I was pleasantly surprised. I'm definitely not a big Pixar fan but for some reason the previews for this one had me interested. It was a lot of fun to watch. The chase sequences are action-packed and very unique. Those were my favorite scenes. The ending was perfect. Easily the best of the year.

Exquisite and delightful, not that anything less should be expected from Pixar at this point. The animation is beautiful, the madcap humor is hilarious, and the message is positive and uplifting without being preachy. It also makes you want to go to Paris like...right now. Although it starts slow, it certainly picks up the pace along the way. In addition, the short shown before the movie ("Lifted") is completely hilarious. I'd say this movie is on par with Cars and a little better than A Bug's Life for me (my order would probably be Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc, Toy Story 2, Toy Story, The Incredibles, Ratatouille/Cars, A Bug's Life). A-

Some spoilers are present.


There's a lot riding on Ratatouille. It's the first Pixar film since Disney bought them for an amount that could make Bill Gates blush, and so it'll be the showcase of whether or not the deal was worth it. I don't hold the answer to whether or not it'll be a monstrous financial success, but what I do know is that if there is one soul working at Corporate Disney in which quality matters, Ratatouille delivers in spades.

What separates Pixar from the rest of the mediocrity that fills the CGI-animation genre is that they will only tell a story they believe should be told. None of Pixar's films have ever been petty cash-ins, and with the subject matter of this one, there shouldn't be any debate that that philosophy remains intact here. The other fact that puts them head and shoulders above the rest is their ability to put heart into all of their characters. From a rat that wants to cook, to a poor garbage boy, to a critic who's (seemingly) sole purpose is to tear apart any and all who call themselves "chef", each character shows their own great...well...characteristics.

The story begins with Remy the rat explaining his origins and how he has an unbelievable sense of smell, letting him pin-point the exact items that a food is made of and what can make any food even better. Naturally, he refuses to eat the normal garbage that his brethren feast upon, and who can blame him? When you can make foods that can bring anyone to their knees, why eat mush? Unfortunately, his tastes are not appreciated by his father, and since he's a rat, it's nigh impossible for to make up any dishes. It's not until he gets to his dream city of Paris that things get moving along.

Remy manages to get himself to the restaurant of his idol, Gusteau, where, after witnessing the garbage boy Linguini butcher some soup, he is compelled (by Gusteau....sorta) to fix it. What he batches up is a soup that wins over a very prestigious food critic. However, he is caught in the act by Linguini, who, while hiding Remy, is caught by the chief chef with a ladle and is believed by him to have made the soup. So now, Remy is captured while Linguini is forced to cook up the recipe again. Before dispatching of Remy though, he realizes the rat can understand him, so they pair up and create foods that even Anton Ego (the "Grim Reaper") can't help but love.

I think I've ruined enough of the plot for you guys :wink:, so I'll talk about the technical aspect of the film. In a word, it is perfection. The rat's hair, along with humans, looks and acts just right, and the body animations handedly beat out any and all competitors. Paris itself seems to have been created perfectly as well, the skyline is beautiful to see, and many of the buildings look nigh photorealistic. However, in my opinion, the food steals the show. Everything looks like it was cooked and just thrown on the screen, if you were to put real food next to what was shown in Ratatouille, I don't know if I could choose which was real.

So, how would I rank it among other Pixar films? Though it's like trying to decide what type of vanilla ice cream I want, I would definitely say this ranks up with the likes of Toy Story 1 & 2, Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles. In fact, I believe that I would definitely put it past the latter two, though I'll have to see it a few more times to make the decision.

In closing, I can say that Ratatouille makes it 8-0 for the Pixar enterprise, and once again displays that Brad Bird is one of the greatest storytellers in the business. It most likely won't make near as much as the vastly inferior Shrek 3, but for those who do see it, it'll be one of the greatest treats of the year by far.


A+

Spoilers Present


Ratatouille is the next film from acclaimed director Brad Bird, with The Iron Giant and another praised Pixar film already on his resume he clearly had a lot to live up to in Ratatouille. Like The Incredibles Bird came up with the story and then penned the screenplay, if the film failed it would be put squarely on Bird, after all the plot seems ludicrous a Rat who is a gourmet and an excellent chef, the film could have easily fallen on its face with a less competent director but Bird crafts it masterfully and it works wonderfully.



Lets start with something that seems obvious the animation, its Pixar of course would it be anything less then perfection, and of course it is not. However it is hard to gauge just how good it is without seeing the movie. When it is raining (which oddly enough happens alot) every hair on the rats will stand up and appear just like it should. Pixar obviously has an animated look in their animation, its not the eerily realistic animation of the Polar Express and soon Beowulf, you know at all times some one didn't go out and film a rat colony, but where Pixar really gets it is in the detail put into every shot so the viewer is looking up in awe at the screen. Which will happen in the pan outs on Paris itself with the lights and famous landmarks it is truly beautiful.


Even though Ratatouille looks amazing even for a Pixar film that isn't enough the story has to be good and in this movie it certainly was. The story begins with of course Remy, who introduces himself dubiously as a rat with a highly defined Pallet, who is reduced to be the poison checker for the rat colony, through some misadventures they are forced to leave the house they currently inhabited and move to the big city. Remy eventually finds out he was not far away from his "mentors" resteraunt Gusteau's. When Remy see the garbage boy Linguini mess up the soup he feels the urge to fix it, which he does untill he is caught and Linguini is forced to dispose of him, however Remy's soup is a hit and Linguini is given the praise, relizing he can not make it again he decides to keep Remy to help him cook. Throughout the rest of the movie they face different challenges with a crazy head chef and the frightening critic Anton Ego.


The voice work in Ratatouille is also exceptional. When I pass by a Rat now, I'll probably expect to hear Patton Oswalt's voice, though maybe a little higher pitched. Lou Ramono who never has had a role this big (he was Dash's teacher in The Incredibles) is infact incredible. Also have to give props to John Ratzenbeger to still have his trademark voice even with a french accent. Also I say give Peter O'Toole the oscar for this, his voice is pitch perfect for the most feared critic in all of Paris Anton Ego.

So where does this land in terms of Pixar, it is much better than last years dissapointing entry in Cars and 1998's A Bug's Life. Narrowing it down from here however is much harder all of the rest are masterful films that all deserve awards, but I would put it past Nemo and Monster's Inc. and The Incredibles. With that only the original franchise is left the original Pixar and the sequel that managed to be just as good. It would be naive to proclaim Ratatouille the best Pixar ever while only seeing it once, so far now I'll make my favorite Pixar a three way tie.

Before the Review ends however I must mention one last thing, with Pixar movies we always get a short film at the begining. Some times there only ok (The Incredibles Boundin') and sometimes there better than the movie itself (Cars' One Man Band). Lifted is the one shown with Ratatouille and it is an excellent short film, probably my favorite though I have seen some of them in a while.

A+

Lifted:A

Peter O'Toole My already high excitment for this has somehow gone even further up!

"it is much better than last years dissapointing entry in Cars"

Good news!

Cars is the only Pixar's film that wasn't in my A list..
(it's not even last year's best animation)

Why is there always someone who hands out an F to highly rated films?

Muchos gracias.

If that's the case, then I think I'm going to love this. I thought Cars was way underrated.

I saw it at an employee screening.

It wasn't as LOL as the other ones, but the character development and storyline make up for that. Easily the best family movie this year. A must see.

Grade: A.

Because they're still pissed off that Grindhouse bombed.


I had to say it. I was in another forum today and people were still going on about this subject. It's over... move on people.

I've to wait until August for this!!

Ugghhhhhh!!

I agree, Cars was highly overated mainly because it was about talking Cars and people didn't buy into that. It makes me sad all of the semi-hate towards Cars, I thought ti was better than Monsters Inc, Nemo (yes Nemo the most overated Pixar entry IMHO), and Bug's Life (underated as well).

It's a great story with fantastic animation. Not extremely funny, but it's quirky and unique. I enjoyed it a lot.

-B+

A-/B+

I'm borderline.

A fun film with some heartfelt moments. I was surprised by the document scene ending earlier than I thought: I thought the film would drag the scene on and on.

One problem: I know it's animated, but I did roll my eyes at one scene. It involves a human character falling off a motor bike onto concrete steps, yet having no problems whatsoever running. It was a little ridiculous. The man must be immortal. Like I said, I know its animated, but a little hard to swallow.

Im looking forward to this now. I hope its up there with Toy Story 2 and Monsters Inc in quality.

Better than cars but a notch below pixar's best.The story is good, its not very funny(though there is some nice humor but i still liked it, and it has some good characters, it is a bit overlong but i can live with that.

*** out of ****

B

I just saw it in theatres for the first time and seeing it on the big screen just makes it so much better. The animation is unbelievable. My grade jumps actually

-A-

It's not as funny as The Incredibles.
It's not as breathtaking as Finding Nemo.
And it's not as original as Monster's, Inc.
However, it makes up for not being the best in a single category by being strong in every single one. It's strange...it doesn't work like one would expect: the leading rat, Remi, isn't completely likable: his chuckle can be disturbing and he's stubborn/not really that nice. And there was little effort to make the rats the cute...Pixar decided to keep them as rats. But his and Linguini's character development are remarkably strong...probably the strongest I've seen in any animated movie besides the little girl in Spirited Away, and perhaps Simba in the Lion King. The movie drags a bit in the middle, and sometimes forgets that it's main audience is kids....I don't know how much the little tykes in the audience actually enjoyed this, but their parents did. The food was absolutely beautiful, and the hair and water animation were the best I've ever seen. There's a somewhat strong presence of guns in this movie, which was a bit surprising for a G-rated Pixar movie, but I guess no one dare hand out a "PG" to Pixar flick. Overall, it wasn't as great as the Pixar classics (Toy Story 1 & 2, Nemo, Monsters and Incredibles), but it was miles better than their last entry and better than a Bug's Life. So I felt this was slightly less than average for Pixar, which equates to slightly less than excellent in the broader scheme of films.

A-

And Lifted (the short) was great, of course.

Good movie. Entertaining. Fantastic animation. Yet, not Pixar's best. A

Pixar's return to form, every bit as good as I expected (believe it or not. )

The animation was great, but I thought the story was a little weak. I actually had trouble staying awake. My 8 year-old daughter liked it, but her cousins sitting behind us left early. My mom thought it was a waste of money. I grade it a B, I guess.

What a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful film this was.


This was also the first time that an audience actually clapped at the end of a movie in my experience. I, of course, joined them.


Kudos to Pixar for yet another great film.

A strong A.

Just tried watching it on a website... blasted thing stopped twenty minutes from the end.

The first two thirds, however, were marvellous.