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| Movie poster for Ratatouille |
I love cartoons and animation movies.I love "Tom and Jerry". It isn't it just hilarious?Its ingenious way of characterizing relationships in the society is may make you lose yourself in laughter but its many lessons are always well served; always sticking out in the mind as if you were the very characters in the cartoon.It is awesome.When you look beyond what many would consider a thing for entertaining kids,there before us is the work of the greatest artistic mind that will ever walk this earth.Then there is The "Ice Age" Franchise.Samurai Jack.Detective Bogey...The list is endless.
I got a chance to indulge in such easy-to- condemn peculiarities by watching the Jan Pinkava and Brad Bird's 2007 Walt Dysney and Pixar Animation Studio's computer animated French-based cooking comedy "Ratatouille" and found the story really inspiring and entertaining but above all, the witty attack on the whole enterprise of CRITICISM.
Anyone that has ever created anything or ventured to do anything no one has ever done knows the wrath of critics.The world can be unforgiving and many dreams and talents that would have been a wonder have been crushed to pieces beyond redemption by the vile and lethargic venom of the critics.Those that have survived to be something are the thick-skinned- big-hearted men and women who have refused to give in to the darkness that critics vomit from their cowardly righteous sanctuaries.
Ratatouille gently and forgivingly turns the spotlight on the critics' hideous sanctuary of righteousness and know-it-all foul airs,educated them,but forgiven them.Yet "Ratattouille" is just an animation with the protagonist being a RAT!
This animation challenges the norm that greatness is a preserve of the few; the already established and known names.Chef Gusteau's,the celebrity chef in the fictional Paris, is destroyed by the work of the hard- to-please and sadistic fat-egoed critic,Ego,who discredits his work when he ventures beyond the normal to create new recipes for dishes that no had thought about before.His desire to create new becomes his doom because the critics don't see the good,the possible and the exciting in what he is trying to do.Gusteau believes that "any one can cook" which essentially translates to "any one can be what they want to be.There are no limits.You just need to want what you want to be and then become it.The limit is yourself."It's this ideology of possibilities and space for all that want to explore that inspires Remy,a rat,to break from the bondage of just being a rat and doing what rats are supposed to do-stealing food from humans-to do what no rat had ever thought of doing:becoming a super-chef,which he accomplishes against all odds and disapproval from his friends,family and the humans.
When Ego,the critic who crushed the old famous chef Gusteau and his popular eating house hears that there is a new super-chef in town who has taken the dead one's place and that the hotel is back in business,he instinctively thinks of nothing other tearing it down again with his pen as he did previously.But he gets a rude shock.The super-chef,a rat,does him his favourite meal that only his mama used to prepare him when he was a little boy.He discovers that people,however new they might be new on the scene,can always surprise you in ways you can't imagine. He is forced to re-examine his principles.He confesses thus:
"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 themselves to our judgment.We thrive on negative criticism,which is fun to write and to 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 meaning than our criticism designating it so.But there are times when a critic truly risks something and that is in the discovery and defense of the new.The WORLD is often UNKIND to NEW TALENT, NEW CREATIONS.The NEW need FRIENDS.
Last night,I experienced something new,an extraordinary meal from a singularly unexpected source.To say that both the meal and its maker have challenged my preconceptions about fine cooking is a gross understatement.They have rocked me to my core.In the past, I have made no secret of my disdain for Chef Gusteau's famous motto,"Anyone can cook".But I realize only now do I truly understand what he meant.
Not EVERYONE can become a GREAT ARTIST,but a great artist CAN COME from ANYWHERE.
It is difficult to imagine more humble origins than those of the genius now cooking at Gusteau's,who is, in this critic's opinion,nothing less than the finest chef in France.I will be returning to Gusteau's soon,hungry for more.The happiest of my life.But the ONLY THING PREDICTABLE about LIFE is its UNPREDICTABILITY."
For further reading,follow the links:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratatouille_(film)
http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/a2/ratatouille-script-transcript.html
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