When I watched the cartoon fresh, I was a young and inexperienced viewer, it was easy to amuse and impress. Then it all seemed amazing: funny, soulful, with meaning, in places tense, unexpected, unusual. I was 20 – my second childhood, when a person just enjoys life, has fun, catches impressions. In principle, cartoons are designed for such a viewer, even from the vaunted Pixar. It's normal, they're doing their job.
But now, as an adult thoughtful viewer, I can say that sugar and spices are poured into the cartoon, which makes its taste unnatural. The main disadvantages are:
- The absurd assumption that a person can be controlled by pulling his hair. Even sleeping. The authors forgot the difference between a human and a manned robot. Later in the Pixars, this concept returned in Puzzle, where a person is literally controlled by cartoons in his head, but there it made sense, and here it does not.
- The whole cartoon is built under his final scene - the ghoulish critic had to be spiritually transformed. The scene looks strong, but only for the unsophisticated viewer. An adult understands that a normal critic is not a villain, he is needed in the system. And here his image is demonized, the character created a pamphlet for his profession. The spiritual transformation happened because of food. I don't.
- In an effort to fill the cartoon with colorful characters, the authors violated the laws of reality and threw natural maniacs into the plot: grandmother-berserk, grabbing a gun, girlfriend of the hero, trying to stab him at work for not cooking well, an evil treacherous boss, the already mentioned critic. There are almost no positive characters, beautiful ones too. For example, the chef Gusteau, albeit kind, but absolutely infantile, pathetic person who abandoned his son, besides suffering from unthinkable obesity.
In general, of course, it is clear what the authors wanted – an unobtrusive motivational comedy about self-identification, with a note of sadness, and this is how it looks for the mass audience. But if you turn on the brain, the work falls apart into details, most of which are unpleasant and dysfunctional.
