The week after Columbus Day is anticipated to be engaging for students, alumni, parents, faculty, staff, and any other group that plans to congregate on the Plymouth State University Campus for Homecoming and family celebration.
Sticking with the unwritten theme of “fun for all ages,” the PACE movie for the week is the animated feature, Ratatouille.
The film follows the life of a field mouse with culinary talents named Remi, voiced by Patton Oswalt, that is separated from his family after he is caught in the kitchen of a nearby farmhouse. Remi lands at a restaurant in Paris, where he becomes the personal assistant and catalyst to jumpstart the career of Linguini (Lou Romano), a struggling dishwasher turned sous chef.
Problems start to arise for the cooking duo when Remi leaves an egotistical Linguini when renowned food critic, Anton Ego (Peter O’Toole) visits the restaurant to taste the sous chef’s work. Dodging a crazy head chef and a rat-hating society, Linguini and Remi pull together just in time to serve Anton Ego with a simple (but delicious) French dish, Ratatouille.
The film has an appropriate story line for viewers of all ages, but still has the special amount of hidden humor for adult audiences rivaling the Shrek series or The Incredibles. Though the “go for your dreams” and “get the girl” motif has been used in practically every animated feature, a script can never go wrong with the use of small animals. By the end of the film, everyone will be calling Remi “little buddy.”
The animation and screen shots were nicely done by Disney, particularly the rooftop scenes in Paris. With computer animation in 2007, there honestly isn’t a detail that cannot be depicted in the “animated silver screen.” This film shows how far the company has come since the classical days of Cinderella or Snow White, stylistically. It was refreshing to see a plot line that was not based on a former fairytale from The Brothers Grimm.
According to David Ansen of Newsweek, “You’ll love it!” Other critics, such as Joe Mortgenstern of the Wall Street Journal called the film, “Brilliantly inspired.”
All in all, Ratatioulle is adorable and delectable for all viewing audiences – even the college student.