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DokBrowne [ 5.0 ]
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How the mighty have fallen! I still can't tell for sure whether Pixar has gotten stale or my own tastes have just left their style behind. First it was last summer's "Cars", an agreeable tale chock full of diminishing returns - weaker comedy, more forced morality, annoying characters. Now here we are a year later and the returns have become exponentially smaller - there is no longer ANY laughter to speak of, the heart of the tale is corny and stale beyond belief, and the characters aren't even annoying, they're just plain forgettably dull. It saddens me to make these criticisms, as I once thought myself the ultimate Pixar fan (I'm scared to even re-watch their earlier movies - would I no longer love them as much in light of this development?). The magnificence of warmth, humor, characterization, dialogue, storytelling, and animation made movies like the "Toy Story"s, "The Incredibles", and "Monsters. Inc" not just pillars of the cartoon community, but, at least in my own heart, champions of filmmaking period. They utilized every meaningful aspect of this medium to their fullest potential, and I was overwhelmed with joy time and again.
So how could this be? Brad Bird, the rightly heralded master behind "The Incredibles" and "The Iron Giant", wrote and directed this genial lump of coal. Did he forget what funny was? The jokes here are no better or worse than a Dreamworks Animation production, which is indeed a sad parallel. They function to please small children and people who have miraculously never seen this or that same beaten-like-a-dead-horse gag a thousand times before. You can't get involved in the story, because you know exactly how it's going to turn out from the very beginning - worse, you know exactly which scenes and arcs and so-called clever devices will be used to take the story from start to finish. The friend who accompanied me to the movie theater accidentally predicted at least 80% of the dialogue throughout the movie, specifically the punchlines. He would just mutter something like "oh is the critic going to say that HE'LL bring the perspective?" and then sure enough that would happen. I suppose it's not that amazing a feat, seeing through the mechanics of an animated movie, but it's also not very flattering to the movie itself, especially when it holds itself to a high standard of excellence (and to be sure, even beyond the Pixar reputation, most people still seemed to love this movie to death, inexplicably). Maybe it were "Ice Age", you could defend it by saying "well, what do you expect? It's damn "Ice Age", a crappy copy-of-a-copy of an old Disney movie that sucked even back then. Bravo, you picked apart a movie that doesn't even try to be original." But this ain't "Ice Age", it's Pixar, it's Brad Bird, and it's the luxurious presentation of "Ratatouille".
To its credit, the movie isn't bad. Just depressingly boring, completely unfunny, and quite unimaginative. The animation is pleasing, needless to say, in particular early scenes set in an overcast French countryside, although both the interior and exterior designs of Gusteau's restaurant have beautifully plush and relaxing colors that make them very appetizing to the eyes. The ending also deserves recognition, as the focus shifts away from Remy the Rat and Linguini the Chef to show how a bitterly cynical and clearly depressed restaurant critic's soul is redeemed by Remy's cooking skills. His part in the story provides the only creative and semi-amusing bits (a typewriter designed like a skull, a study in his house shaped like a coffin, and some deliciously nasty insults) as well as the only emotional outlet. Who cares about Remy and Linguini's friendship? You've seen it a thousand times in other movies (including almost every Pixar movie), and neither the voice actors nor the screenplay sell it. Yet behold this gaunt, gothic old man steeped in loneliness, drawn at long last from his dark cocoon by the transcendent experience of a single meal and the refreshing surprise (for him) of who's to thank for it. If the entire movie could have been as inspired and tender as these final moments, it might've been worth making in the first place. It still wouldn't be new at all, I guess, but at least it would uphold the tradition of past Pixar victories: spinning the very familiar into pure magic.
Too bad "Ratatouille" is so caught up in its dreary excuses for comedy, clockwork-rigid story structure, and endless supply of ordinary ingredients suffocating the verve and entertainment out of every scene. Not that there was any to begin with, really.
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jeff_v [ 8.0 ]
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A pleasing return to form for Team Pixar, after the pedestrian Cars and the problematic The Incredibles. I'm not even sure it's really a kid's movie, though kids are routinely underestimated and the smart ones probably appreciate a movie that doesn't talk down to them. It all comes together the instant Ego tastes the ratatouille, and he is transported to his childhood. Art has a way of doing that.
[Wow, DokBrowne is the last person I would've expected to be disappointed in this movie.]
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chapter11 [ 8.0 ]
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See, I'm not so sure that Pixar has really sunk yet. "Ratatouille" is kind of remarkable in my eyes---ostensibly an animated child's movie, but one with a lot of resonance and relevance in the adult psyche. That in itself isn't very memorable---the best animated movies strive for this routinely---but the little ways in which "Ratatouille" is a really different sort of family movie makes it really special. First of all, there's the daring decision to slap it with a title not easily pronounced or read by five-year-olds; and then there's talk of pretentious foodstuffs and stuffy French food critics, and health inspectors and critters in the kitchen. Of course, making the rats rather cuddly---and literate---doesn't hurt the kid-flick aspect of things, but still. As usual, director Brad Bird assembles an unexpected (but top-notch) voice cast to lend color and gravitas, and there's a lot of beautiful, bittersweet stuff here. It's a strange direction that Pixar has taken---the all-encompassing entertainment bonanza that was "The Incredibles" to odd little movies like this and "Cars"---but I can't say that it's much of a spiral, especially considering the unique scenarios and surprising pathos on display in Pixar's ouvre of late. A worthwhile entry into the canon of the most innovative animation studio working today.
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| Weighted Rating | : 7.4 |
| No. Ratings | : 12 | |
| No. Reviews | : 7 | |
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