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Reviews are starting to come in, from the sneak previews on the 17th and from various other sources. Also a lot of interviews! I’ll try to keep some of the more interesting ones listed here.

There’s always the Ratatouille page on rottentomatoes.com!

This Upcoming Pixar blog has more time to find stuff and update than I do!

2007/07/09

I’ve not been keeping up with this. But here is a blog entry from a chef about the film, plus a quote from Anthony Bourdain, my sister’s once imaginary boyfriend.

Last weekend Chef Pardus called me to say if I didn’t take my kids that very weekend to Ratatouille, I was a loser. This from the same guy who called me a wuss because I didn’t want to drive 30 miles through a blizzard to make a bechamel sauce. I tend to listen to him. He said, “Ratatouille gets it, it totally gets chef culture.”

“I think it’s quite simply the best food movie ever made,” Tony wrote today in an email. “The best restaurant movie ever made–the best chef movie. The tiny details are astonishing: The faded burns on the cooks’ wrists. The “personal histories” of the cooks…the attention paid to the food…And the Anton Ego ratatouille epiphany hit me like a punch in the chest–literally breathtaking. I saw it in a theater entirely full with adults–and the reaction to that moment was what movie making was once–a long time ago–all about: Audible surprise, delight, awe and even a measure of enlightenment. I am hugely and disproportionately proud that my miniscule contribution (if any) early early in the project’s development led to a “thank you” in the credits. Amazing how much they got “right.”

2007/06/27

It’s Wednesday and the reviews are starting to pour into Rotten Tomatoes. You are a movie critic in the middle of nowhere. You sense that the word of mouth for a movie will be pretty strong, and it will become a critical success. You decide to buck the trend in a desperate plea for attention, knowing you will be the only one of 100s if you give that movie the one rotten review. Your review is vague and non-specific, except to say you didn’t find it amazing, but offers no reasons why. But like a child, you do not realize there is a difference between good attention and bad attention. People leave all sorts of comments on your web page, calling you out as a dishonest hack, zeroing in on your non-review and calling you out for the attention whore you are. Your stunt has failed. No one will ever take your word for anything again. Nice try! Here’s his review and the blog entry. Make sure to read the comments.

2007/06/21

Cultural Learnings’ review and an unfinished list of 10 reasons to see Ratatouille, apparently this is a TV blog. Nice detailed and balanced review.

This reviewer named Owen Gleiberman from Entertainment Weekly really misses the point and does it just to make a lame food pun, ouch:

The lack of celebrity voices is a major drawback, since Remy ends up with very little personality. Contrast him with, say, the bad-boy Owen Wilson speedster in Cars, and you’re seeing the difference between a hero with spice and a bland one who happens to know where the spice rack is.

In counterpoint, an interview with Patton Oswalt covering his appearance on Emeril and about his role as Remy in the movie in general:

He shakes his head over another interviewer, who recently declared Ratatouille to be “almost perfect.” Why? Instead of savoring the original score by Michael Giacchino (Lost, Alias), the reporter wished there were a Blink 182 or a Gwen Stefani ditty to hum along to, the way other cartoon movies rely too much on popular pop tunes. Says Oswalt, “He’s the guy who comes to Manhattan and eats at the Olive Garden.”

2007/06/19

I like this review’s title, “Rat is the New Penguin.”

More of an interview with Thomas Keller, who consulted on the film, in the New York Times’ food and wine section.

A nice review with some commentary on Hollywood’s movie making approach and how storytelling needs to create worlds in order to really involve the viewer. Also this blogger’s wife is a foodie who has her own short blurb.

Some Ain’t It Cool stuff here, an interview with Patton Oswalt (Remy), Quint’s take on Ratatouille and some viewer reviews from the sneak.