Remy the Dessert Rat
Remy the Rat has a heightened sense of smell which puts him at odds with his rat family as he won't eat the garbage that they eat and he dreams of one day becoming a famous chef like his idol Chef Gusteau. Through a series of events Remy ends up in Paris and in a famous restaurant where he ends up creating an unlikely alliance with young chef hand Linguini who follows Remy's instructions from inside his hat to create the most triumphant dishes. It leads to the restaurant becoming the must eat venue but it also leads to jealousy as the head chef becomes jealous of Linguini and wants to sabotage his big night when a major food critic is due to dine.
I think I may be suffering from animated movie over load as I have watched a few recently and for everyone I watch the harder it becomes to be impressed by it. As such I reckon if I had watched "Ratatouille" having had a month away from animations I might have been more impressed. In fairness many things did impress me and the detail is magnificent with it capturing some of the look of old Disney with the beauty of the background. The use of Parisian sounding accordion playing also helps to deliver part of what modern animations have been lacking a sense of style.
But as I watched "Ratatouille" with what can only be a tired, jaded eye I just couldn't be completely blown away. The thing is that it is all there, the combination of Cyrano de Bergerac with Remy controlling Linguini, the recognizable aspects of modern cuisine with characters in the kitchen who are demanding and the less than subtle message about racism transplanted to rats and humans, it is all there. And the humour is there as well with some great set pieces such as how Remy tugs on Linguini's hair to control him like a puppet.
What this all boils down to is that in my heart I know that "Ratatouille" is a very good animation and I am sure that if I had watched it at another time it would have completely blown me away. But animation over load has got the better of me and whilst I know this is an above average animation I just couldn't genuinely get excited by it.
