Ratatouille: A feast for the eyes
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Having gotten out of class early yesterday, I decided to watch Pixar’s Ratatouille and I have to say, I wasn’t disappointed. The story is about a rat named Remy who has an affection for cooking and learns about cooking by sneaking into a woman’s house and watching a famous chef on the cooking channel.
What Remy doesn’t realize is that he’s in Paris, home of great food and of his cooking idol, Auguste Gusteau. Remy runs into a clumsy garbage boy, Linguini, who works at Gusteau’s restaurant. Linguini, afraid of being fired, tries to make himself useful by trying to help prepare food in the kitchen only to realize how bad he is at preparing food. So Remy works to correct Linguini’s mistakes before the sous chef of the restaurant finds how that Linguini has been tampering with the food.
To make a long story short, Linguini finds out that it is Remy who corrected the soup that Linguini has messed up and they develop a friendship.
I am a big fan of Pixar and while I was skeptical of this movie, I really enjoyed it. The movie is different from other Pixar films:
- Smaller cast of characters: Most Pixar films seem to have a wide cast of characters and you will typically see a variety of toys based off of those characters in toy stores. I don’t forsee that happening with Ratatouille aside from the two main characters and maybe a couple of supporting characters.
- Feels more intimate: One reviewer of this movie on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) said that this movie had an “artistic/indie appeal” to it and I would have to agree. The scenery is really well done and the lighting is more romantic/intimate because of the setting in Paris, France. Most Pixar feels seem to have a brighter, lively use of colors.
- Storyline is not as childish: It seems like most Pixar films try to balance enough content for both the young and old audience. I got the impression that this movie is geared more towards ages 5 and up. That’s not to say that pre-schoolers wouldn’t enjoy it, but it just seems that the story is written more for an older age group.
Overall, I would probably give Ratatouille four stars out of five. The animation is awesome, the voice actors do an excellent job, and the story line is pretty good (although it could’ve been slightly better). I would definitely recommend watching this movie!