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Ratatouille defies any expectations, assumptions, and preconceptions prior to the act of actually seeing it. It will surely add more romanticism to the idea of living in Paris, what with all its gloriously breathtaking shots of the world’s capital of art and culture, coupled with a magnificent and lush orchestral score that oscillates from playful comedy to heartfelt melancholy. However, there is a rather alarming world-weariness in this film that makes it realistic, heartwrenching and beautiful: certainly not one’s typical family movie with cookie-cutter fairy tale sensibilities. In fact, it is a delicate labour of love that celebrates the importance of art and choosing one’s destiny in light of the current circumstances without dumbing down its ideas, insights and overall vision to the viewer. Like the previous Pixar films, great storytelling, very fun action sequences, relatable and endearing characters and genuine and heartfelt emotionality are deftly executed in careful and consistent cinematic dexterity via fantastic and carefully detailed visuals.

With Ratatouille, as the latest entry, written and directed by Brad Bird, the man behind great achievements that are The Incredibles and The Iron Giant, the standard of Pixar’s continuing excellence has risen even higher. Considering the subject matter and the rather too fantastical story, which can even be defined as repugnant by some movie goers (we are talking about rats cooking here, after all), Ratatouille seems to pose a signal that it wouldn’t work and it would fail. But like the twitching tiny animal that is heavily misunderstood in the movie, there are many pleasant surprises to be found here. This is really a phenomenal cinematic delicacy that goes above-and-beyond the typical family movie by focusing less on the cutesy and juvenile aspects of all things and instead just inherently tells a great story, however silly and unbelievable it might be, and gives a booming beating heart and soul to the characters. In addition, there is intelligence found in the story that will undoubtedly bring movie-goers to lengthy conversations over red wine and foie gras.

Thus, Ratatouille is more adult-oriented with its surprisingly advanced sense of humour and rather dark themes and subject matters that could go way over the heads of the kids. Granted, there are seamless action sequences that are hilarious and energetic and the interaction and the developing relationship between the rat and the boy are constant in drama. But this film is more “talky” compare to Brad Bird’s previous movies. We shouldn’t underestimate children, however, as it all comes together in the finale, and hopefully they’ll be able to appreciate the sheer simple beauty of it: a genuinely moving conclusion that is never sentimental but intensely sincere and heartfelt nonetheless that advances the film’s ongoing motto “Anyone can cook” to “Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere.” This finale is punctuated by a brilliant transformation of the film’s severe and mean-spirited food critic, Anton Ego (voiced with such dignified Shakespearean delivery by Peter O’ Toole). His paradoxical speech about both the uselessness and the importance of critics is right on the spot, and I couldn’t help but nod my head and, at the same time, wanting to cry in tears, because of its delicate poignancy in its unabashed truthfulness delivered by what could be now one of the most complex characters in the history of cinema.

Granted, an adorable and talented rat called Remy controlling every culinary move of an awkward garbage boy named Linguini who is mistaken to be a great chef really does sound uncannily ludicrous on paper, but even with the most ridiculous premise, Bird manages to explore a lot of universal themes via the subtext of the story (racism, prejudice, being who you are, family vs. personal destiny, etc.) that could be too overreaching in a digitally animated film, and therefore, too high to be appreciated by the mainstream audiences whose standards have gotten low after getting accustomed to watching a lot of nonsensical and mediocre crap and whose cinematic yearnings involve wanting nothing more but a quick fix of slapdash entertainment. Ratatoutille itself reminds us that there are still many talented artists out there, and we shouldn’t bow our heads in cynism and adopt a pessimistic viewpoint in life, and thus, resorting to lowering our standards. Meaningful works do exist and will continually to do so, and it is matter of paying attention and extracting the mediocre from the crap, the good from the mediocre, the great from the good, and finally, the magnificent from the great.

In the end, Ratatouille delivers what it promises in the beginning. However, it goes an extra mile by giving an entirely different concoction that manages to shatter the conventionality of family entertainment, and even the major bulk of live-action films out there: being a rather abstract, meaningful and emotional work of art about art. Ratatouille is timeless and it will remain so.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 30th, 2007 at 9:35 am and is filed under Film. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.