Hi everyone, welcome back to the Nightcrawler Experience!
We're continuing this blog's partnership with St. John's United Methodist Church for their "Summer at the Movies: Around the World Edition" Series.
You may remember we figuratively visited Mexico with our screening of 'Coco' last week. Well, trade in your sombrero for a beret, because for this edition, we'll be going to Paris for a look at another Pixar film, the 2007 masterpiece 'Ratatouille'!
In this film, a Parisian rat named Remy (Voice of Patton Oswalt) finds himself somewhat at odds with the other rats in his clan in terms of his views on food; While everyone else in his clan is content to just scavenge and eat any garbage they can get their paws upon, Remy has an interest in more elegant cuisine, and develops a talent for fine cooking. He eventually finds himself at the once- legendary restaurant Gusteau's, and helps a rather unlucky yet good- natured young man named Linguini (Voice of Lou Romano) become its star chef. Still, he feels torn between two worlds. All the while, quite a lot of intrigue is going on behind the scenes at Gusteau's; It begins increasingly looking like Linguini's connection to the restaurant's now- deceased founder, Chef Gusteau, may in fact be much deeper than anyone thought, leading to even more pressure to succeed being piled on the young man, causing him to rely on both his "Little chef" and the fiery but fetching fellow chef Collette he's begun falling in love with to restore the restaurant to its former glory and prepare for a visit from the dreaded food critic Anton Ego.
'Ratatouille' is an amazing film, though one thing I'd personally change about the film is I thought it had too much focus on the rat characters and not enough focus on the human characters. The humans prove to be a great deal more developed and interesting than the rats, and many of the human characters could have brought a lot more to the film if they were given more screen- time, ESPECIALLY the restaurant's other staff members. In one scene, Collette tells Linguini a little about each of them, and they appear to be quite a colorful bunch. Using them so little in the film then seems like kind of a waste.
Other than that quibble, I'd consider 'Ratatouille' to be easily one of Pixar's best films. While Pixar's films of course are mainly made with children audiences in mind, 'Ratatouille' seems like one which was actually aimed more at adults than at kids. The plot is much deeper and more sophisticated than most kids- movie fare, while still featuring enough simple humor and colorful images to interest the kids.
Another great thing about 'Ratatouille' is that it succeeds perfectly at what I believe all films which center around cooking should aspire to do: Not only does watching it make you feel hungry, it also makes you feel like cooking something yourself rather than simply throwing a frozen dinner in the microwave. While it'll be a bit late tonight for me to properly cook something for myself after the movie's done, I'm thinking tomorrow night I'll prepare a homemade Italian meat pie for my dinner while humming "Le Festin," the lovely tune from the ending of 'Ratatouille.'
The main characters, Remy and Linguini are both great protagonists. Each is struggling with a lot (Remy with the fact that he feels pulled towards both his rat world and family and also towards human society that lets him use his talent for cooking to its most appreciated level, Linguini with initially feeling like a failure just trying to do something good with his life and later with the immense pressure he comes under when he becomes a famous chef), and it all works out well.
Collette is a lot of fun to watch, too. She is short- fused, aggressive, and even a little vicious towards Linguini while helping to instruct him on the finer points of cooking, but you can kind of see why; She explains that, as a woman in a male- dominated industry, she had to become tougher than anyone else in order to advance. She also has not one but two of the film's funniest lines:
"Keep your station clean, or I will kill you!"
(To a group of reporters when trying to suddenly break up a press conference Linguini is in, due to needing him in the kitchen) "I hate to be rude, but, hey, we're French!"
The food critic Anton Ego is an immensely fascinating character, even though he's only really in it for the last third or so of the movie. While not a really cruel person, he is very cold and cynical (Easy traps for a critic to fall into), and you can tell that worldview heavily influences his reviews. A scathing review he gave to Gusteau's restaurant some years earlier was a big part of what caused the restaurant's initial popularity to greatly decline (You get the feeling that this probably wasn't the first restaurant to be sunk by one of Ego's reviews), and almost certainly helped to cause Chef Gusteau's death.
One very amusing scene that says a lot about Ego as a character is when his servant in his house approaches him while he (Ego) is sipping a glass of wine. When the servant tells him that Gusteau's restaurant is popular again, Ego is so surprised that he almost spits out his wine, but quickly looks at the bottle as if reminding himself that it's a particularly good vintage which shouldn't be wasted in such a way, and instead merely forces himself to swallow it. I thought that was so funny and such a great, subtle way of conveying Ego's appreciation of fine food and drink, and also just a creative twist on the classic "Spit take" routine.
The voice acting in this film is magnificent. Patton Oswalt injects a lot of honesty and sincerity into his work as Remy's voice, and Lou Romano gives Linguini the perfect combination of goofiness and heart. Many of the other voice actors in this film gave such amazing performances, I couldn't even tell it was them even though they were actors whose other work I was familiar with, such as Janeane Garofalo as Collette and Brad Garrett as Chef Gusteau.
One Biblical message that can be taken from 'Ratatouille' which I pointed out in my devotional that was passed out at the screening is on the notion of unlikely heroes who can do great things, which both Remy and Linguini end up becoming. I point out that they can thus be compared to another great unlikely hero from the Old Testament, Gideon in Judges 6:6-40. He has long been easily one of my favorite Biblical figures, and I could easily compare him to Remy and especially to Linguini.
Another very important Biblical message in 'Ratatouille' is on releasing our cynicism by remembering our childhood and stopping to view the world through a child's eyes when we can. This is shown in the film through Anton Ego in the film's climax. As I said earlier, Ego comes across as a very cynical and bitter man for most of the film, but what ultimately changes his mind and even his entire outlook on life is the meal that the heroes present to him for his scrutiny in the climax, a simple bowl of ratatouille. While it is far from an impressive dish, of the sort that one would expect from a restaurant like Gusteau's (Collette refers to it as a "Peasant's dish"), it heavily appeals to Ego. When he tastes it, he is immediately reminded of a memory from when he was a very young boy, and his mother offered him a bowl of homemade ratatouille to comfort him when he was feeling down. A truly brilliant visual appears in this scene to further cement Ego's change: When Ego gets the eye- opening taste of the ratatouille, we see his pen (As a critic, he of course keeps a pen and pad handy for notes), which he had been holding, drop to the floor. This can be seen as symbolizing Ego metaphorically "Dropping" his former cold, cynical worldview.
Ditching cynicism and viewing the world with more of a humble, childlike perspective is often listed as an important trait of followers of Jesus Christ. In fact, Jesus said in Matthew 18:3-4 that "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven." Also, Ephesians 5:1 says "Follow God's example, therefore, as dearly loved children." While we all must grow up and mature, we must not let ourselves become cynical even as the world around us seems to insist that we should; We must maintain a little of the humble, childlike senses of wonder, open- mindedness and love we had when we were little and use them to guide our hearts and help us get the most out of the life that God has given us.
Another great theological message that the film contains is on the importance of doing the good work that God has called us to, regardless of what the world might say about it. In the very end of the film, Ego opens his review of his experience at Gusteau's with the comment that "In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little, yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and read. But the bitter truth we critics must face is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism labeling it so."
This brings to mind many verses from Scripture. First and foremost, Colossians 3:23 says that "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men." Also, Galatians 1:10 says "For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ." Lastly, 1 Thessalonians 2:4 says, "But just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the Gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts."
In all that we do, especially things done with our faith as Christians clearly guiding it, there will be those who will criticize us. That's a simple, unfortunate fact. However, we must not let that stop us from doing what God has called us to do. I was reminded of this recently, as I learned that the movie star Chris Pratt (From films such as 'The Lego Movie,' the 'Guardians of the Galaxy' series, and the 'Jurassic World' series) is a Christian, who has shown to clearly not be afraid of being open about his faith. I discovered that a few months ago, Pratt went on Twitter in support of actor/ filmmaker Kevin Smith (Best known for his 'Jay and Silent Bob' films), who had just recently suffered a severe heart attack that nearly killed him. Pratt said in his Tweet that although he didn't know Smith well personally, he was a big fan of Smith's work and was praying hard for him because "I believe in the healing power of prayer," and he encouraged others to pray as well. This, sadly, led to many on Twitter openly insulting Pratt for his faith. One such responder wrote "Great, now I won't enjoy your films as much knowing you're a Jesus nut." In spite of this vicious backlash, Chris Pratt remained strong and outspoken in his faith, including giving an awesome and very brave acceptance speech at last month's MTV Movie & TV Awards, in which, while he made some funny comments and jokes, he also told the audience that "You have a soul; take good care of it," and "There is a God, He loves you, and He has a great plan for your life." For him to make such a declaration on MTV of all networks was proof that he has learned to care more about what God has called him to do than about criticisms that the secular world might throw at him for it. May we all have the same desire, to glorify God and do His will for us in spite of what the naysayers may tell us.
There we have 'Ratatouille'; An animated masterpiece which can help teach the valuable lessons of following the examples of unlikely heroes, letting go of cynicism and embracing a childlike wonder at the world, and pursuing the Lord and what He would have us do with our lives regardless of what this world's critics would say. Put all those together, and you have a marvelous recipe of how to follow the Lord. C'est magnifique!
That wraps up this edition of the Nightcrawler Experience. Come back next week as I conclude this series. Until then, God bless you all!
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