In Defense of Ratatouille
Today my friend Chris Queen — a fellow member with me in the pop culture cult of Disney — unveiled his ranking of the 12 Pixar films from worst to best.
For the most part his choices drew my sympathy and tolerance, except for one: Chris stuck Ratatouille at second-to-last, ranking even the dull Cars and A Bugs Life superior:
Ratatouille begins with two strikes for me. First, the setting in the world of French cuisine — not exactly the most obvious setting for a family movie night. And second, scurrying around an environment you’d want spotless? The main character is a rat.
Yes, that’s right: I have a problem with a rodent as the protagonist in a Disney film. Look, I’ll admit that Mickey and Minnie Mouse are cute, classic Disney characters — and it would be sacrilege to suggest anything otherwise. But I still don’t want to see them running around in a commercial kitchen [...]
I suppose Ratatouille isn’t a terrible film, but at the same time, it doesn’t exactly stay with me, either. Perhaps if it had been more memorable, it would rank higher on this list. On second thought: maybe not. Not with that disgusting rodent in the kitchen.
In the words of the film’s antagonist:
Chris claims two grievances that are really just his own idiosyncrasies: he rejects the French cuisine setting and finds the idea of a sewer rat protagonist distasteful.
But what about those of us who love the Food Network’s celebrations of high brow food and who don’t suffer a wave of nausea at the thought of a cute cartoon character making our soup?
If one can suspend disbelief long enough to imagine a talking rat who can cook then surely one can pretend too that he's not carrying the bubonic plague.
Nice response, David! The kitchen of a fancy restaurant still doesn’t quite jump out at me as the most logical setting for a kid’s flick…
Nor does the Hero’s Journey of a rat pursuing his dream to be a French chef. I’m not even sure they can make a decent Disney attraction out of that, never mind an action figure.
I thought Ratatouille was pretty good.
I haven’t seen most on the list, cuz I’m seldom thrilled with what I do see.
Rat balanced the CGI with the story, I thought. I’m still waiting for an animated movie where the story outbalances the CGI.
Ratatouille ranked #4 on my list although now I’m backsliding and beginning to think “The Incredibles” was slightly better. I agree with Josh that the CGI balanced with the story (Pixar’s hallmark). I think where story outbalances CGI will come with historical fiction. They tried to do that with “Gladiator” and the Sherlock Holmes movies but didn’t quite succeed (still good movies). CGI is so expensive that the movie makers feel compelled to beat you over the head with it. Along this line, I predict that 3-D will fail commercially (again). I find the special 3-D glasses unpleasant to wear and don’t like the added expense. 3-D won’t work until they can figure out how to make a holotank that the audience sits around and looks into.
My vote for best Pixar film would have to be “The Incredibles”. It’s the most “adult” of the series, offering not just the superhero theme but a wonderful homage to the classic James Bond films. Evil genius, high-tech undersea lair, evil temptress who ultimately helps the hero. Think Thunderball meets Moonraker. And the chase scene through the jungle is a hoot.
I wholeheartedly agree. It was also refreshing to see an animated film actually make this point:
“If everyone is special, then no one is” – Dash
Syndrome echoes the same idea later when he had the whole family trapped: “And when everyone’s super, no-one will be.”
Interesting they pose the idea from both sides. Cheers -
Yeah, Ratatouille belongs near the top of the Pixar canon. I’d place The Incredibles at the top, followed by Ratatouille and Wall-E.
Ratatouille was dull and (very) predictable. I found myself imagining scenes in my head just before they happened. I thought it was a very pedestrian entry from Pixar.
As I said in the other thread, I really lked Ratatouille. With the possible exceptions of Up and Wall-E, it’s the most adult movie in the Pixar canon. It’s not my nine year-old’s favorite Pixar movie (even though she does like it), but it’s the one I enjoy rewatching the most.
I thought Ratatouille was clearly aimed much more at adults that children. I enjoyed it, but it’s the only Pixar movie my 4 year old son refuses to watch. He literally has no interest in it.
The exact opposite may be true of Cars. I noticed the licensed cotton fabric from Cars was still being regularly stocked in sewing and fabric stores years after the movie was released. I suspect a great many young boys play in rooms with Cars themed curtains on the windows.
I actually liked Cars. I suspect it resonates more with viewers who live in small towns. The town my mail comes through was bypassed by the interstate and it does have similarities to Radiator Springs.
Ratatouille, I am a fan of this movie for many reason, but one this is not mentioned often hit home with me – the role Anton Ego (the food critic) As someone who works as an auditor, the growth in the character as he is reminded that of the actual role of the food critic should be required watching for anyone in work fields such as auditors and critics.
It truly brought home the message “those that can do, those that can’t teach, and those that can’t teach critisize.
I agree. Anton Ego’s speech about the (lack of) importance of critics and negative criticism should be required reading for all of those who make their living commenting on the actions of others.
I totally agree. Ratatouille was a great movie, probably as good as the original Toy Story.
Why is Wall-E at the top of both lists? I found it about as full of heart as AI–that is, not at all, if you haven’t seen that one. Think Pinocchio who never becomes a real boy. Or, maybe there’s no such thing as a real boy. My moral disgust shoots up to 10. With Wall-E, all I can say is it’s not easy to fall in love with a toaster. Maybe I’m not cerebral enough to pretend intelligence of a sort is a replacement for a soul. All that project ever turns out by humans in pursuit of it is Frankenstein’s monster.
On the flip side, the Tin Man kept striving to have a heart and turned out to be the most human of all. He recieved a token of the heart he always had. The Tin Man wanted, like Pinocchio, to love and be loved. R2D2 managed to display childlike personality, so the human form wasn’t even required. We humans can identify with analogies and metaphors, it just needs to be a human story.
Add in the heavy handed environmentalism and anti-consumerism and disdain for everyday people and Wall-E turns out to be more misanthropic than anything else. Long live the robots, I guess.
erico @ 11 said:
“Why is Wall-E at the top of both lists? I found it about as full of heart as AI–that is, not at all, if you haven’t seen that one. Think Pinocchio who never becomes a real boy.”
The heavy handed green politics in Wall-E annoyed me (Pixar should stay away from politics). I enjoyed Wall-E despite the annoying politics.
Spielberg’s “A.I. Artificial Intelligence” is one of the most disturbing movies that I’ve ever seen. The Pinocchio connection was explicit in “A.I.”. There was considerable craft shown in “A.I.” but overall I’d say that Spielberg bungled it.
Ratatouille is one of my favorite Pixar stories. I watch it a couple of times a year. Not everyone can be a great cook, but a great cook can come from anywhere. That tracks nicely with the Incredibles “If everyone is special, no one is.” Eqaulity of opportunity, not of outcome. C’est bon! Not everyone gets to be an astronaut when they grow up.
I had to get over the ick factor of the rats. At some level the movie questions social taboos we take for granted, like the intimate connection we have with food and the reaction to it being touched by rats. In the real world we could look at a reaction against homosexuality–you could look at the lonely food critic who has an internal revolution in this light if you were so inclined. This much did not bother me. At the end of the movie credits there’s a short where they attempt to repair the reputation of rats and that little black plague incident, but it falls a little short.
Eggplant:
I realize I was on a bit of a rant, and there’s some internal contradiction in the post in as much as WALL-E does contain a love interest between the old model and the new model robot. I wonder why it didn’t work for me. There was something about it that kept me at arms length. It was love by robots, for robots, and humans were asleep in their lazy boys. That distance that is maintained reminded me of A.I.
Spielberg took over the A.I. project from Kubrick, and I’ve wondered about that. This kind of movie seems to say there’s no God, no Santa Claus (Polar Express <– Tom Hanks <– Davinci Code), no boy, but let's look for the consolation prize. Some people say they can still hear the bell ring. Just not any of the adults. A.I. lingers at the end of the film over all those evolved creatures carefully tending to the memory of the boy who never was, on a planet probably better off without humans on it anyway. There was some artistic quality to it, kind of like lingering on the majesty of the space craft floating through empty space at the opening of 2001: A Space Oddysey.
Personally, I thought AI would have been a better movie if it had ended underwater with the brattlebot’s battery finally giving out. The Deus Ex Machina of aliens granting his wish at the end was so improbable and badly tacked on I have to wonder if it was Speilberg’s only actual contribution to the film.
I’m a counterjihad blogger, not a movie buff, and still less a “foodie.” Like Remy’s rodent relatives, I don’t much care what I eat. Of the ten movies cited above, I’ve seen only the original “Toy Story” and “Ratatouille.”
That said, “Ratatouille” has qualities that I find sadly lacking in most movies these days: humor and originality. Especially the latter!
My faves would be Up, the Incredibles, and Monsters, Inc, probably more or less in that order. If you haven’t seen them, counterjihadi, you really should. They are far better than nearly anything else Hollywood has come out with in the last ten years.
Wall-E has got to be the worst ever. I rank the IIncedibles,, Finding Nemo, Up, and the Toy Story franchise as my favorites. Incredibles and Toy Story 1-3 are on my iPad for long flights bexca use I never tire of them.
As a mom who spends a lot of time trying to make really good food for her family, I fell in love with Ratatouille. I especially found the sequence where we are taken through Ego’s eye back to his childhood, with the broken bike in the back ground and the scraped knee and then offered a favored food by his mother to be very touching.
The Increadibles gets extra points for not killing off the mom, and giving us an intact family.