Critical Approaches for Responding to Disney’s Ratatouille

What do we mean by Critical Approaches or Critical Lens? A critical lens is a habit of thinking, reading, writing, and speaking that goes beneath the surface meaning and first impressions to understand the deeper the meanings and messages of a text.

Feminism Criticism Feminism focuses on gender images, particularly how girls are portrayed as feminine and sexual beings and masculinity is constructed in terms of male power/control. In Ratatouille, the main female character is portrayed as angry, aggressive and threatening at first. She speaks about how she is the only female in the kitchen because of the “unwritten rules of haute cuisine.” She begins to “let down her guard” as Linguini begins to show a romantic interest in her.

Critical Theories of Youth In our society, youth is presented as a problem or regarded as a problem. Young people make their presence by going “out of bounds” and breaking rules. Remy could be seen as a teenager, an age considered to be a the threshold of adulthood. His desire is to be someone else and somewhere else. Remy knows his father does not understand or see the world that he does..

Critical Theories of Race Critical analysis of race focuses on the ways in which race and ethnicity are portrayed in the text. Images of race are shaped by various categories: white = good and black = evil. These binaries limit and essentialize race and ethnicity. In the movie there lacks any diversity – maybe one chef in the kitchen is black. Characters that are evil or bad have darker skin tones, wears black, & have big noses.

Critical Theories of Class It is evident in the text that people and rats live comfortably. Everyone appears to be at the same economic status – in reality does is everyone the same economic status? Critical theories of class are most evident in people’s perceptions and judgments of members of different socio- economic status. Different people have different notions of what is means to be “rich” and what it means to be “poor.”

Environmentalism Environmentalism examines the ways in which nature is presented in connection with human beings. It focuses on the fact that there is a power struggle between humans and nature. In many cases humans have abused their power and destroyed (and continue to destroy) the world in which they live in. In the movie, Remy’s dad makes a reference to humans as dangerous and “barbaric.” He also tells Remy to stay away from humans because they are dangerous.

And now, it’s your turn... A small group project to critically deconstruct and analyze the Disney film Finding Nemo using one of the Critical Lens discussed today.