Ratatouille review

 Number 313 on the top 1000 films of all time is Pixar's 2007 animated comedy-drama 'Ratatouille.'

Remy (Patton Oswalt) is a rat who has aspirations of becoming a chef. His dreams become reality when he forms an unlikely relationship with the human Linguini (Lou Romano) pot-washer at the prestigious Gusteau restaurant in Paris. The restaurant used to belong to renowned Auguste Gusteau (Brad Garrett) before his death. It is now under the care of Gusteau's former sous-chef Skinner (Ian Holm) who hate Linguini.

Ratatouille was an entertaining if uneven effort by Pixar studios. While it was good, I certainly wouldn't rank it highly. Like you would expect from any Pixar film, it was bursting with creativity and the animation was gorgeous. It helped that you had famous chef Thomas Keller acting as a consultant who provided valuable information about how a restaurant works and how food should look.

In Finding Nemo, Pixar arranged for the cast and crew to go diving in a coral reef to help them truly understand that environment. The same happened here with the crew spending time in real restaurant kitchens. This gave the film a great authenticity and realism.

However, I still found the film to be incredibly lacklustre. The plot was predictable. Obviously films don't need to be littered with plot twists to be enjoyable, but I still found Ratatouille cheesy. Linguini becomes too big for his boots which drives a wedge between him and Remy. But the two make amends in time for both of them to get their happily ever after. It was all very obvious.

The voice-acting wasn't very memorable either. It was a mixture of lesser-known actors like Lou Romano, Brian Dennehy and Peter Sohn and established stars like Patton Oswalt, Ian Holm and Peter O'Toole, but I'm not able to pick a standout performance. It was a far cry from Tom Hanks and Tim Allen in Toy Story.

Overall, while I recognise Ratatouille for its strengths, I wouldn't rank it highly in Pixar's filmography.