5 gibbles out of 5

Director: Brad Bird

Brad Bird’s previous two directed animated films – The Iron Giant and The Incredibles – were awesome in their own right, both sort of taking on the boyhood-fantasy concept and spinning something realistic, and thoughtful, and intelligent out of it.  Ratatouille is his first entry in the talking animal genre, but it learns from these earlier films and Bird makes something really powerful and smart by, once again, making sure the story is the driving force.

It’s hard not to like cute, talking animals.  Especially Remy, a street rat who is slightly different from the huge pack of fellow rats with which he travels – he washes his hands before he eats, he’s learned to read, and he has a nose for food.  Not just for detecting where food is, but for picking out the finer smells in life – spices, cheeses, individual ingredients.  While he’s put to use amongst his clan as a poison detector, his real dream is… to cook.  It helps that his idol is a chef (whose show he catches on the TV of the woman’s house in which the rats are hiding) with the motto “Anyone can cook.”

It also helps when fate separates Remy from his family and sticks him in the apartment of one Linguini, who works at said chef’s restaurant.  Though now that the chef has passed, the new owner is running it into the ground… can Remy use his developing cooking skills to save the business?

As is usual for kid movies, the overall arc of the plot isn’t going to surprise.  We know there’s a happy ending around the corner.  But “Ratatouille” doesn’t take any easy outs to get there, constantly surprising the viewer with how heartfelt of a story can be wrung from something we normally view as a pest.  This is Brad Bird in full effect – the balance between action and patience he learned with the pacing of his first two films gets blended together here for something we just don’t normally get in animated movies, well-paced thrills balanced with contemplative dialogue.  The words matter and the actions matter.  It’s not just a randomly inserted chase sequence with a pop-star soundtrack, it’s something sensibly inserted into the plot, required for our character to desire to get to point B from point A, given extra oomph by a smart score by Michael Giacchino.  Several moments made me understand how Bird was able to successfully make the leap to live action for directing Mission: Impossible 4 – he’s not stuck in animation, he’s respecting his medium, figuring out what can be done with the style to truly take advantage of it.  It’s a flexibility that gives the film added imagination and wonder, something difficult to achieve now that CGI has made anything possible in both animated and live-action films.

Also proven by Bird is the fullness of his supporting cast.  Linguini’s cast of fellow cooks in the cooking world all play specific roles (the tutor, the doubter, the adversary) but are developed and voice-acted with enough personality to make us wonder how exactly their storylines will play out.  The surprising, but fitting, voice choice was Patton Oswalt as Remy – the character is animated and acted in a perfect balance between cute and guilty, smart and innocent.  Even though he’s essentially a young adult or teen in the film, any age can find something to relate to in his desire to just be recognized for who he is.

The fullness of the tale comes around (fittingly) with the story’s climax – the restaurant’s taste-testing at the hands of a truly difficult food critic.  Name a move “Cars” and you sort of get what it’s about.  It was called “The Incredibles” and there’s a family of four with the letter I on their chests.  Easily marketable, and we get it.  Yes, Ratatouille is a clever title, but that it actually ends up meaning something beyond a brand name is a testament to how smart the film is.  It’s not just good, it’s worth watching.