk in expecting the proverbial feast for the senses and walk out after experiencing mere morsels of entertainment.
But even if we’ve made our peace with mediocrity, it’s always heartening to catch the occasional sight of real artists – Remy, yes, but also the wizards at Pixar. As I said earlier, Ratatouille isn’t one of their best efforts – and it does tend to go on a bit – yet even here, the quality of the animation simply boggles the mind, whether it’s a simple freeze-frame of a Parisian street diffused with the foggy brightness from a gaslight, or a spectacular action set piece in the sewers. In an early scene, when Remy takes a bite of something that overwhelms his senses, the screen behind him goes black, and gets filled with bursts of colour that evoke the fever-dream of an LSD trip. And that’s exactly what lovers of animation experience with each Pixar feature: a dazed euphoria.
Copyright ©2007 The New Indian Express
Did you not think there were too many rats too close to food to let our conditioning digenst it?
I wonder if you’ve read this. http://goose-egg.blogspot.com/2006/06/i-created-disney-animated-movie-making.html
It’s probably a li’l too harsh, but still it’s great fun to read.
curiouscat: In a cutesy cartoon universe, ain’t no such thing as too many rats.
Saranya: Thank you for the link. It was absolutely hilarious. (But yes, harsh.)
Baradwaj: More than Incredibles and this one, Brad’s debut is still his best yet, IMO. Its another animated feature - an under-rated and not so popular film called ‘Iron Giant’! Don’t miss that one.
From 1999 when he debuted with Iron Giant, till 2007, with this one, Brad has made only 3 feature films - all three animated and highly acclaimed! Interesting career arc huh?
And yeah, he’s directed 2 episodes of The Simpsons too!
Karthik: I’ve seen Iron Giant, a.k.a ET with a message
Didn’t know about Simpsons though.
Aha! Good.
Look at the detail in the picture!
I thought this was one of Pixar’s best films. Brad Bird is a master of subtle yet accessible films. He’s really good at finding the emotional center of a story and the characters are well-developed. He’s also a master of visual storytelling. The scene where Anton Ego takes a bite of Remy’s ratatouille was a simple yet beautiful moment in the film. And his review of the restaurant was a surprisingly sophisticated touch.
Between this and Pixar’s upcoming Wall-E, I think the studio is really trying to be experimental in the next few years. Their previous films are all great, but the stories essentially boiled down to a gang of cute characters has to rescue one of their gang (or, in Monsters Inc., return someone to their home)
The Incredibles is a very good post-modern superhero film.
BTW, Patton Oswalt, who voiced Remy, is one of my favorite stand up comedians. I highly recommend you check out his CDs and DVDs.
how bizarre that you assume your readers don’t know what ratatouille is, yet you routinely assume we know hindi. other way around, holmes.
Actually I thought that the critic’s (Grim) emoting was quite a nice touch. His review was rather well written and his mom’s comfort food part was a great piece.
However don’t you think you are applying an American framework for evaluating French creativity? Doesn’t do justice to the quaintness of the characters and the wonderful background music.
nevermind: Absolutely. Depth of firled is one of Pixar’s biggest strengths.
Ravi K: I agree that this was quite good, but Incredibles is at a compleytely different level in my book. That managed to stack in fun, adventure, satire AND a message. And all *without* cutesy anthropomorphic creatures
thamizhan: Ouch… Touché!
Vivek: The part of the film from where Anton Ego bites into the ratatouille is sheer poetry. The film just takes off to another plane with that “comfort food” moment. And his summing up of what it is to be a critic was very good too. BTW, “American framework?”
Well, I’m a big fan of Pixar products. BTW, Has it released in chennai? How would this fare against the excellent ‘Toy Story’?
HAL: Yes, it did get released - just this Friday. (I think all over India too.) And as I said, it’s not as great as Toy Story 1/2. It’s good.
Those who liked Ratatouille..must check this out..also written by a tamilian…
http://saffrontrail.blogspot.com/2007/08/ratatouille-with-cochiglie-rigate.html
oh…sorry about the last comment…I recommend this film anyway…over “Incredibles”…def nt better than TS 1 and 2. IMO…just below or just as good as Iron Giant..
Absolutely, Baradwaj. I’m very happy to read your thoughts on Lifted, and really, I couldn’t agree more on that count. I also found the film to be highly overrated by American critics, and the best thing about the whole film to me was the Ego character and Peter O’Toole’s delightfully snooty voice over work.
Bharadwaj, by American Framework at the risk of stereotyping I guess I meant using your pragmatic and down-to-earth American humor as a benchmark to evaluate a dreamy, romantic French comedy.
All your other examples like Toy Story or Incredibles or Monsters Inc have a very strong grounding in the classic irreverent American humor.
Frech humor however is more of the delightful yet absurd types.-Amelie comes to my mind as the first example.
Which is why I feel by comparing it with Pixar’s previous works you are altering the milieu which works for Ratatouille.
If Remy was an American rat this story would have been very very different.
I liked the film too, but it wasn’t anywhere close to great. For some reason I can’t find anything that Pixar’s done (thereafter) that matches the brilliance of ‘Toy Story’, their vehicle to fame. Technically speaking, one can hardly find cause to complain with Pixar. But in terms of imaginative excellence, Toy Story still remains my fave, even allowing for Finding Nemo.
I don’t know about American humour vs. French humour, but what of the accents? All over the place and how! Garufulo comes across as a concientious artist, but her accent (sous chef, love interest) was appalling.