Note: My opinion of this film has largely changed since this review. The problems I had with it were because of my age and level of understanding for more complicated material in animated movies. My original rating was 3 out of 5 stars (average), but my current rating would be 4 out of 5 stars (one of the best of the year). I will write an updated review of this film in the future, but the following review is from my 12-year-old self.
First of all, this is not Pixar’s best effort. Along with a confusing plot, there is one unnecessary use of the ‘H’ word in this film. But the film was great on a comic scale. Remy (voiced by Patton Oswalt) is a rat, yes a rat, who unlike the rest of his clan, hates garbage and likes human food. He finds and steals a book called “Anyone Can Cook.” From then on, he starts seeing the ghost of Gusteau (voiced by Brad Garrett) , the owner of a once five star restaurant and author of the book.
When Remy gets lost from his rat family, he goes into the restaurant where he sees recently recruited garbage boy Linguini (voiced by Lou Romano). Linguini has ruined a soup, and much to Remy’s dismay, he freaks out and falls into the sink while attempting to fix it. When Remy is almost done fixing the soup, Linguini sees him, along with the manager, Skinner, who orders Linguini to get rid of him. But Remy had fixed the soup in a way so the food critic who was there liked it. Manager Skinner (Voiced by Ian Holm) tells Linguini to make the soup again, but he can’t because he didn’t make it, Remy did.
The two make a friendship and Remy helps Linguini become a great chef. A girl named Colette (voiced by Janeane Garofalo doing a terrible French accent) , make that the only girl in Gusteau’s restaurant, also helps out. But they will have to be careful around the sneaky manager.
“Ratatouille” had funny stuff in it. Like the scene where Gusteau’s ghost shows up and Remy says, “Is this going to become a regular thing with you?” The timing however, 1 hour, 54 minutes, was way too long. Rated G, but I think it should be rated PG for scenes too confusing for children to understand.
Rated G