Ratatouille

Labeling an animation as Pixar has the same effect as Scarlett Johansson in lingerie on a DVD cover – it makes it an instant must see. But far from being just another feel good comedy rolled off the production line, Ratatouille takes a fresh idea, garnished with humour, and executes it beautifully.

Remy, a rat who is particular about his food, works as a sweet conceit, and coupled with Linguine, a cack-handed garbage boy, form a culinary dream team. The main course of such a story must of course be the laughter, and this was not lacking; indeed it was cleverly constructed, well paced and managed to stay out of les toilettes. Villain and food critic Anton Ego (Peter O’Toole) brought out elements darkness and drama to strike a fine balance. The characters may have been a little extreme; Ego, a little too melodramatic, Skinner (Ian Holm), a little too schizoid, Linguine, a little too clumsy. But there was one character which could not be overdone, a homicidal maniac of a sous-chef Collette, whose violent tendencies worked wonders in the already perilous kitchen environment.

Given its Pixar watermark, Ratatouille has very little to say about love, at least in the romantic sense. It does, however, speak volumes about passion, pursuing dreams, and savouring every mouthful of life’s experiences, so to speak. And whilst the other themes of family ties and corporate greed fall rather flat, the resonant love of food and its concomitant joie de vivre keep the characters, and myself, going along quite nicely.

Visually, I was thunderstruck by the progress animation has made. Ratatouille shows that colour and detail are now at the director’s whim, to commanded exquisitely onto a digital canvas. I have never imagined that an animation could hold such a filmic quality, with admittedly cartoonish characters brought to life by all one might expect of modern live action cinema . The elegant use of depth of field and racked focus gave a Lost in Translation look to a rat in Paris, and the light and shadows painted a piece de resistance.

Ratatouille is thoroughly enjoyable, and, for an animation, earns from me two rather unusual allocades; it is both wonderously cinematic and delightfully non-retarded. Grab your date and go!

Rating: 4.0/5

Written by Christopher See