Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more

 

Ratatouille (2007)

Director: Brad Bird

3

Critics' rating

Average user rating
74 reviews

Synopsis

There's a rat in the kitchen in this Disney film.

Movie review

From Time Out New York

Yuck. To be more specific, barf. That reaction is, one suspects, just what the hundreds of genius animators over at Pixar have secretly feared regarding Ratatouille, their highly polished latest. In it, a pink-tailed gourmand (Oswalt, channeling Sideways’ Paul Giamatti) dreams of leaving the gutter behind and preparing meals in a fancy Paris restaurant. He gets his wish, bringing along swarms of furry friends who emerge from the steam washer ready to handle cheese, spices and vegetables. Pardon me if I don’t find that so appealing. New Yorkers probably remember the viral version of this movie, filmed outside a West Village KFC last February. Cute wasn’t the word that came to mind.

Those of a more metaphorical bent will insist that Ratatouille is a discrimination tale—and it is, provided you forget that there are good reasons to discriminate against rats in the forum of food preparation. Director Brad Bird (one of the few in animation worth singling out) pursued a similar strain in The Incredibles, also about the persecution of excellence. But he’s done a much more muddled job this time, pitting admirably high-toned—even pro-French!—ideas about cooking and food criticism against the sheer ick factor. Ratatouille is a film made for snobs that may still repel them.

Author: Joshua Rothkopf 2007-06-25 22:33:15

Time Out New York


  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

User reviews of this film

  • David said...
    Posted on Nov 06 2009 10:34 This review is a bunch of crap if you ask me. if you really thoroughly watched the movie and got the point across then it would make the movie alot better. the movie was entertaining and even if you dont appeal to a rat making your food in a 4 star restaurant, it is still an animated movie and is not real.
    Watch it again and be careful with your word choice...
    Report as inappropriate
  • Pixar Rules! said...
    Posted on Aug 14 2009 18:57 F*** you, retard! This movie is amazing!
    Report as inappropriate
  • Jonathan said...
    Posted on Jul 29 2009 00:46 Great movie, stupid reviewer. Or was he? Maybe all he was doing was being a troll. I and everyone here are thus obviously troll bait.
    Report as inappropriate
  • Doug said...
    Posted on Jul 24 2009 20:01 i dont think old josh actually saw the movie. did you just skip the movie and write the review? your point about the movie is stunningly profound - it's about rats, which are gross, (following me here?) so, ratatouille = bad movie. hey! seriously, i hope your managing editor doesn't find out you skipped the show joshy boy.
    Report as inappropriate
  • Jimbo said...
    Posted on Jul 02 2009 01:30 Wow stop touching yourself during the movie and maybe then you'll enjoy it. I'm pretty sure you missed the entire point of the movie considering you said it was "even pro-French!"
    Go jerk off with an icy hot.
    Report as inappropriate
  • Captpan6 said...
    Posted on Jan 16 2009 17:29 I think this guy wrote a bad review on purpose, just to get all of you riled up.
    Report as inappropriate
  • ReluctantH said...
    Posted on Dec 30 2008 03:27 Wow, what a massive douche-nozzle. Oswalt echoing Giamati? Someone saw sideways recently and desperately needs to sound like they have a decent spectrum of actors. Fuck this guy. Ratatouille FTW.
    Report as inappropriate
  • sea said...
    Posted on Dec 29 2008 17:26 Ummm....no. This movie was MENT for kids and to tell you the truth, no ill mannered lout except for you would post such crud. This was a great child movie i enjoyed.
    Report as inappropriate
  • sea said...
    Posted on Dec 29 2008 17:26 Ummm....no. This movie was MENT for kids and to tell you the truth, no ill mannered lout except for you would post such crud. This was a great child movie i enjoyed.
    Report as inappropriate
  • maceo said...
    Posted on Dec 10 2008 17:47 i thinks its pretty obvious that this movie was given a bad review to bring visitors who otherwise wouldnt come to the site to come and read the bad review it generates advertising money for the site that hosts the review its not all that clever and makes the reviewer little more than a paid troll.. but.. it worked i visited the webpage to see what they found wrong with the movie.. lol at least please make your negative review more believable next time
    Report as inappropriate
  • steph said...
    Posted on Dec 07 2008 18:25 i have to admit that when i saw the trailer, i thought it would be dumb. i watched this film with a little girl i babysat , and was pleasantly surprised. iT is way better than any other animated movie i have seen. even after seeing it 3 times i still love it. whoever wrote this review is clearly off their rocker.
    Report as inappropriate
  • Justin said...
    Posted on Dec 06 2008 22:57 You're kidding right? this reviewers must be smoking something... this is not supposed to be realistic, of course if you saw a rat in a kitchen you'd gross out, but that's not the point of this movie. Next time you should think of hiring someone who understands the movie to review said movie
    Report as inappropriate
  • Deb J said...
    Posted on Nov 22 2008 02:07 The movie was a masterpiece, a delightful story, womderful animation and a good deal of fun.
    I have no idea what childhood trauma affected Joshua so badly he can't distinguish fun fiction and humdrum reality, but I really do protest. Next he'll be saying the whole point of Bambi was to be prejudicial against hunters or that 2001 would have been great if they had taken out the insane computer angle. Sheesh. It is called FANTASY. Hello!
    Enjoy the film folks. It's what it was created for.
    Report as inappropriate
  • Ed said...
    Posted on Nov 19 2008 22:43 Huh. Pro-French. WTF was that about!?
    The person who wrote this review or the people who agree abviously don't get the main point of this film
    Report as inappropriate
  • Richie said...
    Posted on Aug 26 2008 07:59 This review has got to be a joke...
    Report as inappropriate
74 comments: page 1 of 5
1 2 3 4 5

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields





Features

Making a name for himself

Making a name for himself

Sin Nombre's Cary Joji Fukunaga learned his lessons well.

To the letter

Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.

Mind over matter

David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.

Fool's gold

Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.

We are the championed

Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."

A history of violence

Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.

True romantic

James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.

Playing in the dark

MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.

Junk bonds

Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.