Movie review: Ratatouille

At one point in the movie, acclaimed Parisian food critic Antono Ego confronts the incompetent chef Linguini and insults his culinary role. Linguini deftly answers back, "Well, you're pretty skinny for a guy who likes food." Ego responds, "Like food? I don't like food. I love food," and then launches into a speech about how he will only swallow the food if he likes it.

In a way, I can relate to Ego concerning movies. I've not seen a lot of movies, and everyone rants and raves about how the quality of my life declines because I have not seen some of these "must-see" movies. When people ask me why I don't watch movies, the easy answer I often give is, "I don't like movies much." But this is a lie. Because it's not because I don't like movies; I love movies. But I don't like wasting my time with the crappy ones - I'll only swallow if I like it. If I watch a movie, it had better blow my mind. If it doesn't, I most likely won't like it. I don't have time to really like things in this short life; I prefer to love things.

And in this sense, Pixar's Ratatouille is a movie I love. Pixar has never failed to disappoint me yet, and it doesn't look like they will for a long time. Here is an entrancing movie that I was riveted to from the beginning to end.

Now, I'm probably one of the last people in the world to see this movie, so I won't bore you with a brief synopsis. But I will point out what made this movie absolutely amazing, something that I absolutely love.

For one, it's about cooking. For several of my friends and close acquaintences, cooking is somewhat of a minor hobby. Troy watches the Food Network religiously. One time, he told me of a technique he tried out in baking a salmon, and noted that he picked it up from a show on the aforementioned cable station. My former roommate Peter had every kitchen utensil in the world; when he went to Iraq, his collection was sorely missed. Dantzel and I are somewhat of amateur chefs, though she can cook much better than I can. So a subject like this is dear to my heart in the first place.

The story - at first - seems your standard kiddie movie fare. An animal that longs to do human things. You have your classic greedy guy who takes over a resturaunt story (and selling out), and the heir being somewhat bumbling and really clumsy, and your sappy morals and lessons about how we should be accepting of everyone and how the most unlikely person (or creature) can display the most extraordinary talent. And of course, there's love interest. But that's where the cliches stop. In fact, even the cliches are fresh and exciting, because they're being told in a different way. That's what Pixar does. Toys that come alive (boring and old), but backstab each other with office politics (fun!). A fish that gets lost from his daddy fish and the daddy fish embarks on a quest to find him (boring and old), but the father is neurotic and picks up a traveling companion that is an absolute ditz (fun!). A family of superheroes (boring and old) led by a father going through a superhero mid-life crisis (fun!). And now a humanized rat (boring and old) who wants to cook in a resturaunt by controling the new, bumbling chef like a marionette (fun!).

In the end, there's everything for everyone, from silly jokes kids will love ("Ratatouille sounds like 'rat' and 'patootie!'") to ones adults will certainly chuckle at its subtlety ("I don't mean to be rude, but we are French!"). The action is fast paced (when I find myself exclaiming to Dantzel, "Pixar makes the best action scenes ever!" they definitely earned the For The Win Award), the hijinks constant, and the plot twists throwing punches at you just when you think everything's been resolved. As the film winded down, I wondered if Pixar's story writers had finally painted themselves into a corner, but somehow, they pull it off and in the end, you have an incredibly satisfying conclusion and actually walk away with some lessons which, surprisingly for a G rated movie, have not been beaten into your head with a morality stick.

Cooking affecionados (and I don't mean the ones who watch Rachel Ray because they think she's hot) will adore this movie. Those who love food will still enjoy the movie. Pixar's animating skills continue to be the best in the industry with incredible graphics that had me stunned from the very beginning. Actually, the only people who I can't see liking this movie would be anorexics, people who fad diet constantly, and black hearted communists who have no souls.

Ratatouille sells for about $20 at Walmart. At first, Dantzel and I felt it was a steep price for a movie. But now, I retract my assumption. As one of the few movies this year that I actually loved, it will most definitely end up somewhere on my shelf, next to my boxed set of Firefly, the second season of The Office, and...uh, Cyborg 009 (hey, it was a dollar at Walmart!).

Guilty pleasure: Despite the fact I make fun of the French, this movie, more than anything, made me wish I could speak French and travel to Paris. Maybe, someday, Dantzel and I will. But for now, we will be content baking focaccia bread in our rickety college apartment oven.