Review of Ratatouille (2007) by Ben L — 25 May 2017

I always enjoy watching Ratatouille. It?s one of those movies where I?ve seen parts of it about a hundred times, because anytime I catch it on TV, I?ll just sit and watch for awhile. But this is the first time I?ve watched the entire thing from start to finish since it was out in theaters.

I love the characters in Ratatouille, and the journey that Remy and Linguini go on through the story. The voice cast is spectacular, particularly the amazing addition of Peter O?Toole as a condescending food critic.

The animation of the food looks spectacular in the movie (it always makes me hungry) and the massive amount of research about French cuisine that the writers and artists put in pays off big time. I always feel that Ratatouille is just a little too long, though.

I feel like they could have easily cut all the confrontation between Remy and his own family and the movie would be perfectly streamlined. That added level of conflict is wasted because no one watching needs to be reminded that rats don?t fit in with humans, and that Remy?s behavior is unusual.

The movie has a great conclusion, though, and I have the biggest smile on my face after the little epilogue. It?s a very well-made film that needed just a little tweaking in order to be one of Pixar?s best.