# 164 Ratatouille (2007)

Ratatouille is a movie about Remy, a rat who has an exceptionally good sense of smell and taste. After seeing a culinary TV show, he realizes that with his abilities he can become a very good cook. The problem is that he is a rat, and people usually associate rodents with disease and dirtiness. Remy meets a garbage boy, and tries to fulfill his dreams of becoming a chef with his help.

This time I'm going to start with the thing I did not like about the film. The only flaw of Ratatouille, in my opinion, is that it's naive. And I'm not speaking about talking animals here, which is common for most animated films. I'm talking about the scenes like the one where the head chef finds out that the reason the garbage boy can cook so well is because a rat manipulates him like a marionette and believes it so easily. Well perhaps a more precise word for this would be simple-hearted. But at the same time those moments made me laugh as if I was an eight-year-old, so I guess it's not a big flaw.

The tech side in Ratatouille, as well as in all of Pixar movies, is perfect. I've heard that it's very hard for animators to create textures like fur or skin to look natural, and not like plastic. The creators of this film went even further, they managed to make animated food look delicious. Seriously, this cartoon made me find a recipe of ratatouille, and, with the help of my little chef (which is my dog), spend the whole Saturday night cooking it. By the way, it turned out good.

Talking about the main idea of the movie, I think a lot of people like it because it's about what it means to be an artist and stuff like that. I understand it, but I can't say I really relate to it. What I really like about this film though, is the idea of of breaking stereotypes and going against what everybody is expecting you to do. Besides, the ending is probably not what most people expected it to be, and it teaches us that things don't always go the way you planned them, but whatever happens, happens for the best.

Interesting fact: Remy has 1.15 million hairs rendered, whereas Colette has 115,000 hairs rendered. An average person has about 110,000 hairs.

Favorite quote: "Food is fuel. You get picky about what you put in the tank, your engine is gonna die. Now shut up and eat your garbage".