Ratatouille

The eighth Pixar film was released in 2007, directed by Brad Bird. Starring Patton Oswalt, Ian Holm, Lou Romano, Brian Dennehy, Peter Sohn, Peter O’Toole, Brad Garrett, and Janeane Garofalo, Ratatouille grossed over $600 million. Nominated for 58 award it won 38, including The Academy Award for Best Animated Film, The Annie Award for Best Animated Feature, The Golden Globe for Best Animated Film, and the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack.

A rat named Remy (Oswalt) has a highly developed sense of taste and smell and is dissatisfied with eating garbage. Winding up in Paris, he gets the chance to be a cook at the restaurant founded by his idol, Auguste Gusteau (Garrett). However, he must do it by making a deal with the restaurant’s garbage boy, Linguini (Romano) who has been mistaken for a cooking genius.

Ratatouille is an incredibly fun film that has an interesting antagonist while also featuring side characters that have a side story that’s actually engaging.

A rat that can cook and wants to subvert humanity’s perception of his species. It seems like an odd concept, but so does every other Pixar film. Remy and Linguini make an interesting connection that lets the two fool nearly everyone into thinking the latter is actually a master chef. And then there’s Skinner who continually comes off as more and more insane as the film goes on.

But Skinner’s not the main antagonist, that role falls to Anton Ego. And while making a food critic seem like a terrifyingly sadistic person seems hard, Pixar pulls it off. It certainly doesn’t help that he finds a weird enjoyment in providing negative reviews and making restaurants suffer.

And then there’s the side story romance between Linguini and Collette. While an idea like this could seem, and most often is, incredibly cliché, it works for this movie. Mainly because when she storms off, she comes back not because of something Linguini or Remy said, but because she recalls that Gusteau believed artists can come from anywhere. What Gusteau meant by that is also a clever way for Ego to soften.

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