Ratatouille (2007)

Directed by: Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava | 110 minutes | animation, comedy, family | Original voice cast: Patton Oswalt, Ian Holm, Lou Romano, Brian Dennehy, Peter Sohn, Peter O’Toole, Brad Garrett, Janeane Garofalo, Will Arnett, Julius Callahan, James Remar, John Ratzenberger, Teddy Newton, Tony Fucile, Jake Steinfeld | Dutch voice cast: Ewout Genemans, Michiel Huisman, Terence Scheurs, Tom Jansen, Jeroen van Koningsbrugge, Herman den Blijker

In 1995, Pixar revolutionized the world of animated feature films with ‘Toy Story’. Never before had digital figures of such high quality been put into a film of almost an hour and a half. In addition, Pixar had also succeeded in keeping the Disney blandness out of the story, without making it brutal or ‘adults only’. The characters, oddly enough, seemed more flesh and blood than any Disney movie ever had. And the obligatory songs were skipped, a relief.

The image quality of this new production is unprecedented. Every next Pixar film makes you suspect that people are now paying their tax in terms of animation options, but nothing seems less true. The fur of the rats looks even better than that of the animals in all previous films, light and shadow effect, reflections in spoons and other metal, the streets, that book at the beginning, the water, it all looks breathtaking from.

The animations are truly stunning in both realism and creative execution, with the highlights being the first time Remy enters the restaurant’s kitchen and the later chase through Paris. The ‘people’ chose to keep them cartoonish, which was a wise decision; somehow it always seems the most difficult to visualize that one hundred percent realistically. The movements of the rats are sublime, accurately supported by a sound and effects and a mega good score, which is absolutely not reminiscent of sweet Disney sounds and which supports the atmosphere of Paris without falling into too big clichés.

The story is well put together and runs like clockwork. The characters are contradictory enough to be interesting and provide a lot of drama, but have enough common ground to be believable. There are no stereotypical jokers and no over the top characters; the humor is therefore not in lame references to physical abnormalities or the like, but in brilliantly written situations and confrontations between characters. The moral of the story is not too thick and is nicely deepened, without oversentment or stupidity.

Of course a rat can’t speak and certainly can’t cook, but in fairyland everything is possible, no problem. And writer and director Brad Bird, who also wrote and directed ‘The Incredibles’ (2004), has succeeded in making the rats endearing, without giving up their rat nature. The main character, Remy, a rat, is simply an exception to the rest. And that’s what the story is about: if you are different, you can still belong, by being brave in following your dream, without denying or forgetting your background.

How they’re going to pull it off at Pixar, no one knows. Of course, many credits go to Brad Bird, who, in addition to his excellent directing, also wrote a brilliant script. Whatever the case may be, one thing is certain: Pixar is doing it again! After the great successes of ‘Toy Story’, ‘The Incredibles’ and ‘Finding Nemo’ there is now ‘Ratatouille’, perhaps the best in the list. Because there is nothing, absolutely nothing to criticize about this film, on the contrary. ‘Ratatouille’ is a masterpiece, period.