Ratatouille is the story of a rat named Remy who is tired of eating the garbage his colony collects for food. Remy has a very enlightened taste for good food and he also finds a way to learn how to cook by sneaking into the kitchen of the house whose walls are his home. Through a series of traumatic events reminiscent of the animated classic American Tail, Remy ends up seperated from his family and alone in Paris. From there he befriends a garbage boy named Linguini in one of Paris' finest restaurants and predictably ends up helping the garbage boy become an amazing chef.
The story in Ratatouille is the typical underdog tale Disney has brought us so many times with warmhearted comedy and life lessons abounding throughout. Remy struggles with his lack of full acceptance in both the human and the rat world while Linguini struggles with the immense praise and credit he is getting for work that is not his. Remy and Linguini are completely dependant on each other for their individual success and of course their relationship hits a few bumps throughout the story as well.
While the specifics of the plot of Ratatouille are unique it's the underlying themes which are nothing new. This was an impressive movie in many ways but it was also a story I've seen before from Disney.
Still, Ratatouille is well worth seeing, the voice acting is very good and the writing, while not unique, is very good. Of course the visuals are the main reason you need to see this latest animated Disney/Pixar colaboration. While animation has become increasingly impressive the last few years Ratatouille has raised the bar to a whole new level. No other animated movie I've ever even comes close to the quality and detail in this one.
I can forgive the flaws of Ratatouille as they are to be expected in this genre. The good far outweighs the bad and it is going on the 'Watch It' list with a value of $8.
3 comments:
Thanks for your comments - you've got a fine blog here, great reviews! HOpe to see you on the blog again soon!
We just took our youngest to our first movie. Sounds like we should have held out for Ratatouille. Bee Movie pretty much blew. The live action trailer was better than the whole film.
Disney sure knows how to redo the same plot over and over. If you hadn't told me to I'd have no interest in this one.
Good review. I like your bit about forgiving the plot because of the genre. Bad sign for the genre though, except that when your demographic is 4-8 year olds you'll always have a fresh audience every time you put out a movie.
But I wonder how many kids are growing up thinking the underdog always wins.
great animation movie, more advice contained. Good.. good..
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