Copyright 2007, Disney/PixarI know that we've been jumping all over the place lately with the final push of my look back at the Pixar films (the sole exception being WALL-E, which I reviewed back around the beginning of the year), but it's interesting to realize that, in some ways, the 2007 Pixar release Ratatouille was the first time that anyone in the studio truly pushed back against audience expectations, delivering a story and characters that seemed almost forcefully unmarketable.
Before this relatively deep look at what it means to be an artist and how much and how hard you have to work at getting to your dream's fruition, Pixar had made movies about toys, bugs, monsters, fish, and superheroes. Even though 2003's Finding Nemo had some challenging storylines, it was still pretty easy to market because, in some form, people had seen the story before. There have been movies about parents trying to find their lost children. It's not so often that you see a story about a rat who wants to be a cook...in Paris. Rarer still does that seemingly outlandish and completely unlikely tale work.
When I first saw Ratatouille in theaters, I was excited, partially because I saw it as a return to form. The only Pixar film I didn't see in its original theatrical release was Cars, partly because my wife didn't want to see it, and partly because...well, I didn't want to see it either, not as much as I would for other such films. This film, however, got me excited; Brad Bird was returning to the director's chair, the cast was almost purposely not famous, featuring Patton Oswalt, Brad Garrett, Brian Dennehy, and Peter O'Toole. These are all known actors, but to varying extents, and not one is as popular as Larry the Cable Guy. So I was thrilled.
This first experience was when I saw the first trailer for WALL-E, a movie that seemed even more difficult and inaccessible for children than did Ratatouille. However, the former film was challenging, but less complex in some ways than that of the story of Remy. The best example I can give you is one of the most accurate scenes in film history about any profession, and the scene that just may be my favorite from Pixar ever.
Take a wild guess, and you can assume what it's going to be: the climactic review from ominous food critic Anton Ego. In many ways, Ratatouille has been careening towards this confrontation between critic and chef from the first minute. One of the first images we see is of Ego, the notorious food critic who may well have helped along the death of Remy's culinary idol, Auguste Gusteau. Remy will have to prove himself and his worth as a chef at some point, and it fits perfectly that Ego is the judge of how good a craftsman the rat is. Now, the review is preceded by the scene where Ego takes one bite of Remy's ratatouille and is rocketed back to memories of his childhood, and of how his mother would give him the dish as a comfort food. And without being told, we know that Remy's dish is perfect, not because it reminds Ego of his mother's cooking, but because his mother's cooking was perfect. Ego obviously wants to talk to the chef but has to wait. Oswalt, as Remy, narrates this scene, explaining how the two remaining human employees who are wise to Remy's scheme tell Ego he has to wait until the restaurant is closed, in hushed tones. Then, Ego finds out.
But what seals the deal is that review Ego delivers, in the beautifully crafted script by Bird and Jim Capobianco. Not only is Peter O'Toole at his finest here (in a performance that easily sails to one of the best vocal performances in American cinema), but the words, the meaning, the many ways in which it may be analyzed...all is breathtaking. What struck me in the theater on that first viewing as Ego explained his life as a critic, his stance against true creativity and artistry, as a way to praise Remy's skills as a chef, is that not a single kid under the age of, say, 8 or 9 would understand a damn word of what he was saying. Oh, sure, they'd get that the evil-looking critic liked Remy's food, but that's not what the review is about. Each Pixar film--yes, even Cars--has a moment or two of complete transcendence, whether it's a house sailing via balloons, a toy retelling its sad life without being loved, or, in this case, a meditation on criticism, on being creative, and on the position of art in society.
One of the reasons that, in many ways, Ratatouille is my absolute favorite Pixar film is because of that moment, a moment that still gives me chills. After having seen the film countless times, I can see its flaws (though I don't really have any issue with him, the character of Alfredo Linguine is a bit too goofy), but I treasure its creativity, adore its characters, and nod with appreciation at its cleverness, its humanity and, above all, its relatability. Yes, a movie about a talking rat is relatable to me. How many movies with such completely implausible storylines (and yes, as much as I appreciate this film's attention to detail and realism, the story is ridiculous, especially when Remy's fellow rats band together to save the restaurant the creative rodent has been toiling at) can boast such a claim?
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