It All Started With a... Rat?
Ratatouille Returns to Disney's Cartoon Roots

I've gone on record saying that Pixar can do no wrong. Every movie that they produce is a gem, and I have loved each one for different reasons. With Finding Nemo, it was a simple story told with wonderful characters. In The Incredibles, super heroes came to life and brought real-life problems into the story. In Ratatouille, Pixar creates a film that harkens back to the cartoon shorts that started the Disney empire.

Ratatouille
A rat named Remy (voiced by Patton Oswalt) takes a budding chef named Linguini (Lou Romano) under his guidance in Ratatouille. (Disney•Pixar, 2007)
Directed by: Brad Bird
Written by: Brad Bird
Starring: Patton Oswalt, Ian Holm, Lou Romano, Brian Dennehy, Peter Sohn, Peter O'Toole, Brad Garrett, Janeane Garofalo, and Will Arnett

Rated G
Running time: 110 min.

FilmGuru's Rating : 10 out of 10.

Remy (Patton Oswalt) is not an average rat. Having been born with an uncanny sense of smell, he has particular sensibilities about what he puts in his stomach. In short, he won't eat garbage. Luckily for him, he lives beneath the streets of Paris, where fine food is abundant.

When Remy is separated from his clan, he finds himself drawn to a famous restaurant by the ghost of the former chef, Gusteau (Brad Garrett). There he spies a young boy named Linguini (Lou Romano) attempting to make soup and failing. Remy intervenes and helps create the perfect soup, bonding the two together as friends.

The story deals with Remy's need to reconcile his place in both the human world and the rat world. It is ultimately one of accepting who you are and not letting anything stand in the way of your dreams. This film, more than some in recent memory, has several good moral lessons. All in all, though, it's really about the comedy.

The key to Ratatouille is the humor. Unlike Pixar's past features, this film feels more like a comedy short -- with an emphasis on physical comedy and sight gags. There are plenty of both throughout the film, and laughter drives nearly every scene. For me, it had the same rhythm as a classic Disney cartoon and I loved every minute.

The voice talents are all superb, each one bringing a new spice to an already wonderful dish. Ian Holm is delicious as the madcap villain of the film, Skinner. Most surprising, perhaps, is comedian Janeane Garofalo as Collette, who brings her sweet side to a romantic role. Pixar's favorite "good luck charm" John Ratzenberger appears as the waiter Mustafa.

The animation is top notch, as I have come to expect from Pixar. If anyone needs evidence of how flawless the work has become, check out the individual whiskers of each rat and note how they change in light and shadows. The humans are still very cartoony, but each stands apart in his or her own way, from the fresh young look of Linguini to the dour, thin look of the food critic Anton Ego (Peter O'Toole).

As for the character of Ego, there is a lesson to be learned there as well for all critics -- of food or film. Maybe it's too easy to be negative, and we would all be better off if we opened our minds and our hearts to new possibilities.