Ratatouille (2007)
Genre: Animated Comedy
Format Viewed: Theatrical Release
Filmography links and data courtesy of The Internet Movie Database.
The next chapter in the Disney Pixar saga … does it have enough weight to continue on with the legend?
Definitely maybe.
I finally got around to seeing Pixar’s latest and don’t get me wrong – it was pretty good – but at the same time, I’m not entirely sure that I can say that it followed in the current trend of being amazing. You know, that feeling that you got when Lightning McQueen gave up the Piston Cup to help The King finish his final race in Cars or when the Parr family jumped into gear and realized their true calling at the end of The Incredibles, or even the countless antics between Woody and Buzz in both of the Toy Story movies – it’s a feeling that I really don’t know how to describe, except for the fact that it’s a feeling that always come to me when I’m watching a truly great movie … one that I can connect to on another level. I felt it earlier this year with Meet the Robinsons, and I certainly felt it with the other Pixar flicks that I mentioned, but Ratatouille wasn’t quite there … let’s talk about why…
You can’t deny that the movie looked great – that’s one thing that has continued to impress me with every movie that comes out of the Pixar Studios is that each still looks considerably better than the previous, and just as I was first wowed with the original imagery that came out of Toy Story back in 1995, the amazingly life-like hairs on Sully’s back (and everywhere else!) in Monsters, Inc., and of course, Pixar’s first true take on human figures with The Incredibles, I was equally impressed with the graphics and animation that came from Ratatouille, from the majestic backdrop of Paris itself right down to Remy, our ratty, little host in this delectable adventure of culinary exploration! There’s no doubt in my mind after seeing this movie that Pixar remains the leader in computer animation across the entertainment industry, and with the likes of Dreamworks and FOX Animation still presenting quite the showing regardless of whether I care for Shrek alike, that’s certainly something worth boasting about.
The tale itself was a unique one, and not necessarily an unappealing one – I enjoyed living life from the perspective of a rat for a couple of hours, but as much as I was entertained by Remy’s journey to prove himself to his family by becoming the greatest rat chef in all of Paris, it still felt like it lacked a certain magic that separated it from its predecessors in the Pixar line. Patton Oswalt was wonderful and brought a great sense of humor to the screen, but sadly I think that’s where the film just fell short because the support behind our lead rat simply wasn’t there. Not even the voice actors themselves, but just the characters didn’t all have the umph – for lack of a better term – to really help drive this one home for me. Also, it didn’t help that I really felt like a couple of the characters, namely Colette and one of the other chefs from the restaurant, were merely carried over from The Incredibles and made me feel like they were just recycling characters … and not in the hilarious way like we’ve seen, for example, with John Ratzenberger’s roll call over the years – as best highlighted in the outtakes from Cars!
One notable moment, however, that almost made me feel like Ratatouille met the Pixar bar was during the climactic final scene where Linguini found himself wondering how his empty kitchen was going to prepare the most important meal of all for the restaurant’s career-threatening critic, but at that point it was just a little too late. Cars and The Incredibles and all of the rest had great final scenes, but they also really sold me throughout the entire story and in breaking it down, this film just lacked a lot of the beats that sold its predecessors. And that’s not even to say that it was not enjoyable by any stretch of the imagination, but in the ranking, it’s probably down near the bottom of my list of Pixar favorites … with Finding Nemo, for the record.
I guess ultimately, though, when six of the studio’s previous seven flicks rank in my book as some of the best films that Disney has ever taken part in, even when standing up against the classics such as Snow White and Peter Pan and Dumbo, you’ve got to cut ‘em a little slack every now and then. Ratatouille was still a great movie and I’ll be among the first to add it to our shelves hopefully this Christmas, but I’m also even more so left wondering what to expect of Wall-E, the studio’s next feature film. Will that one rise back up a notch to leave me with that warm and fuzzy feeling that I felt when McQueen and Sally rode down a neon-lit Route 66 on their date night? From the company that brought us most of the best animated films of the last decade, even if Ratatouille didn’t quite make the mark, you’ve still got to have faith that their next flick will take us back to that unique level of breathless entertainment to which we’ve all become accustomed.
Until then, we’ll always have Paris…
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