Ratatouille poster

Ratatouille

wogma rating: Beg or borrow, but do watch (?)

Director: Brad Bird
Cast:
Running time: 110 minutes
Genres: Animation, Comedy, Kids
More Movie Info

I have never been a fan of animation films; somehow I find them “squeaky” in terms of the animation and the sound, and I have so far judiciously avoided them. A friend of mine insisted that we go for this movie, and so off we went, me with a mild sense of unease, but determined to endure the movie stoically.

However, the film turned out to be more than a pleasant surprise; it was about something that I absolutely adore - food. The last film I saw on food was Chocolat, which used food as a metaphor for sexuality, freedom, and community, and starred Johnny Depp and Juliet Binoche.

Ratatouille is the name of a rustic French dish made from eggplant, onions, and zucchini, and the film uses the dish as a symbol to send out a clarion call to return to a more romantic age, when maternal love, tenderness, and affection were what made a tasty dish, rather than sophisticated culinary skills. The film then expands this point by stating that food and cooking needs to be democratized and demystified as expressed in Gusteau’s (the Master Chef in the film) motto: “Anybody can Cook!”

Food, and the process of its preparation, is seen as an everyday, easily accessible method for realizing the creative potential inherent in all humans. The struggle that Remy (the lead character who is a rat) faces to become a chef symbolizes his creative aspirations, and underlines the point that one’s class and caste do not necessarily limit what one can become. Mastery of the mystery of food is the badge that allows Remy to move beyond his social background.

In turn Remy is considered a weirdo by his fellows for his interest in cooking food, rather than just scavenging on whatever is available. The film also takes potshots at frozen foods and fast foods, and the current fascination with them, primarily due to notions of “convenience” and “time and money saving”.

Being a Disney film, the rats are made to look as anthropomorphic and cute as possible. But for the viewer, the concept of food cooked by rats being delicious and better than human cooked food may be a bit too much for the palate. (Remember the rats in the kitchen, uggh!) Food for human beings is fundamentally concerned with purity; food is pure when it is cooked by members of our own social group and becomes impure and disgusting when it is cooked by the Other (people who do not belong to our social group.) The rats then embody this Otherness, which is very difficult to digest! (Pun after bad pun!)

Cooking food is also represented as an unconscious process, a process that does not really involve conscious thought, but something else that combines intuition, sensory delight, discipline, and a celebration of life and romance; it is something that you have, not something that necessarily can be acquired.

If you are a food lover, watch this film. If you are not, do still watch it. This film is a succulent dish with a light spicy flavour! Bon Appetit! And remember to take the family along - after all what is food without family!

This review is by guest reviewer Anand S. Anand lives in Pune and is a Miscellaneous Culture Vulture. He is deeply interested in music, food, books, films, and intelligent women. He views himself as a Falstaffian figure, who does his best to indulge his appetites.

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Yay! Thumbs Up, by meeta

This page has additional observations, other than the ones noted in the main review.

Plot Summary

In the film, the lead character, a rat called Remy, wants to give up his “ratty” life and instead become a chef, as he adores food and wants to emulate a Master chef called Gusteau (a play on Gustatory – to do with taste). He just cannot eat rotten or junk food as his clansmen do; instead he wants to create food by playing around and combining different ingredients. This of course, is anathema to his father and clansmen. The film then proceeds to narrate his various trials and tribulations, as well as the strange alliances he needs to enter into to realize his dream.

What Worked

  • The animation of the film is smooth and the film has some wonderful sequences; one where Remy is separated from the rest of his family and has to travel down a canal using Gusteau’s cookbook as a raft; another where he skips from a boat to the bank of the Seine, and then to a boat again, while being pursued by the insane head chef; and yet another where the home of Anton Ego (an acerbic food critic, whose reviews make or break restaurants) is shown designed like the interior of a plush coffin, complete with red felt lining and all!
  • There is another scene in the film where the clan of rats takes over the kitchen to help Remy prepare meals for the patrons, as the human help has refused to work with a rat as head chef! This scene possibly suggests that dialogue between one social group and its Other is imperative to dispel prejudices and foster respect, and that this could be achieved by the very basic activity of cooking and eating food together.

What did not

Note: This section simply lists the things that I did not like in this movie. This is not the overall impression about this movie. Please read the full review here

  • I thought that the length could have been trimmed down a bit by cutting down on the romance between the garbage boy and Colette (one of the assistant chefs); which I felt was not essential to the plot, and tended to take the film away from its main themes. But then the film is set in Gay Paree; c’est la vie!

Ratatouille - Cast, crew, links

Official Sites:
Director:
Story:
Screenplay:
Running time:
110 minutes
Reviewer:
Language:
Country:
USA
Genres:

Comments (2)

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the family-solidness of this movie surprised me... disney right? well done indeed.

Loved it!

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