Ratatouille

Released in time for the school holidays, Ratatouille is the latest animated collaboration from Pixar and Disney. It’s also the latest from writer-director Brad Bird, the man behind Pixar’s instant superhero classic The Incredibles, as well as Warner Brother’s touching The Iron Giant.

Ratatouille follows Pixar’s story-strong tradition. Plot and taunt action sequences are prioritised ahead of wackiness, outdated pop culture references, an obvious celebrity voice cast and fart jokes – which seem to have become staples in today’s 3D animation genre. Ratatouille’s focus on storytelling is a refreshing change, particularly for audiences older than 8 years old.


If you’ve seen the trailer, then you’ll have a pretty good idea what Ratatouille is about. In a twist of fate, Remy, a rat with amazing culinary instincts, finds himself living under Gusteau’s, a Parisian restaurant that has seen its fortunes decline since the death of its iconic chef owner.

All Remy wants to do is cook, but when his presence in the kitchen is met with unsurprising disgust, he has to settle for an unusual alliance with Linguini, a young, hopelessly clumsy, wannabe chef. Rat and human secretly work together, reinventing Gusteau’s menu while dodging the suspicious head chef, and an impossible-to-please food critic.

It’s customary in animated movies these days to wow audiences with imaginative depictions of “new worlds” never seen onscreen before. Dreamworks’ rival rat film, Flushed Away created a mini Piccadilly Circus in the London sewers that mirrored its human equivalent. By contrast, the “new world” Ratatouille presents and explores onscreen is that of gourmet cooking. It’s likely that after watching Ratatouille you’ll feel inspired to rush home and create your own culinary masterpiece. Or at least try.


As for the film’s animation, it’s impossible to flaw Pixar as usual. Ratatouille’s creative team have embraced a stylised, cartoony look, which is highly enjoyable to watch. Skeletal food critic Anton Ego (menacingly voiced by Peter O’Toole) and his bleak, elongated surroundings, have been especially well realised. At the same time, in scenes where rats interact with humans, the rodents’ movements, such as the way they crouch, all bristled up, show impressive, realistic attention to detail.

Like Cars it’s debatable how much enjoyment very young children will get from Ratatouille, and the film does lag a little towards the end. Otherwise it’s a real treat, the best animated rodent movie since The Secret of NIMH.