Ratatouille (2007) Movie Information:

Ratatouille (2007) Directed by: Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava Ratatouille (2007) Written by: Emily Cook, Kathy Greenberg Ratatouille (2007) Cast: Patton Oswalt, Brian Dennehy, Brad Garrett, Janeane Garofalo, Ian Holm, John Ratzenberger, Peter O'Toole

Ratatouille (2007) U.S. Distributor: Walt Disney Pictures Ratatouille (2007) U.K. Distributor: Buena Vista

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Ratatouille (2007) Synopsis:

Pixar's CG-animated film about a rat named Ratatouille, who lives in a fancy Parisian restaurant run by a famous, but eccentric chef.

Ratatouille (2007) Movie Review:

It's not easy being a rat. Be honest: if you came home to find one scuttling through your herb rack, you wouldn't respond well, even if it was just seasoning your soup. Thankfully, due to the magic of anthropomorphism and Pixar charm, the rat that is the central character of "Ratatouille" is funny and likeable.

But Remy (voiced by Patton Oswalt) isn't your average rat. Well, of course he isn't; he can talk. But that aside, he's a lot more concerned with what he eats than the other rats, who'll happily munch any old scraps, and he has a finely tuned nose - something his father mocks him about until he realises he can detect rat poison with it. Remy doesn't really feel he fits in with the garbage-scavenging rats; he walks on his back two feet because he doesn't want to walk on the ones he eats with. This type of behaviour worries his father, as it is worryingly close to humans. As with many non-human fathers in Disney and/or Pixar movies, people spell trouble. Well, you can forgive him that; if I were a rat, even a CGI one, I wouldn't trust people much either.

Things all go a bit wrong in their home in the French countryside when the old lady whose bins they frequent finds Remy gathering some ingredients from her kitchen, and after a superbly entertaining mass-evacuation scene, Remy is separated from his family and flushed down a drain in a scene of startling visuals and thunderous sound effects. He emerges from the sewers to find himself in Paris. He sneaks into a restaurant and befriends the garbage boy there, Linguini (Lou Romano). Although Linguini can't hear Remy's voice, which is only audible to rats' ears, they soon realise that with Remy's cooking skills and Linguini's... well, human form, they can cook culinary masterpieces and restore the former glory of Gusteau's restaurant, run by the suspicious and short-tempered Skinner (Ian Holm). Gusteau, the original owner who died after the restaurant lost a Michelin star, pops up occasionally as a ghost/imaginary guide/deus ex machina over Remy's shoulder to whisper advice, and he's a jolly, friendly fellow with double chin that would put George Lucas to shame.

The rest of the story takes place on two different levels, with Linguini, whose natural goofiness is a stumbling block in his attempt to woo a fellow cook, Colette (Janeane Garofalo). Colette and Skinner have thick French accents while Remy and Linguini sound distinctly American; nice to see such ethnic diversity in a French restaurant. The other level follows Remy, whose recipes quickly grab the attention of all of Paris, including the sinister food critic Anton Ego (Peter O'Toole), whose face is constructed such that he looks down his nose at everyone both out of snobbishness and because he has no choice.

The story unfolds in a pleasant and quite charming way, and the movie has the usual Pixar humour that we've come to know and love. I liked the fact that it isn't full of in-jokes for the adults; for the most part, the kids and grown-ups will be laughing at the same parts. Furthermore it looks fantastic: the romanticised Paris is quite spectacular, and perhaps even more impressively, the food looks incredibly good, given that it's animated.

I wasn't quite as involved with Remy and Linguini as I was with the eponymous hero of "Finding Nemo" or Buzz and Woody in "Toy Story," but I'm judging Pixar against their own yardstick here and they did after all set the standard to which all computer-animated films aspire. "Ratatouille" is jolly and funny, and very well-animated. As children's movies seem to get a stupider and more inane, it is a blessing that we still have Pixar, whose determination to give family films interesting stories and characters means that 'family' in this case does not equate just to children, and that children will enjoy them all the more.

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Ratatouille (2007) review written by: Adam Whyte