Ratatouille

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Brad Bird

June 29, 2007

In “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”, Ferris threatens to scream “rat” in a fancy restaurant when he is refused seating. In “Ratatouille”, the tables turn and the rat is the one making the food, and his name is Remy (Patton Oswalt). At the beginning of the film, Remy belongs to a group of rats, among which are friends, friends of friends, and his dad. Remy’s dad is the group leader, and while he tries his best to pass the torch of rat leadership on to his son, Remy seems to be more obsessed with cooking. His dream is to one day become head chef at his idol Auguste Gusteau’s restaurant, but he is constantly reminded that he is a rat and that he will always live in the streets. But Remy is fed up with eating garbage so he takes matters into his own hands, and after being flushed through multiple sewers, he finds himself emerging into the beautiful city of Paris.

The animation in “Ratatouille” is beyond that of any Pixar movie to this date. It is amazing how attractive the Ratatouille dish looked, and speaking firsthand as a picky eater I would dig in without a second thought. But the animators don’t go all out on the main dish. Simple foods like bread have a glow to them, and when combined with a soft crunching sound, it goes down easy like a fine French pastry.

But it’s not just the animation that makes “Ratatouille” such a high-winning award film. It’s also about seeing Remy grow as a rat. At first, Remy has the modest goal of not eating trash. Who can blame him? But as he joins forces with Alfredo (Lou Romano) and finds himself cooking for the finest restaurant in Paris. It’s entertaining to see the lengths that Remy goes to just to not “eat trash”, recognizing that humans “don’t just survive. They discover. They create.” It’s one of the best movie quotes I have heard and I won’t apologize for the fact that it came from an animated film. It tells you that Remy believes he is more human than a rat. While the rest of his family and friends are busy scavenging for food in trash cans, Remy is busy walking on two feet to keep his other two clean for when he wants to eat. It’s what makes the movie so touching, Remy is so uncomfortable in the skin that he was born in, but instead of dreading over it, he puts aside barriers he made in his mind and becomes the best chef in Paris.

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