Ratatouille is a delicious, fine
dine experience of a cuisine that is delectable, appetizing, evenly cooked, perfectly
seasoned, beautifully garnished and professionally served with expertise and
leaves you satisfied and blissful afterward, when you are through. Sounds just
perfect doesn’t it? It was, for me.
Produced by Pixar and distributed
by Walt Disney Pictures, this movie wasn’t a huge hit(the multiplex I’d been
to in Mumbai, wasn’t even half full, that too on a weekend) but there were
quite a few people like me, who went gaga over it.
Animation has come such a long way
from the ‘Spiderman’, He-Man’, ‘Mickey and Donald’; I had grown up watching as
a kid. No more of those single dimension images of a cardboard utopia; graphics
and cartooning have entered an entirely new dimension. Computer generated
images of food never looked so good.(drool!(*disgusting, drooling over
animated food too?*) The commercial kitchen, the gourmet chefs bursting
about importantly, looked so convincing that there were times when I almost
forgot that I was watching an animated movie.
Ratatouille is the story about
Remy, a rat living in Paris.
It would be an understatement to say that Remy has an incurable food fixation-
nothing rat like at all- he can distinctly taste every little morsel he eats
and analyze them, mix and match flavors to get the best out of every crumb that
he puts into his mouth.
Remy, watches the Parisian
chef Auguste Gusteau’s(who died after a brutal review by food critic Anton
Ego) cookery show on TV and his, ‘Anyone can cook!’
motivates Remy to become a chef -the most rodent-phobic profession. Kitchen and
rats, seems so improbable and his family isn’t very encouraging but Remy
doesn’t give up his dream. Remy is the ‘poison sniffer’(he smells the food in
dustbins and trash and points out the poisoned ones) of the pack; that is how
his family and friends use his inherent and unique, un rat-like ability, to
smell food.
However, his destiny separates him
from his family and leads him to Gusteau’s fine French restaurant in Paris. Lonely Remy finds
solace in Gusteau’s friendly ghost who guides and urges him to go in and help
the newly hired garbage boy, Linguini.
While cleaning the kitchen, Linguini accidentally spills
some soup and horrified that Skinner, his boss, would fire him, tries to amend
it by adding random ingredients. Remy, our natural chef watches in dismay and
unable to resist, sneaks in and makes necessary amends to the recipe. Linguini
notices Remy, but is taken to task by his boss, for
cooking when he finds that the soup Linguini had been messing with had been
served to a food critic. To everyone’s surprise she pronounces it delicious and
Skinner agrees not to fire Linguini on the condition that he re-create that
soup.
By then, Remy is discovered and
Linguini is asked to kill the rat. Remy and Liguini’s interactions were so
real. The ‘I can’t believe that’ look on Liguini’s face, the, ‘I know it’s a
little difficult to believe but it’s true’, look on Remy’s face- when they
first come to know each other, is priceless!
Linguini and gourmet rat Remy’s
partnership soon begins as they discover that each compliments the other.
Linguini is the human body that is allowed to ‘cook’ in the kitchen but does
not know anything at all about it and Remy is the brains behind the recipes but
will never be allowed inside the kitchen.
With practice the two perfect an almost impossible arrangement:
Hiding inside Linguini’s chef’s cap Remy tugs Linguini’s hair to control his
movements and make him cook.
The only female chef in the
restaurant, Colette, helps Linguini, unaware at first that a rat is the actual
chef. On remaking the soup, Linguini is promoted to ‘chef’ and thereby
Remy’s dream to be a chef finally comes true.
Skinner, who had taken over the
restaurant after Gusteau’s demise has plans of usurping the restaurant and runs
a frozen and microwaveable packaged food with Gusteau’s brand name. Upset,
Gusteau’s ghost helps Remy discover that Linguini is actually the son of
Gusteau and the restaurant legally belongs to him. Linguini inherits the
restaurant.
Brad Bird does a fine job of how
the almost impossible pair of Remy and Linguini, get together to successfully
cook, as well as impress the intimidating and respected food critic, Anton Ego.
Anton’s esteemed image as a critic
is destroyed when Parisians find out that he pronounces Remy the rat as the
finest chef in all of France.
The Gusteau’s is shutdown but in the end Linguini, Colett, Anton and Remy open
another restaurant, ‘La Ratatouille, ’ that becomes a huge hit.
The dialogues, the nuances of the
expression in the actors’ faces, the screenplay, music, the set, every aspect
of the film is par excellence. The movie also has a lot of masala. There is
ambition(a rat wants to be a chef!) drama, (parents oppose this dream of his)
family ties(Remy helps his less privileged brother, relatives and friends with
food from the kitchen) friendship, rivalry, ego(Linguini finds it difficult
not to take credit for Remy’s work and refuses to acknowledge Remy and they
have a temporary disagreement) love, romance(Lingini and Colett, his
colleague, fall in love), motivation, inspiration, family bonds and friendship
etc etc.
Each and every scene is brilliant and Ratatouille is a
complete entertainer.