010. Ratatouille

Ab 3, Oktober! I'm guessing that's a day

before my birthday. Cool international posters.

Watch the trailer here

Ok, ok. I have been slacking. I apologize. I am trying to actually get this going again. Granted, it will require a lot of work and effort on my part. I have watched ten movies from the list since I started this project half a year ago. If my math is correct (and thanks to some hardcore math-loving asian genes in my genome, it usually is) that means I have to watch one hundred and seventy-ish movies in the remaining half of the year. Sounds possible! I like challenges, anyway.

So, back to the movie. It's hard to review a Pixar animated movie. Not because it's particularly challenging to watch, but the idea of coming up with something insightful or novel (especially when you are reviewing a movie that is close to 4 years old) seems a bit ludicrous to me. Everyone knows that it was a good movie. Even those weird people that don't like Pixar movies and would rather watch Bee Movie or Over the Hedge. I mostly mean my friend Jayme. In any case, Ratatouille is (you guessed it!) awesome.

One thing that detracts from the movie is the plot. Ratatouille tells the story of a young rat named Remy that embraces being different and being special, as opposed to being one more of the pack. Not that it is a bad idea, or sends a bad message but it's been done before, no? If I'm not mistaken it's the exact same plot of Jonathan Livingston Seagull-- or Juan Salvador Gaviota, as it was known to me. Weirdly enough, I once read a book that was also a rehash of JLS but with dolphins. I'm not entirely sure how that got published. Anyway going back to Ratatouille, it's definitely a plot that's used often because the message is important and rather timeless. Be yourself. Be great. As Dr Seuss would say "Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive that is youer than you." I guess I just think that when compared to Up or Wall-E, it falls a little short. To be fair, I'm probably doing it a huge disservice by watched it after Pixar's latest hits. It was made before those movies and they have probably grown since then.

On a completely illogical level, another minor gripe I had with this movie is Patton Oswalt. I'm sure he has his fans and some people find him funny. To me he is and will always be that small guy from King of Queens. I'm not much of a Kevin James fan and anything related to him, automatically (and unfairly) loses points.

Don't get me wrong, there is still plenty of excellence in this movie. The animation is spectacular from the facial expressions on the rodents to the beautiful Parisian background that is peppered throughout the movie. It really is awe-inspiring to see how much animation has developed in recent years; Pixar, of course, being at the forefront of that pioneering.

It had cute little strokes of genius here and there, like having Remy control his human friend Linguini by pulling his hair. The man is now the horse and the little rat is the jockey. The scene where Remy's family of rats fall from an attic is both the most disgusting and the most exciting scene I've seen in a while. It's rather eerie how real it feels to see a bunch of animated rats fall from the roof.

Overall, it is a very strong effort by Pixar. It won't ever be remembered as their best movie, but it's hard to imagine someone not liking this little gem.

Recommended, unless you are grossed out by rats.