Ratatouille (2007)

There's a moment near the end of Ratatouille where a hardened, skeletal food critic takes one bite of a simple dish and is transported. No fanfare, no swelling orchestral swell pushing you towards the feeling. Just a man, a spoon, and a memory. It's quiet, it's powerful, and it absolutely wrecked me. Anton Ego's review scene is one of the finest moments in any Pixar film, and honestly, in any animated film full stop. The fact that it centres on a rat cooking in a Parisian kitchen and still manages to feel genuinely moving tells you everything about how good Ratatouille is when it's firing on all cylinders.

And it fires on a lot of cylinders. Pixar have always been good at sneaking emotional gut-punches past your defences, but here they do something even trickier: they make you care about food. Real food. The kind you can almost smell through the screen. The garlic, the thyme, the rich sauces bubbling away in a kitchen that looks like it was lifted straight off a cobbled Left Bank side street. The animation is lush and tactile in a way that still holds up. Paris itself feels alive, warm and slightly romanticised, but in a way that suits the film's whole spirit.

The story, I'll admit, doesn't stray too far from the underdog playbook. A dreamer with talent is held back by circumstance, finds an unlikely ally, wins over the sceptics. You've seen versions of this before. And some of the slapstick, particularly the business with Remy controlling Linguini by tugging his hair from beneath a chef's hat, asks you to switch your brain off in ways the rest of the film doesn't. It's broad stuff, and it sits a little oddly alongside the film's more thoughtful moments. But I'd be lying if I said it ruined anything. The bond between Remy and Linguini is genuinely sweet, built on mutual need and growing into something warmer, and that keeps you rooted even when the physical comedy goes a bit loopy.

What sets Ratatouille apart from a lot of Pixar's output is how grown-up its central argument is. The idea that great art can come from anywhere, that critics carry responsibility alongside their power, that passion and craft matter more than pedigree. These aren't ideas you expect to be wrestling with during a film about a rat who wants to be a chef. And yet here we are. Brad Bird, who also gave us The Incredibles, has a real gift for wrapping genuinely complex themes inside stories that never feel preachy or heavy. He trusts the audience, including the younger ones, and that respect comes through in every frame.

The humour lands well across the board too. It's not just jokes-for-the-kids with winking references for the parents sat behind them. It's actually funny, sharp in places, and the comedy of the kitchen, the chaos and hierarchy and barely-controlled panic of professional cooking, feels observed rather than invented. There's a love of the subject matter here that elevates everything around it without you quite noticing.

Is it a five-star film? No, and I want to be straight about that. The plot mechanics are a bit creaky in places, and the film occasionally loses its nerve and reaches for easy laughs when it could hold the quieter note a little longer. But close enough to taste greatness, as I said. When it's at its best, which is often, Ratatouille is imaginative, funny, beautiful to look at, and unexpectedly moving. Not many films about cooking, or rats, or dreams, or critics, manage even one of those things. This one manages all four.

Three and a half stars.

Rating: ★★★½  | Year: 2007  | Watched: 2025-07-21

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Where to watch

Watch in the UK
Stream: Disney Plus
Rent: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Sky Store
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi

Watch in the US
Stream: Hulu · Disney Plus
Rent: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US

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