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Directed By
Brad Bird
Written By:
Brad Bird, Emily Cook, Kathy Greenberg, Jim Capobianco, Jan Pinkava
Cast:
Patton Oswalt, Ian Holm, Brian Dennehy, Peter O'Toole, Brad Garrett, Janeane Garofalo, Will Arnett, James Remar, John Ratzenberger, Jake Steinfeld, Brad Bird, Laurent Spielvogel, Julius Callahan, Lou Romano, Teddy Newton, Tony Fucile, Peter Sohn
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Ratatouille (2007)
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Movie Review by Ben
December 22nd, 2007
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"Ratatouille" was written and directed by Brad Bird who also directed another Pixar movie, "The Incredibles." Now that was one of the few movies made that actually lived up to it's name. Here, we follow the story of Remy who ends up getting separated from his family and ends up getting washed away under the sewers and ends up in Paris. The moment where he ends up in Paris and sees it is a truly brilliant scene of amazing imagery. Pixar movies continue to outdo themselves in terms of visual imagery. The look of Paris was astonishing, and it had me wondering how the hell they managed to put that altogether. The wonder of movies still exists after all these years of cynical blockbusters!
Anyway, Remy ends up sneaking into a restaurant named after a famous cook named Gusteau (voiced by Brad Garrett) who has written a book entitled,
"Anybody Can Cook."
He ends up befriending a new employee of the restaurant named Linguini (voiced by Lou Ramano) who really cannot cook to save his life. Through Linguini, Remy creates a system where he can make Linguini cook the way he wants him to by pulling at his hair like he is a marionette, while remaining hidden inside Linguini's chef hat. This leads to Linguini giving a brilliantly physical performance which make Steve Martin's performance in "All Of Me" very proud.
Along the way, he infuriates the head chef of the restaurant who is busy selling off Gusteau's name and likeness through frozen burritos which serves to make him quite wealthy. Linguini also meets up with Colette, the only female chef in the restaurant who makes it clear that she is here to stay. All the other rats in the movie help out Remy in a way that, if people realized, would have them running like crazy from the restaurant.
This movie is filled with wonderful vocal characterizations that don't necessarily have you thinking about the people that do them. I am not familiar with either Patton Oswalt or Lou Romano who respectively voice Remy and Linguini. Both are very memorable characters who stand out among many other recent characters in animated movies. Remy himself is a genius creation that just might make you think twice about rat traps and poison. I am very tempted to go out right now and get a stuffed animal version of the character.
For a while, I thought that Remy's father Django was voiced by Jason Alexander. Turns out that it was Brian Dennehy who did the voice, and he is wonderful in giving his character different layers and realizations to work with. The biggest surprise for me thouugh was the actor who voiced Collette - Janeane Garrofolo! I didn't even recognize her voice and thought it might have been Elizabeth Pena doing it with a very realiztic french accent! Collette does look a bit like the character Elizabeth Pena voiced in "The Incredibles." All the same, Janeane does terrific work here, and it is so nice to see her doing something other than joking about her period.
The one voice I did recognize eventually in this movie was that of Peter O'Toole. He plays perhaps the harshest restaurant critic ever to walk the face of the earth, Anton Ego (symbolic name actually). His character becomes quite pivotol to the movie's climax as the restaurant is forced to come up with a spectacular dish that will keep Mr. Ego from savaging the restaurant and it's staff in a review.
Pixar continues their winning streak of great movies. Even if you were dissapointed by last summer's "Cars" (and it really was not a bad movie), it was proof that even their weakest movies put so many other Hollywood movies to shame. They are to me what the Jim Henson's Muppets were to me when I was a kid, creators of projects that appealed simultaneously to children and adults. This is easily the best family movie so far this summer, and it is way ahead of other movies like "Shrek The Third."
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