Ratatouille

ratatouille

[ra-tuh-TOO-ee; ra-tuh-TWEE] A popular dish from the French region of Provence that combines eggplant, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, zucchini, garlic and herbs-all simmered in olive oil. The vegetables can vary according to the cook. They can be cooked together, or cooked separately and then combined and heated briefly together. Ratatouille can be served hot, cold or at room temperature, either as a side dish or as an appetizer with bread or crackers.

- Food Lover's Companion

Also known as Pixar's story abt a rat who loves cooking.
I caught it yesterday ALONE coz most of my frenz I asked watched it already so I decided to catch it before it ends its screening here in Singapore. I have been waiting for this movie for ages. Goodness knows why the the film distributors decided to screen this movie so late in Singapore (US and Australia already ended its run. In July that is.)

However, I was quite disappointed when I caught it. It was nice ya, the animation was great (the water and the buildings looked so real) but to me, it lacked the usual Brad Bird and Pixar magic. Brad Bird did 'The Iron Giant' and 'The Incredibles'.
Pixar had films like Finding Nemo & Monsters Inc. as precedents hence I expected much more from this film.

Obviously, the visuals were fantastic, which Pixar is famous for, but the story lacked the cleverness & humor of previous Pixar movies, and the characters were simply not endearing enough. I was expecting lots of laughs and touching moments but I had little laughs and was not touched. I was actually infuriated with the bumbling useless Linguini. Remy the rat however, did alright.
The voice characterisations were good, there were some good jokes, but they were much too few and far between to keep things afloat. I found it a little slow, and the plot and characters were rather predictable. It's chatty at times, and the younger kids in the cinema became restless fairly frequently, especially in the latter half of the movie.

Maybe it's just me: 2 hours of even the best-quality animation gets old after a while.

I understand Pixar wants to distance themselves from the competition, and they do. But 111 minutes is pretty long for what basically is an extended cartoon for kids. They could have edited down and made a tighter, more enjoyable movie. This movie was nowhere near the genius of Nemo and Monsters.

What I did like most besides the animation was the mantra in the movie - "Anyone can cook". Food, glorious food. I love food; cooking, eating. The movie did inspire me to experiment more with cooking and get back to cooking. I have not cooked much since I came back from Australia and after this movie, I am motivated to get back to cooking!



So watch out friends! Dun say I din warn u... Prepare your antacids and charcoal pills coz Eu-Jzin is back in the kitchen!