Ratatouille (2007)
The Cast
Patton Oswalt ... Remy
Ian Holm ... Skinner
Lou Romano ... Linguini
Brian Dennehy ... Django
Peter Sohn ... Emile
Peter O'Toole ... Anton Ego
Brad Garrett ... Gusteau
Janeane Garofalo ... Colette
Will Arnett ... Horst
Julius Callahan ... Lalo/Francois
James Remar ... Larousse
John Ratzenberger ... Mustafa
Going in to the theatre last night to sit down and watch Ratatouille, I was filled with mild apprehension. The last movie that Pixar produced was their worst to date, but since it was Pixar, it would probably be more accurate to say it was their least awesome to date, rather than worst. Cars overcame an absolutely terrible premise and ended up being an averagely entertaining CGI-animated movie, and it was still miles better than most of the other animated films the other studios put out. Truth is, having the Pixar name attached to a movie will almost guarantee that I plunk down my hard-earned $12 and go out in public to watch it. Pixar could make a movie about street lights talking to one another through morse code and I'd be all ready to check it out. Having Brad Bird as the director of the movie certainly doesn't hurt either.
Ratatouille begins a lot more psychotically than most animated films do, with a shotgun-firing granny providing a rat named Remy (Oswalt) with the plot device that will eventually lead the rat to Paris and his dream of becoming a chef. See, Remy's idol is Gusteau (Garrett), a world-famous human chef that wrote a book entitled "Anyone Can Cook", and that's something Remy has taken to heart. He's blessed with super-sensitive smell and taste senses, but after his father Django (Dennehy) enlists him as a poison sniffer, Remy feels his gift is being wasted and desperately wants to create wonderfully tasting food on his own. And yes, he's still a rat.
Anyways, through some bumbling good luck Remy meets Linguini (Romano), a garbage boy at the famous Gusteau's restaurant who may be more than he seems. At least he will be after Remy sinks his paws into Linguini's mop of hair and uses the talentless human as his chef puppet. This discovery leads to many wacky hijinks and misunderstandings, as well as a completely ridiculous conclusion that is redeemed by the actions of the characters immediately afterwards.
Pixar is highly regarded when it comes to their films because they do their homework. The animators and crew spent a week in Paris to get a feel for the atmosphere, the environment and the French people. A member of the Pixar crew dressed in a chef's outfit jumped into the Siene River just so they could see which parts of the uniform stuck to the body when emerging from the water. When you first see the skyline of Paris after the homey rusticness of the French countryside, you may find yourself just a bit breathless. It's that stunning. The vocal talents mastered the French accent so well that I couldn't tell who they were at all in real life. I had no idea Will Arnett was in the movie, or that Janeane Garofalo was the female lead, they nailed their accents so masterfully well.
I will say that yes, the film is fairly formulaic (as most Pixar movies are), but the deviations from the formula are truly wonderful and entertaining. The characters are entertaining and well-crafted, clearly embodying far more than just the voices of famous people. Do yourself a favour and review the cast list before going to see the movie, so you're not sitting there the entire time trying to place the voices like I was. It's a stunning film and entertaining for both kids and adults, though I'd guess kids won't get as much out of it as the big kids like me did.
4 / 5