In dark times like this, we all might need some escape to forget about all the bad stuff happening in reality. That is why last night, after a long day of dabbling into the world of Jekyll, Ruby, Rubygems and other kinds of coding stuff (I won’t go into it but it is highly stressful), I’ve decided to just sit back and watch Ratatouille (2008) .
Crazy how it’s been 12 years since the film came out. Like 2008 does not seem that long ago, with Beijing Olympics and stuff. I think I’ve watched this film on Disney Channel before(like 8/9pm wish when they start playing random movies), but I already forgot 90% of it. A film critic YouTuber I watch Karsten Runquist actually reminded me to rewatch this Pixar classic. He ranked Ratatouille as his favourite Pixar film, over Toy Story and Wall-E, so there might be something special about it that might take a second viewing to discover.
I would describe Ratatouille as a very warm and heartfelt film. It does not pack itself as a cinematic masterpiece, nor does it display itself as a slapstick, mindless children’s movie. It is something in between. Most of this film takes part in the kitchen, and boy does the kitchen serves the warm, beautiful colour tones very well. The cityscape of Paris is equally breathtaking, I can’t imagine how disappointed children could be when the actual Paris does not actually look like the city of lights. (Not trying to be mean to Paris but, yeah it is more like a dumpster now.)
The plot is not actually the strongest part about the film I think, it is the characters that are so memorable. Remy represents the ambitious, the mighty part of us that is physically incapable to fulfil our goals. You can call him the underdog (rat) with a dream. As for Linguini, while I find his character quite bland, he represents the insecurities and things that are holding us back, not actually realising his full potential at hand. Together, they are capable of doing the impossible and fulfilling their dreams together, hand in hand (hair). It is the little rat that matters, and even though this story is no less than a modern fairytale, it hits home at its imaginative, inspiring core: anyone can cook.
One thing I could critique about this film is how they treated the *only female* character, Colette. To me, she is the feisty, spirited woman who would come off as mean and bitter, but only to defend herself against the patriarchal world. Even if she fits into a certain female character trope, I still like her very much. BUT SHE DOESN’T NEED A LOVE STORY! She doesn’t need Linguini the garbage boy to be the baddest. I find their love story quite forced and unnatural. Sure, I can’t think of a better explanation for Linguini’s storyline, but STILL!
I will try to keep these at the minimal word count and not to bore you, but yeah this ended on quite a negative note. Ratatouille is still a great film to just sit back and enjoy, I recommend rewatching it really even just for the nostalgia. We all wish for simpler times and simpler realities, where the worst thing that could happen is a talking rat cooking in your kitchen.