Ratatouille, 2007

Ratatouille, 2007
Director: Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava
Cast (voices): Brad Garrett, Lou Romano, Patton Oswalt



Stage: Home theatre, on a lazy Sunday afternoon


The piece in a glance/in short: Remy is a young rat in the French countryside who arrives in Paris, only to find out that his cooking idol is dead. When he makes an unusual alliance with a restaurant's new garbage boy, the culinary and personal adventures begin despite Remy's family's skepticism and the rat-hating world of humans.



Preps: I have seen this cartoon a lot of times and it inspires me every single time. Hence, a lovely change of lately bad pieces I have seen.


Reality: This is the piece to be blamed to make an increase in sales of rats worldwide, especially in Europe and USA. The cartoon makes these creatures friendly and nice, smart and emotional. Hence the viewer is surrounded with a warm, tender feeling for the animal depicted as The Little Chef.

A rat being able to cook? In what universe? Well, in Ratatouille, we get a glance at a big cuisine preparation - similar to the one seen on series Ramsey's Hell Kitchen or something like this. The world of passion, struggle and rivalry among the great chefs. The storyline takes us from the unusual placement of a young rat that has a taste. Unsimilar to the "regular" rats we are used to, this one want to be different and is different, elopes from its family and takes a big dive into world of chefs. Throughout this, Remy meets a new friend and teaches him (guides him) to cook. And in the mean time, the young chef falls in love (and learns to cook, of course). In my opinion, the world shown in this animated piece, is truly a good copy of the real life, in the sense that you see all from the deepest secrets everyone is trying to keep for themselves, to pure economical perspective. How lucrative must a kitchen be, to keep it running? And what is acceptable side cost, how to treat great critics of the food.. And last, but not least - what is Ratatouille and how to make it.

The piece inspired me to go into the kitchen and to be creative. In no perspective it made me feel something for the rats. I will keep on despising them, however, in my opinion, one of the better put together pieces in terms of consistency (bad versus evil, poor becomes rich, love conquers all, and yes, we have a downfall or two of the main character). It will bring out the best feelings out of your soul. In addition, it will make you probably hungry :)


My personal rating: 8,0 (lovely piece, for adults that are fans of cartoons, as well as children).


Ratatouille on IMDB