Review – Ratatouille

The last 15 minutes or so of this animated tale about a gourmet chef who happens to be a rat are actually fairly entertaining. That’s in part because the story and the action finally pick up a little pace, in part because technically this part is well put together, but mostly because the hour and a half preceding it don’t amount to much more than a lengthy set-up for where we’re all sure it’s going to end up. So when it finally gets there, it’s quite a relief. However, much of the set-up is hard to sit through. We’re treated to a lot of obvious plot twists, a stiff romance, and generally too much unnecessary nonsense. To be sure, the cooking-related stuff is fun in a Food Network sort of way. It just makes an odd blend with the generally cartoony nature of the production. And speaking of cartoons: the animated short that accompanies the movie on the DVD is quite good, in some ways better than the feature itself. Mildly amusing