First of all, it should go without saying that even a bad Pixar movie is still better than almost every other kids movie out there (it should have gone without saying, but I said it anyway).
Also, I'm in the minority here - there are a lot of people who love this movie. There are also a lot of people who love sour cream, though, and we all know how gross that is.
Now then, back to the movie - one positive thing I can say about it is it looks amazing. Especially the views of Paris. Unfortunately, the realism is also one of its faults. Any of the scenes that feature hundreds, if not thousands, of rats scurrying about is just nauseating. Not to mention the scenes where they're preparing food.
My main complaint, though, is with the characters themselves. There's hardly anyone likable in this movie, which is very unusual for a Pixar, who traditionally have a knack for making even the most obnoxious creatures entertaining.
But not here. Remy, the main rat, is essentially a snob who longs for finer food and a more cultured life than the typical rat living on the tracks of the E train. He's voiced by comedian Patton Oswalt, who has a cult like following, but to me has a voice that's like fingers on a blackboard. And I don't mean that in a good way.
The other lead, Linguini, Remy's human counterpart, is basically a whiny bitch (not surprisingly, the whiny bitch action figures under-performed at Toys R Us).
The rest of the cast isn't much better - the only real humor comes from Remy's rat brother who is perfectly content eating anything and everything. Everyone else is just pretty mean.
Ultimately, there are many lessons to be learned from this film but the main one for me is that France has a massive, extremely animated, rat population. That's gotta be great for tourism.