Ratatouille Christian review

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Content that may disturb children
Sexual references
Alcohol, drugs and other substances
Nudity and sexual activity
Product placement
Coarse language
Ideas to discuss with your children
Can Christians watch Ratatouille?
Is Ratatouille appropriate for kids?
What is the deep meaning of Ratatouille?
Is Ratatouille appropriate for school?

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Overview

Remy (voiced by Patton Oswalt) is a rat who has a discriminating palate, along with an unstoppable urge to be a chef. He is inspired by a cookbook, Anyone Can Cook, written by a late five-star chef, Auguste Gusteau. Gusteau would probably give Emeril on the Food Network a run for his money today.

When Remy and his whole rat-clan must depart their country home quickly, Remy is separated from the other rats. By chance, he finds his way through the sewers of Paris, and winds up in the holy of holies: Chef Gusteau's restaurant kitchen, now run by his none-too-ethical sous chef, Chef Skinner (voiced by Ian Holm).

Remy teams up with young Linguini (voice of Lou Romano) -- the garbage-boy, pot-washer and general help -- who is desperately ill-equipped and just as desperate to keep his job. While Remy can understand Linguini and human speech in general, Linguini cannot understand Remy. But with practice, they work a system out where Remy is responsible for the cooking and Linguini, can as he said, "be responsible for looking human." Remy sits on Linguini's head and pulls at his hair to direct Linguini's hands and arms. Remy is the chef; Linguini is his means.

Can they meet the high standards of the infamous restaurant critic, Anton Ego (voiced by Peter O'Toole)? Well, of course... this is a movie with a happy ending. But how they meet those standards, with the aid of Remy's family, is where the fun of it lies. In the end, nothing will keep this rat down or keep him from accomplishing what he has set out to do and become.

In this overview, I would not do it justice if I missed out on at least mentioning that the computer animation was vibrantly three-dimensional. Paris looks romantically appealing here. The film is hyper-realistic about physical textures -- you can almost feel Remy's velvety ears – and is exuberantly cartoonish about motion physics. My mother in-law had commented that the animators had done such a fantastic job of the animation that it appeared movie-like most of the time.

Ratatouille is Pixar's way of making movies, in my opinion, by taking the time to create something outstanding, not chasing after shortcuts, and making the rest of the animation industry look like stick-figure factories.

Concerns

I have searched for concerns and the few that I have come up with are weak at best. But here they are: the time of the whole movie could be a little lengthy for the very young. Also, at first it could appear glamorous and OK to misguide people in the truth. But as the movie went on, you watch an internal struggle for bearing the truth that Linguini deals with until he comes out with the truth. The word "hell" is uttered once in the film, in the context of Chef Skinner welcoming a newbie Linguini to his kitchen: "Welcome to Hell!"

Teachable Themes

Story

Remy (voiced by Patton Oswalt) is a rat with an appreciation of food and a talent for cooking. He lives with his family in a rural farmhouse. While the other rats steal food and garbage to survive, Remy aspires to higher things. His hero is the celebrated and recently deceased Chef Gusteau. During a forbidden visit to the farmhouse to watch a cooking show, Remy and all the rats are discovered. They are attacked by the woman who owns the house. In the chaos, Remy is separated from his family and drifts aimlessly in the sewers.

Alone and lost, Remy receives support and advice from an imaginary friend in the form of Gusteau (Brad Garrett). Gusteau encourages Remy to go above ground. To Remy’s delight, he discovers he has in fact drifted into Paris and Gusteau’s restaurant. There he observes the new kitchen hand, Freddo Linguini (Lou Romano), accidentally ruining the soup. Remy steps in to rectify the soup disaster then Linguini saves Remy’s life. The pair form a partnership. This allows Remy to develop and display his culinary talent and enables Linguini to keep his job, fall in love and gain fame.

With success comes increasing expectations and complications. For Remy, the reunion with his family reminds him of the expectation to conform and behave like a rat, not a human. For Linguini, an unexpected connection with Chef Gusteau places him in charge of the restaurant just when a famed restaurant critic, Anton Ego (Peter O’Toole), announces his intention to review it. Under this increasing pressure, the friendship between Remy and Linguini is challenged. Nehey work together for the sake of the restaurant.

Themes

Animal distress; separation from a parent; bullying

Violence

During one of Remy’s attempts to cook at the farmhouse, both he and Emil are electrocuted during a storm. The scene is comical. Although the rats are scorched, they do not suffer severe injuries.
When Remy and Emil are discovered by the farmhouse owner, they are repeatedly shot at. They appear frightened and have several near misses. The ceiling falls in, exposing all the other rats who also come under attack. In the chaotic scene, bullets are flying everywhere, glass shatters, objects fall and break inside and outside the house. None of the rats is shown to be harmed or killed.
When Remy first enters Gusteau’s kitchen, he is nearly stepped on, cut with knives, run over by trolleys, and nearly baked in the oven. He appears scared during this experience.
When Collette, the only female cook in the kitchen, is asked to mentor Linguini, she yells at him and pins his shirt sleeve to the bench with three knives to get a message across to him.

Content that may disturb children

Under 8

Remy is separated from all of his family early in the movie. He repeatedly calls out to them and appears alone and scared.
A ghostly Gusteau suddenly appears to Remy when he is at his lowest point. It is explained that the jovial and kind Gusteau is a figment of Remy’s imagination.
Linguini is asked to dispose of the rat in the kitchen. He puts Remy in a bottle and is about to throw him in the River Seine. Remy clearly looks distressed and is panicking. Linguini decides he can’t drown Remy.
Remy’s father tries to demonstrate to Remy how humans treat rats, by showing him the window of a shop selling rat poison. The store front shows many dead rats caught in traps, poison and other devices to kill rats.
Remy is trapped in a cage by an angry head chef. He is thrown into the boot of the car. Remy is later rescued by his father and Emil.

Over 8

Children in this age group are unlikely to be disturbed by anything in this film.

Sexual references

None

Alcohol, drugs and other substances

There is some use of substances in this movie. For example:

When Linguini is successful in the kitchen, he is toasted by the other cooks.
In an attempt to get information out of Linguini, the evil new head chef drinks a bottle of wine with him. Linguini clearly appears a little drunk. He is shown asleep on the restaurant floor the morning after.

Nudity and sexual activity

Linguini and Collette kiss on two occasions.

Product placement

None

Coarse language

This movie contains some very mild coarse language in this movie.

Ideas to discuss with your children

Ratatouille is a highly entertaining animated comedy about two misfits trying to succeed in the world of Parisian fine dining. The well-depicted characters, slapstick humour and excellent animation should appeal to children and adults alike. The story highlights the following values:

focusing on what is ahead of you, not what is left behind
making your own choices in life
embracing change
loyalty, friendship and the importance of famil
tolerance.

You could talk to your child about these values as well as the real-life consequences of stealing, disobedience, bullying and prejudice.

Can Christians watch Ratatouille?

Some of the cartoon violence skews toward older children and teenagers, and some moral points are ignored by the dramatic action. That said, the movie has a brilliant light Christian worldview with strong moral elements and very strong sentiments favoring the pursuit of happiness.

Is Ratatouille appropriate for kids?

What is the deep meaning of Ratatouille?

Remy's story is an allegorical analogue to the real prejudices and barriers that disadvantaged groups face in breaking into the arts, and Ratatouille doesn't shy away from the fact that the full extent of Remy's talents will never be acknowledged, even as the final scene of Remy operating his own restaurant in secret ...

Is Ratatouille appropriate for school?

Parents need to know that, like all of Pixar's other films, Ratatouille includes nuanced humor (about the French, haute cuisine, food critics, and so on) and references aimed directly at adults. Kids will miss most of these references but most likely will still enjoy the plot and animal characters.