Celebrate Summer in France with Ratatouille
by BeastieGirl - Written: Jul 08 '07 (Updated Jul 10 '07)
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Product Rating:
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| Bang For The Buck |
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Pros: Fun characters, good pace, kept me and my 3 year old interested
Cons: Not enough French, wine drinking could upset some parents
The Bottom Line: An instant Disney classic- perfect for all family members!
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| BeastieGirl's Full Review: Ratatouille |
While my husband was busy getting excited about seeing Transformers, my three year old daughter and I had just as good a time going to the movies to see Disney’s new animation movie, Ratatouille. Sometimes she is unpredictable and can get bored easily, so I never can guarantee if I will be able to see a full movie with my daughter or not. So it speaks volumes for the movie’s excitement and ability to maintain my daughter’s interest for more than an hour. Ratatouille came through and I managed to enjoy myself as well.
Ratatouille is the story of a rat who lives in France with his family as well as an entire colony of rats. This particular rat, Remy, is a slightly off-kilter from most rats, special, even. He has a great sense of smell and loves food. Ordinary rat, right? Wrong. Remy has a picky nose and with that, he loves to eat way more than the garbage the rest of the rat colony would be happy to eat. Remy sneaks into the kitchen of the house the rats infest and reads cookbooks, watches the French version of the Food Network and learns all there is to know about how to make food taste better.
The rat colony is forced to move out when they are unfortunately discovered, which leads Remy right into the heart of Paris and even better, into a magnificent restaurant, Gusteau’s. By sheer happenstance, Remy is able to live out his dream of being a chef through the severely incompetent, yet mostly loveable Linguine, the restaurant’s garbage boy. Of course, having a rat in a kitchen, let alone the kitchen of a famous restaurant doesn’t usually have a good outcome. But this is a Disney film, after all, and (not to completely give the ending away), they all live happily ever after.
The animation of Ratatouille was really amazing. Pixar and Disney have collaborated once again, giving life to this film. This is no 2-D cartoon from the beginning of Disney’s movie making ventures. This is high-tech “is it real or not” animation. The best part about watching a Disney animated movie is how believable an unbelievable plot can be. It stirs the imagination and for a child, it totally becomes a reality.
My daughter loved Ratatouille. She didn’t question the talking rat, or the fact that he could read and knew how to cook. Instead, she was thoroughly entertained. She even started dancing in her seat when upbeat music came on. There were no real frightening moments in the movie to make her scared, or make me, as a parent, regret bringing her. There was some humor and conversation above her level of comprehension, but true to Disney fashion, that was irrelevant to her enjoyment of the movie. Being set in France, there was quite a bit of wine drinking. There was one scene in which Linguine and the head chef get a little carried away with how much wine they are drinking. I didn’t see it as a big deal, but perhaps for more conservative parents, this might not be a good thing.
From my adult perspective, I thought this was a really cute movie. We will most likely buy it when it comes out on DVD and like other Disney movies before Ratatouille, I won’t mind watching it more than a few times with my daughter. I absolutely loved that Ratatouille was set in France- and they did a good job of it too- with the Parisian landscape, the lovely cheeses, the wines, heck, even the French accents. The one thing I missed was more actual spoken French. Everything was spoken in English, and more or less with an accent. Mostly, I’m not a huge fan of rodents, but Remy and his clan are very loveable. I also enjoyed watching the “behind the scenes” of a restaurant, with all the cooking and overall love of gastronomy.
The cute voice of Patton Oswalt (a regular on television’s King of Queens and Reno-911) as the hero, Remy was perfect, although I didn’t recognize his voice until the credits. Actually, I didn’t recognize any of the voices while watching Ratatouille, which I enjoyed, as many famous voices limit the believability once you recognize them in animated movies. I was surprised to see Janeane Garafolo, Brad Garrett, Peter O’Toole and Brian Dennehy on the cast list- with the French accents, I could never have told you who any of the voices were without seeing the end credits!
Ratatouille is a great summer treat- a nice little hour and fifty minute retreat to animated France with your children (or not!). I would highly recommend this movie for all family members, male or female, young or old. Not only did I enjoy the movie myself, but it brought a smile to my face to see my daughter so excited while watching it. She’s been talking about it non-stop (almost as much as my husband can’t stop talking about Transformers), saying it “was really good and really funny”. Definitely a successful movie, in my opinion!
This has been an entry to my very own What Are You Doing For Summer Vacation Write-Off. Join in on the fun too!
Recommended:
Yes
Movie Mood: Family Movie
Worst Part of this Film: Nothing
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