The Ratatouille Critic

Watching Ratatouille (2007) today, I came across something that struck me as odd - the incredible derision the filmmakers use in their portrayal of the food critic.

With this critic, there are no genial smiles or mild comments - instead the film presents a hardened old man, one who doesn’t like food but “loves it”, who seems to take perverse pleasure in setting out to ruin Linguini’s newfound reputation. He had written off the restaurant in the past, and when it starts making a comeback, instead of setting out to see what is bringing folks back, he’s out to prove that his review harkening the coming end of the restaurant is, despite recent favorable buzz, still true.

It’s a very harsh portrayal of a critic, and quite surprising coming from the folks at Pixar. This seems to be almost a personal vendetta by the filmmakers to lash back at critics who have panned their previous films - yet, to our knowledge, there has been an overwhelming approval rating for all of Pixar’s previous attempts (with the possible exception of A Bug’s Life). Why then, this sudden animosity towards critics? Seems to us this was suggested by parent company Disney, maybe in an attempt to get back at critics for panning some of it’s past animation efforts.

Did anyone else get that impression, or am I way off base?