Lost in the Plot

After Pixar’s somewhat disappointing Cars, Ratatouille marks a reassuring return to their inventive, unexpected and frequently subtle filmmaking style. The story is driven by the characters in fresh yet believable ways. There’s a great balance between affecting drama and whimsical playfulness. And Linguine, as the lovable and hapless anti-hero, is a true revelation of beautifully balanced design, animation and sensitive vocal performance. I feel generally very positive about Ratatouille, and after three viewings (I liked it that much) it still holds up as one Pixar’s better films.

Despite the fact that I enjoyed it a lot, I do feel it has several weak points that are interesting to consider from a filmmaking perspective; opening with the television story seems unnecessary, the first act leading up to the arrival at the restaurant is a somewhat overlong prologue, Remy’s story with his father and brother is a little blunt and cliched, and Remy’s narration is completely unnecessary.

The television story at the beginning could have been left out, and the film would then have opened with the fairytale-esque push in on the little cottage, and with a more thematic and less literal presentation of the film’s theme.

Certainly Remy’s love of food, fascination with Chef Gusteau, and his life as a rat all need to be established to frame the main kernel of the story, and for pacing reasons the arrival at the restaurant can’t happen first thing, but the opening sequences feel a little predictable and exposition-heavy. As with all Pixar films, even the weakest sequences are still executed beautifully, so it’s more just an issue of broad story focus and structure rather than any single detail being handled poorly.

Remy’s personal story- the disapproving father, the witless brother, the animals mistrusting the humans until the protagonist teaches everyone a lesson -seems a little too reminiscent of other films, including Pixar ones. A slightly fresher take on this story would have been nice, or at least a more subtly handled one.

And lastly, Remy’s narration in many places kind of interrupts the visual storytelling with unfortunate, literal explanations of how he feels and what is happening; I want to see for myself, not have it described to me, and in many places removing the narration would leave space for more focus on the already sufficiently clear action and performances.

Overall, though, Ratatouille is still exciting and artistically inspired filmmaking. The cinematography and lighting are stunning, tuned to the right level of heightened richness for a fantasy set in Paris, and there’s some amazing sound design, especially in the drain sequence.

Ryan Gilbey’s article from The Sunday Times observed something that I feel is integral to the timeless and intelligent appeal of Pixar’s films-

“While Pixar uses pop-culture buffoonery as the icing on the cake, for DreamWorks it is the cake: remove the jibes at Disney in Shrek, or the celebrity jokes in Shark Tale, and there’s not much left, least of all that sense of enchantment that is the lifeblood of fantasy. ‘Pop-culture references are easy,’ sighs Bird, ‘and they give the audience a cheap thrill. But they don’t last…’”

Ratatouille is a great example of this - a story, world and characters that feel very original and have a classic artistry to them, cheap schtick and sarcasm kept to a minimum. In fact I think one of the strongest elements of Ratatouille is the earnestness of its main characters, especially Linguine. He seems honest and positive and trusting, possibly even charmingly naive, which for some reason is a rare quality among a cohort of modern animated characters who are more often wise-cracking know-it-alls. As Brad Bird said in a Miami Herald article recently-

“The problem with animation is too many people are making the same movie. There’s nothing wrong with the medium. The medium is as big as the sky, but you have to go to different places in the sky. You can’t just go to the same cloud and expect people to get excited about it, with the jabbering sidekicks and the pop references and the hit pop songs. Everybody is kind of emulating that formula, because it’s easier to emulate. People in Hollywood, the press always fixates on technology because it’s easier to quantify. The truth of the matter is the technology has never been the answer. The same answers to making a good movie are the answers that were around 80 years ago. You’ve got to have characters people care about and stories that are both surprising and satisfying.”

Check out some of the stunning Ratatouille production artwork, read an interesting interview with Brad Bird, read the rest of the the Sunday Times article, or if you’re a member of VFX world there’s a great article on Pixar’s approach to concept art and story development.