Ratatouille

United States

2007

111 Min

Color

2.35:1

French, English

Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
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SCR Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava, Jim Capobianco, Emily Cook, Kathy Greenberg, Bob Peterson

DP Robert Anderson, Sharon Calahan

CAST Patton Oswalt, Ian Holm, Lou Romano, Brian Dennehy, Peter Sohn, Peter O'Toole, Brad Garrett, Janeane Garofalo, Will Arnett, Julius Callahan, James Remar, John Ratzenberger, Brad Bird

A rat named Remy dreams of becoming a great French chef despite his family’s wishes and the obvious problem of being a rat in a decidedly rodent-phobic profession. When fate places Remy in the sewers of Paris, he finds himself ideally situated beneath a restaurant made famous by his culinary hero, Auguste Gusteau. Despite the apparent dangers of being an unlikely – and certainly unwanted – visitor in the kitchen of a fine French restaurant, Remy’s passion for cooking soon sets into motion a hilarious and exciting rat race that turns the culinary world of Paris upside down. —IMDb

Director

Brad Bird

A filmmaker who possess the rare ability to truly instill his animated creations with lifelike sentiments, identifiable emotions, and most of all heart, director Brad Bird has found notable success in film with such efforts as The Iron Giant and The Incredibles. Rising through the ranks with an impressive resumé, which includes such popular animated efforts as television’s The Simpsons and the groundbreaking Amazing Stories episode “Family Dog,” it seemed only a matter of time before the gifted storyteller ventured into feature territory. By the time Bird stepped behind the camera for 1999’s endearing boy-meets-giant-robot fable The Iron Giant, it was obvious to all who saw the film what a unique talent the director really possessed. Began at age eleven and completed when the fledgling Bird was a tender fourteen, his first animated film eventually caught the attention of Walt Disney Studios — and it wasn’t long before the ambitious youngster was being mentored under the tutelage of… read more

A filmmaker who possess the rare ability to truly instill his animated creations with lifelike sentiments, identifiable emotions, and most of all heart, director Brad Bird has found notable success in film with such efforts as The Iron Giant and The Incredibles. Rising through the ranks with an impressive resumé, which includes such popular animated efforts as television’s The Simpsons and the groundbreaking Amazing Stories episode “Family Dog,” it seemed only a matter of time before the gifted storyteller ventured into feature territory. By the time Bird stepped behind the camera for 1999’s endearing boy-meets-giant-robot fable The Iron Giant, it was obvious to all who saw the film what a unique talent the director really possessed. Began at age eleven and completed when the fledgling Bird was a tender fourteen, his first animated film eventually caught the attention of Walt Disney Studios — and it wasn’t long before the ambitious youngster was being mentored under the tutelage of legendary Mouse House animator Milt Kahl. Following a stint as a Disney animator on such features as The Fox and the Hound and The Plague Dogs, Bird branched out to numerous other studios — his trademark style and humor always well in place. Later serving as an executive consultant to both King of the Hill and The Simpsons, Bird was soon ready to tackle his first feature. Released to near universal critical acclaim in the summer of 1999, The Iron Giant told the tale of a warm friendship between a boy and a giant robot set against the prejudice of small-town America. A film with a big star and an even bigger heart, The Iron Giant pointed to great things to come from Bird. Courted by Pixar following his initial feature success, Bird was soon hard at work on his theatrical follow-up, The Incredibles. An affectionate tale of an aging group of ex-superheroes struggling to balance suburban family life with the instinctual need to fight crime, The Incredibles opened to equally ecstatic reviews in the fall of 2004. Though critical praise and box-office success don’t necessarily go hand in hand, the synergy between the two was flawless in this particular case and The Incredibles proved a massive success in theaters across the country. When it came time to hand out the award for Best Animated Feature at The 77th Annual Academy Awards the enthusiasm had apparently rubbed off on the Motion Picture Academy — with the film being awarded both the top animation prize as well as a “Best Sound Editing” award at that year’s ceremony.

By this point, audiences and critics – roundly dazzled by the Incredibles phenomenon — sat on pins and needles waiting for Bird’s next work of genius, naturally another Disney-Pixar joint production. It arrived, none too soon, in 2007. Ratatouille tells of a Gallic rat named Remy (voiced by comedian Patton Oswalt) in a decidedly precarious situation. As one of the lowest species of animal life, he happens to have an inconvenient preference for haute cuisine — particularly inconvenient given his location beneath the kitchen of a fancy French gourmet restaurant, that tempts him to go upstairs and try out his skills. Peter O’Toole, Janeane Garofalo, Ian Holm and John Ratzenberger also provide vocal talent in the picture. The film was yet another box office hit, and garnered considerably strong reviews. The Acdemy rewarded Bird with his second nomination for Best Original Screenplay. —allmovieguide

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Jan Pinkava

Dr. Jan Jaroslav Pinkava, Ph.D. (born 21 June 1963, in Prague) is the director and writer of the Pixar Oscar-winning 1997 short film Geri’s Game and the originator and co-director of Pixar’s Oscar-winning 2007 film Ratatouille.

He is the third-born of four children of the Czech polymath Václav Pinkava alias Jan Křesadlo. The family emigrated to Britain in 1969, where he obtained British citizenship.

He attended Colchester Royal Grammar School from 1974 to 1982 showing interest and talent in the arts, music, drama and sculpture. (One of his juvenile sculptures ‘Big Cat’ was acquired by Essex University and put on permanent display outside the library.)

After obtaining an 8mm movie camera for Christmas in 1975, he began experimenting with pixilation, stop-motion plasticine, paper-drawn and cell animation. He had some early prize-winning successes in animation competitions. Most notably, he won the Young Film-Maker’s Competition of the Year Award 1980 on the long-running… read more

Dr. Jan Jaroslav Pinkava, Ph.D. (born 21 June 1963, in Prague) is the director and writer of the Pixar Oscar-winning 1997 short film Geri’s Game and the originator and co-director of Pixar’s Oscar-winning 2007 film Ratatouille.

He is the third-born of four children of the Czech polymath Václav Pinkava alias Jan Křesadlo. The family emigrated to Britain in 1969, where he obtained British citizenship.

He attended Colchester Royal Grammar School from 1974 to 1982 showing interest and talent in the arts, music, drama and sculpture. (One of his juvenile sculptures ‘Big Cat’ was acquired by Essex University and put on permanent display outside the library.)

After obtaining an 8mm movie camera for Christmas in 1975, he began experimenting with pixilation, stop-motion plasticine, paper-drawn and cell animation. He had some early prize-winning successes in animation competitions. Most notably, he won the Young Film-Maker’s Competition of the Year Award 1980 on the long-running (1969 to 1984) BBC children’s quiz series Screen Test for his animated short “The Rainbow”.This was hailed in 2001 on Channel 4’s 100 Greatest Kids’ TV shows by ex-Screen Test presenters Michael Rodd and Brian Trueman as “the only occasion in the history of the competition where we came across a piece of film that was spectacularly professional”, a clip of him receiving the award is shown in the 2007 film Son of Rambow.

He went on to study Computer Science at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, where he graduated with first class honours and obtained his PhD, During this time he also represented his university in archery, fencing and hang-gliding competitions, and continued developing his cartoon drawing skills.

After university he turned to a career in computer animation initially in London, with Digital Pictures, who specialised in TV commercials.

In 1993 he joined Pixar, and moved to the USA. His “Arrows” TV commercial for Listerine won the Gold Clio Award in 1994.

His 1997 animated short Geri’s Game won the Oscar and a string of other awards.

The short film “67 Aluminum Plates” was created during the 1998 Ottawa International Animation Festival by a group of volunteers under the direction of Jan Pinkava. The film is stop motion, filmed in one long day and edited the next.It was shown on the closing night of the festival. Credits include: Jan Pinkava, Jordan Craig, Carolyn Craig, Rob Anderson, Jean Claude Kalache, Denis LeLong, Carol Beecher, Floyd Bishop Jr, Heather Hosel, Hugo Desrosiers, Karen Oxhorn, Susan Campbell, Charlie Hill, Ginette Brisson, Chris Mullington, Ed Eagen, and sculpture by Ulysse Comtois.

In 2000, he began work as director on Ratatouille, a European-flavored, ultimate-outsider tale based on his original story. This was to have been his feature film debut and the first Pixar film beyond the terms of the then-expiring Pixar-Disney franchise. In 2005, Pinkava was replaced as main director by The Incredibles director Brad Bird. In an interview given in 2006, Pinkava had “no comment” about this turn of events and for two years staunchly refrained from comment on the genesis of the film. At the time when he was replaced, Pinkava had written the core storyline of the film and created the styling, key characters and sets. Following his departure from the project, Pinkava initially undertook other duties and then left the company. In the final film, Pinkava is credited for his original story idea and as the co-director. The film was nominated for five Academy Awards, including a nomination for Pinkava (along with Jim Capobianco and Brad Bird) in the Best Original Screenplay category.

He subsequently worked as a director at LAIKA on his new film Little White Lie, but left in 2011 along with Claire Jennings. —Wikipedia

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