Kind of an interesting quote to use in this situation, considering the circumstances of the movie in relation to what has happened with Disney in the past 20 years. Similar to Disney World, Gusteau's Restaurant in Ratatouille once represented a top of its class establishment with the finest quality. Also similar to Disney World, it has stagnated and decayed in quality to a huge degree after losing its creative leader. Its brand name and mascot now shamefully exploited by an inept and greedy new leader (Skinner, comparable to Iger/Rasulo/etc) with complete disinterest and even contempt for the establishment he's inherited. He uses the brand/mascot to cash in on the sale of poor products aimed at people with lower standards of quality. It took a major change in both the leadership and the "creative" force to restore the quality the restaurant once had. This kind of shift in leadership and creative quality has yet to become a reality at Disney, at least fully (particularly the parks, animation is improving somewhat at least).
Anton Ego was also a critic who actively disliked the thing he was critiquing in the first place, he always harbored a personal grudge against Gusteau and his ideals, wanting to see him and his restaurant burn. He had no personal interest in the restaurant beyond wishing to see it and its owner knocked down while he spat on its remains (something he achieved by destroying the restaurant's reputation and even driving a good man to his grave who possessed both great skill and legitimate love for his craft). For him to retract this opinion and fundamentally change the way he thought from then on, it required something both of the absolute highest standard of quality imaginable, but also something that was personally significant to him (in this case nostalgia). It took a change in the restaurant to change him, he would not have undergone this shift had Skinner been running things and Remi/Lingini not been around.
The critics on this forum are nothing like Ego, I don't think any of us enjoy reading or writing negative things about Disney. Quite the opposite for me, but it is an unfortunate necessity in this era. We care about the company and its future. We criticize because we're massive fans. We want the company to have amazing success, but demand that it achieves it by adhering to the standards of quality it once held itself to. Anyone who is a fan of something would be irresponsible not to hold them to a certain standard, criticizing them when they don't meet that standard.
- I think the only parts of Storybook Circus worth keeping are the washrooms and the train station.
