The movie opens with Remy the rat narrating his story. He is not the cuddly Mickey Mouse of yesterday’s Walt Disney Company. Instead, he’s a rat that most people would want to avoid. But, Remy has high aspirations. He has a finely tuned taste and smell palette, has taught himself how to read and wants to become a great chief like his hero, Auguste Gusteau.

When the mistress of the farmhouse where Remy’s colony resides tries to blow them off the face of the earth with her shotgun, they all get carried away on the river, into the sewers to Paris of all places. When Remy wakes up after his harrowing escape, he is talking to Auguste who died recently. Remy recognizes that Auguste is a figment of his imagination, but his internal dialogue leads him straight to Gusteau’s famous restaurant.

Since Gusteau died, the restaurant has fallen on hard times. It is now run by the mean-tempered new chef, Skinner.

In an unlikely scenario, Remy teams up with the new garbage boy Linguini, who may be Gusteau’s heir, to take the culinary world of Paris, and Skinner, by surprise. The villains are set against Remy and Linguini, including Skinner, who tries to pry Linguini’s secrets out of him by getting him drunk, and the fiercesome food critic Anton Ego, who looks down on Gusteau’s motto that “Anybody can cook.”

As one might expect in Paris, this gourmet meal includes a touch of love, a lot of humor, some fantastic action, and some of the most delightful food scenes in the history of cinema. “Ratatouille” is a near great movie. It does have some issues, however. Linguini is plied with enough wine to get him drunk, the rats are not only difficult to embrace, but they also steal when told not to do so, and some of the cartoon violence skews toward older children and teenagers. However, there are many mentions of moral principles to counteract this, and the overall storyline is very pro capitalist, pro individual and supportive of the gifts that the individual has no matter what his background or genetic makeup. The movie also has a reference to godliness in that old non-biblical saw about cleanliness, and there is a reference to Heaven.

The real Christian theology comes in the fact that the movie makes it clear that anyone can be a chef, although not everyone can be a great chef. Thus, like the divine meritocracy instituted by the Declaration of Independence, the movie strongly suggests that all people are created equal by God, who grants everyone the right to pursue personal happiness while they pursue their individual service to God’s divine authority. Whether the humanist pundits who believe in biological and economic determinism pick up on the radical nature of this premise is anyone’s guess, but it is nice to see a movie taking the side of free enterprise and freedom to be who you want to be.

SUBTITLES: None
WARNING CODES:
Language: L
Violence: V
Sex: None
Nudity: None

RATING: G
RELEASE: June 29, 2007
TIME: 110 minutes
STARRING: The voices of Patton Oswalt, Iam Holm, Lou Romano, Brian Dennehy, Peter Sohn, Peter O’Toole, Brad Garrett, Janeane Garofalo, Will Arnett, and John Ratzenberger
DIRECTOR: Brad Bird
PRODUCER: Brad Lewis
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton
WRITER: Brad Bird
BASED ON THE NOVEL/PLAY BY: N/A
DISTRIBUTOR: Pixar/Walt Disney Pictures/Buena Vista Pictures Distribution/The Walt Disney Company

CONTENT: (C, CapCapCap, BB, L, V, AA, M) Light Christian worldview with two references to faith, one saying a mother is in Heaven because she believes in Heaven and another talking about godliness, both vague, with very strong pro-capitalist content, but the major message is that a great artist can come from anywhere, not that everyone is a great artist but anyone can be a great artist and their abilities are not genetically or culturally or environmentally determined, so it’s more in line with the Christian view that gifts come from God and so more in line with the Declaration of Independence, many moral points include admonitions against stealing, but sometimes the moral points are ignored by the dramatic action; one light obscenity and perhaps one light exclamatory profanity; lots of cartoon action violence including knives being thrown at rats, elderly lady shoots at rats with shotgun and almost destroys her house, rat plunges down into sewer, rat scampers under feet of people almost getting squished, etc., angry woman pins chef’s clothes to table with knives as she vents her anger, and chase scene with scary acrobatics and jumping; a kiss; no nudity; character plied with alcohol until he’s drunk; no smoking; and, lots of stealing but often rebuked, and character argues with his father but lightly rebuked.

GENRE: Animated/Comedy
INTENDED AUDIENCE: Older children to adults

Please address your comments to:

Robert Iger, President/CEO
The Walt Disney Company
(Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, Hollywood Pictures, and Buena Vista Distribution)
Dick Cook, Chairman
The Walt Disney Studios
500 South Buena Vista Street
Burbank, CA 91521
Phone: (818) 560-1000
Website: www.disney.com

SUMMARY: “Ratatouille” is a wonderful, savory concoction from the incredible Pixar team in an incredible, but delightful story about a country rat who pursues his dream of culinary greatness among the gourmet restaurants of Paris. Some of the cartoon violence skews toward older children and teenagers, and some moral points are ignored by the dramatic action, but “Ratatouille” has a brilliant light Christian worldview with strong moral elements and very strong sentiments favoring a capitalist meritocracy.

(c) Baehr, 2007

NOTE from Dr. Ted Baehr: For more information from a Christian perspective, order the latest MOVIEGUIDE® magazine by calling 1-800-899-6684(MOVI) or visit our website at www.movieguide.org. MOVIEGUIDE® is dedicated to redeeming the values of Hollywood by informing parents about today's movies and entertainment and by showing media executives and artists that family-friendly and even Christian-friendly movies do best at the box office year in and year out. MOVIEGUIDE® now offers an online subscription to its magazine version, at www.movieguide.org. The magazine, which comes out 25 times a year, contains many informative articles and reviews that help parents train their children to be media-wise consumers. MOVIEGUIDE® also regularly broadcasts several international TV and radio programs hosted by Dr. Baehr. Also, if you want to train your family to be media-wise, call 1-800-899-6684 in North America to order the book, video or audio version of THE MEDIA-WISE! FAMILY, Dr. Ted Baehr's latest book. © baehr, 2001