As long as you're not completely averse to rats...

Rating: 9/10 (15 July 2007)

..you'll be COMPLETELY enchanted with this.
As such,you may still find this offering from PIXAR(and Disney),their eighth,to be quite a charming film.
Remy(voice of Paton Oswalt)may be a rat,but he's a rat with a enhanced culinary sense. His sense of smell,taste and what-goes-with-what gives him a unique ability to appreciate and make food. It also,unfortunately,gets him and his colony(including his father and brother,voiced by Brian Dennehy and Peter Sohn)in trouble and gets them separated. He somehow ends up flushed down the sewage lines until he eventually ends up under the Four-star restaurant belonging to legendary Chef Gusteau(Brad Garrett,who could make a career on pretty much vocal work alone if he wanted),who was said to have died of a broken heart from a very harsh review from a joyless food critic scribe named Anton Ego(Peter O'Toole,adding to his already voluminous and impressive resume). It is there that Remy begins to make his mark(all in the name of survival,of course)by helping a hopelessly inept kitchen worker--"Garbage boy" is how he's generally described--named LInguini(Lou Romano),become the toast of the establishment(nay all of Paris)by turning him into a wiz chef,using Linguini as his artist brush(if you will)in creating art and beauty in cooking.
Naturally,there is a fair amount of skepticism that arises over their newfound protégé,which is pretty much represented in all of the kitchen staff,particularly the scheming head chef Skinner(Ian Holm,unrecognizable)and,to a lesser degree,the attractive but somewhat prickly assistant chef named Colette(JAneane Garofolo,also unrecognizable!). The friendship and symbiotic relationship cultivated between Remy and Linguini is tenuous,of course,and what stands between Linguini being tossed and Remy out of food and shelter is always a revelation away. A plot twist has Linguini even more connected to the restaurant than he might initially appear.
Written and directed by Brad Bird(the helmer for the over-ambitious but still largely entertaining "The INcredibles"),this movie has a lot of burners going(pun only slightly intended)to put together this story,but for the most part,this movie works perfectly. The afore-mentioned plot twist involving Linguini seems somewhat superfluous,but it never really gets in the way of this story's charm.
Maybe someday,PIXAR's exercises in eye-popping visuals and unique characters might hit a wall in terms of have both popularity and quality,but for now,it seems like the wizards of computer animation(who've since mended fences with Disney from a few years back)have another winner. You don't need kids to enjoy this one,but if you have 'em,they probably will. Bon apaetit and enjoy this tasty,lovable selection.