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Ratatouille (2007)

Director: Brad Bird

5

Time Out rating

Average user rating
115 reviews

Synopsis

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

Movie review

From Time Out London

The title of Pixar’s fabulous latest animation gives you its three elegantly dovetailed elements: rodents, food and French. Co-director Jan Pinkava’s original idea was sweetly ridiculous – can a naive, ambitious rat (baby-eyed Remy, charmingly voiced by Patton Oswalt), long inspired by his reading of a famous French chef’s recipe book, realise his dream to become a chef? This has been turned by its final director, Brad ‘The Incredibles’ Bird, into one of the most witty, clever, gently moral, dramatically convincing and visually stimulating family entertainments of the year. The animation is extraordinary too, and occasionally breathtaking. It’s so enticing, in fact, that card-carrying anti-anthropomorphists like this reviewer can readily accept its ‘big ask’: not only
a talking rodent but one able to make a celebrity chef out of his hopeless human helpmeet (the docile, disaster-zone Linguini, voiced by Lou Romano) by jerking his hair from inside his hat, like a Pinocchio pulling his master’s strings. It’s a tribute to the film’s tonal and directorial control, not to mention its sympathy, detail, intelligence and lack of pretension, that such subtextual sub-currents and metaphors – be they the immigrant experience à la ‘American Tail’, digs at McBurger food ethics or the assignation of artistic credit – never obscure its pleasures. Those pleasures are found in its vivid characters (such as its frightening Snow White-style villain, the power-crazed Anton Ego, a food critic with the features of a Gothic Will Self and the voice of Peter O’Toole), richness of ideas and daring sense of fun. A test for tiny tots, a mite nostalgic and as male-dominated as a modern kitchen it may be, but these are mere quibbles about this delightful addition to the Pixar pantheon.

Author: Wally Hammond 2007-10-08 17:42:31

Time Out London Issue 1938: October 10-16 2007


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User reviews of this film

  • chelsra said...
    Posted on Oct 25 2007 22:28 i've looked at all the films and i watched it. it was awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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  • fifi said...
    Posted on Oct 25 2007 14:42 hope to see it t day. looks fab.
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  • zoe said...
    Posted on Oct 25 2007 12:05 cool loks great!
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  • Xo-H+A-oX said...
    Posted on Oct 25 2007 11:57 We're gunna see it today can't wait look awesome! :P
    Report as inappropriate
  • Sam Watts said...
    Posted on Oct 25 2007 11:16 IM GOING TO SEE IT TODAY I'LL BE BACK
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  • naishaliand rishyl said...
    Posted on Oct 24 2007 15:30 havent seen it yet but i thought it loo kedamzing and mavolouse
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  • naishaliand rishyl said...
    Posted on Oct 24 2007 15:07 rRatatouille
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  • jibran said...
    Posted on Oct 24 2007 13:43 brilliant love it the best movie ive ever seen.
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  • boooo said...
    Posted on Oct 24 2007 11:45 i have not seen it yet but it looks really good i am going to see it today cant wait
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  • balletcrazya said...
    Posted on Oct 23 2007 10:07 i absolutly loved this film... one of the best i have seen. i highly recommened it!!!!!!!!
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  • lelele said...
    Posted on Oct 22 2007 20:28 I really like this film it is great and i would say it is for any person in the world.Even my 67year old mum liked it she couldnt stop laughing .Just get up and go to the cinema to watch this fantastic film.
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  • ste said...
    Posted on Oct 22 2007 18:32 it brillant
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  • Leah said...
    Posted on Oct 22 2007 17:42 this is an awsome film and everyone should see it remy is really funny and no-one will get fed up with it go on watch it!
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  • Leah said...
    Posted on Oct 22 2007 17:41 I really like it.This film is great i would recomend this for everyone aged1-100.I love Remy and it is really funny .
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  • coolio said...
    Posted on Oct 22 2007 17:33 alsome
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