Oscar Cleanup: "Ratatouille" Review - Written by TonyD, Hardcore Film Maniac

“Ratatouille”
2007
**** out of ****
Director: Brad Bird
Cast: Patton Oswald, Ian Holm, Lou Romano


Last time I saw a movie that made me stand up and cheer was “V For Vendetta.” It was a full year and a quarter after that I had the pleasure of seeing “Ratatouille.” Looking back, I kind of feel like a douchebag when I wrote a column on my MySpace blog last Summer that was called “Summer 007 – The Ones Everyone Will See and the Ones That I Will Hate.” I was still mad over “Cars,” which was bland and mediocre to say the least. But I failed to look at one name in the credits before writing that very article…

His name is Brad Bird.

Bird was originally a consultant of the hit animated sitcom “The Simpsons” before coming to the film industry. After that, he did “The Iron Giant,” or the movie that I still haven’t gotten around to see. Five years later, he put out the very Pixar film that owned you and everyone around you – “The Incredibles.” It had EVERYTHING – superheroes that we all wanted to be, villains that were threatening for once, and Samuel L. Jackson. It is still one of the best animated movies that I’ve seen since “South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.”

His next project was a movie called “Ratatouille,” an animated Pixar film that takes on the risky subject of a rat working on food in the kitchen. Lord knows how much rats make one frightened, but I can’t begin to say how much one of my biggest fears are to eat a bowl of pasta with a rat walking out with a little bit of sauce on the cheek of it’s ass-crack. I said “Ratatouille” couldn’t be done, and Bird proved me wrong. I have nothing to say but nice work… oh, and everything else in the review.

Remy the Rat (Patton Oswald) has a keen sense of smell, unlike the other rats. Most rats would dig through trash and be pleased with it, but Remy likes the taste of a good meal. His hero is Gusteau (Brad Garrett), a professional chef who owns his own restaurant in the heart of Paris. Gusteau’s famous line, “Anyone Can Cook,” helps Remy understand what he wants to be – a professional chef. There’s only one problem – he’s in the middle of country-lands where there is a gun-swinging old lady who will blow fucking heads off. Did I just use the f-word in a review for a children’s movie? Shame on me…

Anyway, Remy’s dream kind of comes true when he is separated by his family during a flood. He ends up in the sewers located in Paris, and walks right through the door of his hero’s restaurant. Apparently, Gusteau died after reading a review by the vicious food critic Anton Ego (Peter O’Toole). The restaurant, now ran by Skinner (Ian Holm), has been going through the shits. Skinner is doing frozen dinner meals and it seems like that none of the cooks are in positive moods anymore. Linguini (Lou Romano) comes walking in one day with a note saying asking for work. And he gets work, but as a janitor. When Remy messes around with some spices, Linguini receives the credit and is now works as a chef. But when Ego finds out about this, he comes knocking on the door, asking for some food.

We watch Remy and Linguini’s relationship evolve through the movie. Linguini is credited as a great chef as Remy does the cooking. It seems like Remy doesn’t even care about not being crediting half the time, because he’s living his dream. He’s introduced to all of these new spices while working at the restaurant and since Linguini doesn’t know how to do shit, they form a team. It’s a partnership that cannot be broken.

The plot of “Ratatouille” is much more complicated as it seems, especially for a children’s film. I sat there mesmerized how I could be so wide-eyed with the story of “Ratatouille.” It’s a film that should be for kids, but I’m glad that older people would get much more out of it. Out of the many scenes, I feel that the one scene that every adult will like is the scene as Anton Ego walks into the restaurant. These few moments didn’t only signal the reason why I liked the movie so damn much, but Anton Ego ended up to have the same look on his face after his meal ended as I had when the movie ended.

But the critic of Anton Ego is the most complex character here. A man like Ego was obviously inspired by the single greatest film critic of all-time, Roger Ebert. He plays around with words so that only the brightest can understand where he is coming from, which makes me stand up and applause. Only unlike Ebert, Anton Ego can be described as a critic who is respected by no one, which only adds to his personality. Restaurant owners cringe at the name whenever they hear it, and as he walks into the room of the restaurant, we cringe at the thought of what Ego will be thinking of the food.

Still, “Ratatouille” makes my heart warm the most out of all the films released in 2007, 2006, and 2005 put together. I watched “Ratatouille” thinking that I would come out as mad as I would have if I came out of a Tom Cruise flick that didn’t have him strapped to a chair with dental tools sitting next to him. But I was relatively surprised with one of the biggest aspects of the film. The Academy nominated “Ratatouille” for best screenplay, best score, best animation, best sound mixing, and best sound editing, and does it deserve in each of those categories.

I really can’t add onto anything else that has been said by others about the animation taking place in “Ratatouille,” but boy it sure looks fine. For much of the time, you don’t even realize that the film is animation and you begin to think that you’re looking at a photograph of Paris. Best part about it? They got everything right, including the Eiffel Tower.

“Ratatouille” was nominated for best animated film of 2007, but as typing this review, could it have easily been nominated for Best Picture? I left “Ratatouille,” surprised and happy, but nothing sums the movie up better than the quote used by Anton Ego at the end of the film…

“In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defense of the new. The world is often unkind to new talent, new creations, the new needs friends.”