Ratatouille follows the exploits of a young rat, Remy (Patton Oswalt) trying to find his way in life in the underbelly of Paris. Remy has a love for the finer foods, and is led on his journey from gutter rat to gourmet chef by his hallucinations of a deceased famous chef, Gusteau (Brad Garrett). Remy ultimately finds himself in Gusteau’s restaurant, now being run into the ground by Chef Skinner (Ian Holm). Remy soon befriends the clumsy goofy clean up boy Linguini (Lou Romano), saving his job after a botched attempt at fixing a soup that Linguini ruined. Remy discovers that he actually does have the knack for cooking, and that his newly found friend has no talent whatsoever. This is contrary to what the patrons of Gusteau’s restaurant are soon led to believe; it is rumored that Linguini is the hot new Chef in town.

Intending on bringing Gusteau’s rating back down to a measly three stars, is the career killing food critic Anton Ego (Peter O’Toole). Remy now has two tasks at hand: Let the world believe that Linguini can cook a meal worthy of Anton Ego’s taste buds, and nurture the budding romance of Linguini and Colette (Janeane Garofalo), a fellow restaurant employee that actually believes in his so called talent. What ensues from that point on are some of the greatest moments in cartoon history.

Yes, I loved this movie. Brad Bird (The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, The Simpsons) is the best animation director out there today, and he knows how to create movies that have a lasting impression. I had a smile on my face the whole movie; I had the feeling during the movie that I was watching a classic cartoon from the heyday of the Disney and Warner Brothers era. Bird is master story teller, he has the gift of making you forget that you are watching a cartoon. There are always more animated “sets” and “locations” than the standard Pixar faire when Bird is in charge; this lends itself to the feeling of an actual movie. I don’t want to leave out the never ending talent of the Pixar animators – they are the best in the industry, as they have been in my opinion since the late 1980’s. I don’t know why that the other major studios insist on over the top all star casts, where you cant see beyond their voices. Pixar has always had the ability to pick the right voices for their characters, and there are always surprises when looking at the voice credits at the end of their movies. It’s not that Pixar movies don’t have their share of stars; it is just that they know how to let their characters rise above the actors that are actually voicing them.
There are many new textures and treatments to add to Pixar’s bag of tricks; the animation is flawless – cartoonish yet founded in some sense of reality.

Some of the movie that deals with the love of food, and it may go over the younger viewers heads, but it compensates with heavy doses of action and physical comedy that will keep the kids happy. Go see Ratatouille with or without the kids, you’ll have a great experience either way.

I know this is a website dedicated mostly to the horror genre, but great movies always have a home at killerfilm.com.