| RATATOUILLE |
 2007 - USADirector: Brad Bird
- Reviewed by Vickie
Technically superb but narratively dull beyond measure, Ratatouille looks amazing—some of the cityscapes are breathtakingly gorgeous—but just lies there, kind of flat and uninspired, on the screen. Where’s the pizzazz? Where’s the spirit? Where’s the trademark snap and zip of the company’s previous films? And where, oh where, are the fancy famous celebrity voices? Ratatouille follows Remy the rat (voiced by Patton Oswalt) as he flees his country home and takes up residence at a famous Paris restaurant—where, guided by the petite ghost of his idol, the late renowned chef Gusteau (voiced by Brad Garrett), he tries to improve the decidedly lacking culinary skills of a bumbling, nebbish, boring busboy named Linguini (voiced by Lou Romano...wait, WHO?). With Remy’s help, Linguini begins whipping up delectable delights, which raises the suspicion and ire of head chef Skinner (Ian Holm) and the rest of the staff. Beyond the somewhat cute friendship between a rat and a human, the story wasn’t that interesting to me. It had small bursts of smile-worthy moments, but a lot of the super-clever humor normally applied to films like Cars or Finding Nemo was missing and, instead, replaced with much more traditional storytelling. It didn’t help matters that the film was a whopping 110 minutes long—a loooooong time when you’re without zaniness, spark and the genius of smart wordplay. I also thought that the filmmakers made a judgment error by spending so much time in a computer-animated film focusing on the human characters. Why? The rats are infinitely more entertaining, and if I wanted to watch a movie about people I’d just go see a live-action film. Equally bland were some of the lead players. Romano, an animator, didn’t have enough onscreen energy or color to be compelling; his Linguini was limp. Similarly, save for fans of The King of Queens or obscure stand-up comedy, I’ll bet you’d have a hard time finding people who actually know who Patton Oswalt is. And, really, Ian Holm? Brad Garrett? The ubiquitous John Ratzenberger? Yawn. Even Peter O’Toole’s snarly food critic, who looks like he walked onto the animated set from a Tim Burton movie, lacks the meat of a typical Disney villain; he’s more dreary than scary. And though I absolutely ADORE Janeane Garofalo, I didn’t even recognize her voice – all I kept thinking was, “Who’s the actress doing that terrible French accent???” I dunno, I was left disappointed by Ratatouille. Maybe it’s because Pixar has repeatedly set the bar very, very high so this was bound to fall short. Or maybe it’s just because, like Linguini’s initial dishes, it lacks the spice to truly satisfy. |
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Everyone knows how much I love Pixar, so it’s with much sadness that
I’m forced to give its latest cinematic offering only five slices...and
even that feels like it might be one slice too many.
