Yet the representation of Paris, and specifically the kitchen at Gusteau's, has the texture and detailed quality of photorealism without slipping into the uncanny valley.Įven when he's not talking up a storm (Remy having to work with Linguine as literally as possible ensures that our lead character isn't the chattiest hero), Remy is a far pricklier protagonist than most Pixar good guys.
The rats in the film are mercifully not photorealistic – outside of a brief glimpse or two of the human interpretation of rats, they're more cartoon-y than anything else. But the animation in Ratatouille feels, like Cars did the year before, like a major technological leap forward for Pixar. Like The Incredibles, Brad Bird features lots of humans in this film – there's a plethora of rats, of course, but they all live within a distinctly familiar version of the real world.
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Ratatouille offers a lot of visually exhilarating moments, but few are more satisfying than the setpiece in which Remy ascends through a series of apartments to realize that he's in a building directly facing the Eiffel Tower. After Remy's attempt to find the right ingredients for a meal go awry – the old lady whose house he and his fellow rats are hiding within gets a bit shotgun-happy when she sees a rat – he's separate from his family and winds up in the middle of Paris. If Gusteau is right, Remy wagers, then there must be a path for someone like him to achieve his dream. This inspires Remy, because he comes from the unlikeliest of homes and backgrounds.
He appears on TV, espousing his motto that "anyone can cook". Remy's idol is the aforementioned Gusteau (Brad Garrett), a chef with a fancy Parisian restaurant who's also something of a Julia Child figure.