Movie Review: Ratatouille

Voice Cast:
Patton Oswalt, Lou Romano, Brad Garrett, Ian Holm, Janeane Garofalo, Brian Dennehy, James Remar, Peter O’Toole, John Ratzenberger

Directors:
Brad Bird and Jan Pinkava

Synopsis:
A passionate rat named Remy yearns for a sip of the good life. Growing up beneath a five-star Parisian restaurant owned by a famous chef, Remy inherits a taste for fine food. But his culinary ambitions only anger his practical father, who wishes his son could just eat garbage like every other rat in the colony.

My Two Cents:
I have a weak spot for CG movies, especially if they’re made by Pixar Animation Studios. I was totally blown away by Toy Story back in 1995 and since then I’ve been a big fan of their work. Their movies not only feature state of the art computer generated images, but offer movie fans unique stories, humor and charm every single time. Ratatouille is no exception.

Rats are associated with filth and thievery, so it’s not easy for Remy (voiced by comedian Patton Oswalt) to hide his love for fine food from the rest of his rat colony, especially his father (voiced by Cocoon’s Brian Dennehy), whom all live in the attic of an old woman’s house in France. Unlike the other rats, Remy doesn’t like eating garbage, or the fact that they have to steal it. He has been sneaking, without his father’s permission of course, into the house’s kitchen where he likes to read a cookbook written by the owner of Paris #1 restaurant, Chef Gusteau (voiced by Everybody Loves Raymond’s Brad Garrett). Remy’s father knows his son has a unique ability to smell ingredients in food, but only approves of this talent if it’s used as a rat poison alert system. Remy’s brother, Emile, is the only one who knows about this, and as Remy tries to show him the wonders of cooking they are spotted by the old lady and all hell breaks lose. The whole colony needs to evacuate and in the process Remy gets lost inside a sewer. Fearing everything is lost, he creates an imaginary friend, Chef Gusteau, who guides him to his restaurant so he can live his dream of becoming a cook.

You see, a while back a jaded food critic gave Gusteau’s restaurant a poor review, causing the chef to fall ill and eventually die. Damn! It went from being a 5-star restaurant to only having 3. Gusteau’s ghost believes Remy can somehow bring glory back to his restaurant, that’s currently run by the grumpy Mr. Skinner (voiced by Ian “Bilbo Baggins” Holm) who wants to move from gourmet food to frozen TV dinners and such using Gusteau’s name.

When Remy accidentally falls inside the restaurant’s kitchen and starts secretly making a delicious soup he is caught by Linguini, the new garbage boy who is a born loser, and is ordered by Skinner to kill the rat. Linguini discovers that Remy not only understands him but is also a fantastic cook. Linguini can’t cook, and Remy can’t waltz into the kitchen to cook, so they figure a way of making Remy control Linguini by hiding in his chef hat and pulling on his hair, moving his arms and legs as he sees fit. All sort of hilarious situations ensue as a result of this.

Like every other Pixar movie, the visuals are stunning. I have to mention that I watched the high-definition Blu-ray version of the film, and although I’m pretty sure the standard-definition DVD looks great, the HD visuals have to be seen to be believed. This is the best-looking Blu-ray movie I’ve seen so far, and I’ve seen plenty. You can see every little detail, from the rat’s individual hairs, to the rich textures of all the food. Unlike live-action Blu-ray films like Pirates of the Caribbean which have occasional dark scenes where grain creeps in, every single frame in Ratatouille looks perfect in all its 1080p glory. Beautiful colors, breathtaking scenery detail, and top-notch animation.

Composer Michael Giacchino (The Incredibles, Mission: Impossible III) created a very nice score that fits the Paris setting as well as the moods of each of the main characters perfectly. It’s never distracting, out of place, or overly repetitive.

The movie is almost 2 hours long, but I was not bored for a single second. Even when there’s not a whole lot going on you’ll still be mesmerized by the details of the backgrounds and the characters. My secret addiction to Food Network’s Iron Chef America helps me appreciate the movie more, although Ratatouille is less about cooking and more about finding your way in life. There’s no reason not to watch this wonderful film. Bon appétit!

Rating: