One of the key themes of Pixar’s latest animated film, Ratatouille,
is not settling for junk food–literally. The hero, a rat named Remy, is
always telling his brother to eschew eating any random garbage he finds
in favor of working to find something more flavorful, and ultimately,
satisfying. At the same time, the evil chef, Skinner, is conspiring to
turn now-deceased master chef Auguste Gusteau’s image into a mascot for
cheaply made frozen cuisine, a plot that the heroes of the film have to
thwart. So it’s a bit disappointing and slightly ironic that the video
game based on the film has more in common with the cheap junk food the
film decries than any well-prepared, savory dish. This is especially
true of the Xbox 360 version of Ratatouille, which not only is about as
satisfying as a lukewarm microwaveable burrito, but also feels as though
someone at the factory ate about half of it before shoving it into its
packaging and sending it off to stores. It, like other recent films
based on computer-animated flicks, is a simple, kid-friendly platformer
that loosely ties into the plot of the film, but unlike many of these
other recent platformers (and even other console versions of this very
game), Ratatouille goes beyond merely being middling kid-friendly
entertainment into being a sloppy and periodically frustrating mess.
Both the film and the game tell the story of Remy, a rat living in
France who dreams of becoming a master chef–a dream that doesn’t quite
jibe with the others in his rat colony, especially his father. Unlike
all the other rats, Remy won’t eat just any piece of garbage lying
around; he pines for more unique and expansive flavors, and actually has
the crazy idea to try preparing his food with herbs and spices. So it
is with great fortune that circumstance brings Remy to Paris and the
doorstep of the restaurant once owned by his favorite TV chef, Gusteau.
From here, the film launches into a brilliantly funny plot about Remy
and a hapless garbage boy, Linguini, teaming up to create a master chef
tandem. The game addresses a few of the key points from the movie, but
for the most part, it skips over any potential spoilers and keeps its
focus on missions involving Remy and his rat-colony buddies stealing
food from various Paris locations. Oddly enough, there’s very little
cooking going on in the Xbox 360 version of the game, with almost all
the focus being on the platforming gameplay.
