Brad Bird just understands how to make animated films- The Iron Giant and The Incredibles- are both excellent animated films. Because I trust him, I checked this movie out. I was not thrilled by watching the trailers, animals don't do it for me, Patton Oswalt seemed like an odd choice as the main voice and the premise just seemed too silly for me. Yet, because Bird made The Iron Giant, I was willing to believe he could turn me into a fan of a rat chef.
Remy (Oswalt) is a rat with a keen sense of smell and a desire to eat only good foods. Since he is a rat, he eats garbage and is supposed to roll with his giant family of rats, but he wants more. After he is separated from his family he realizes he is in Paris, apparently the best city in the world for a chef. At times he is visited by Gusteau (Brad Garrett) the chef who made Remy believe he could cook. Gusteau is dead now, but appears as a figment of Remy's imagination. After making his way into a bistro to find some food, Remy sees this awkward guy ruining a soup. That guy, Linguini, is wannabe chef but just doesn't know what he is doing. Remy fixes the soup, but everyone believes Linguini did it and they expect him to do it again. Linguini knows it was Remy and the most unlikely of friendships is formed. Remy controls Linguini's actions by pulling on his hair and so the story goes.
The motto spouted by the characters in this movie is anyone can cook. That is the premise we are supposed to buy as an audience. We have to believe this rat can be a chef and to be honest, it is accomplished in most ways. Bird has created a world where we can care about a rat and Oswalt does a surprisingly good job with the voice work. Also, Remy doesn't do a lot of talking, which is great. He does most of his voice work in the realm of the voice over. I like that when humans hear him talk it is just in screeches. The problem with the premise is that the movie sets out to show that in fact not everyone can cook. Remy is the only one in this movie that can actually cook. They want us to believe that anyone can cook so we can buy the rat cooking, but apparently we are supposed to forget that premise when it comes to Linguini or his lady friend Collette. That is my main issue with the movie. Also it runs a little long and it gets a bit too silly for my liking and it lacks the usual charm and clever attitude of the Pixar movies.
The animation is beyond dazzling to the point where the rain drops looks like real rain and Paris looks beyond incredible. There are a few action sequences that are among some of the better action sequences from this summer's movie selection, especially the one in the kitchen towards the beginning where Remy is trying to stay unseen. A lot of the shots are wonderful shots and at times it really feels like a live action film. It doesn't have the laughter the early Pixar movies have, but perhaps it has a more complete story. The score is just outstanding, leaving me breathless during some of the more active scenes. It was no surprise that it is Michael Giacchino, the composer of every episode of Lost and Alias. Rarely has a score moved me during a movie this much, especially for an animated movie.
This movie is far from perfect, but it is definitely worth watching. While it doesn't have the innocent charm of The Iron Giant or the crazy good story of The Incredibles, it does have something fun. It doesn't seem as much for kids, but the few jokes aimed at kids actually work for adults as well. I wanted to like this better than I did because of Brad Bird, but the fact that I actually cared about this rat goes to show just how good he is because well lets face it, I do not enjoy animals at all.
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