Boiling over with humor, visual beauty and food for thought

Rating: 9/10 (9 July 2007)

Those wildly creative folks at Pixar have done it again with "Ratatouille," a funny and sophisticated movie about Remy, a rat with an unusually well-developed palate. After getting separated from his provincial (or should that be Provençal?) colony, Remy ends up in Paris, where he takes it upon himself to save the renowned Gusteau's Restaurant from a villainous owner, a fearsome food critic, and an inept busboy named Linguini, who mistakenly believes that he can cook. Remy and Linguini enter into a "Cyrano"-type partnership, Remy providing the recipes and Linguini the human face, while dodging all those people who don't think a rat in the kitchen is so appetizing.
Remy is cute and appealing, but also has a fully developed, human-like personality. You are never in doubt that Linguini is Remy's sidekick, and not the other way around. Also, thank goodness, the movie doesn't make Remy able to talk to humans, which would be far too twee. Remy can communicate only with his fellow ratsunfortunately, none of them understand his ambitions.
Still, the story of "Ratatouille" doesn't seem quite as tight as in other Pixar movies like "Finding Nemo" or "Toy Story." Those movies had one central objective (get Nemo back home/get the toys back home) and culminated in a thrilling action sequence. "Ratatouille" has more, smaller conflicts, and plenty of action throughout, but it doesn't build in the same way. Also, "Nemo" and "Toy Story" are told entirely from the perspective of the toys or fish; "Ratatouille" switches between the rats' perspective and the humans', and the seams show a little.
All of the action sequences look fantastic, though: my favorite is a chase scene alongside the Seine, which captures Paris in amazing detail. Indeed, the movie's backgrounds are jaw- droppingly photorealistic. Pixar is also getting better and better at animating humansthere is great physical comedy when Linguini gets drunk and when he has Remy running around inside his shirt. "Ratatouille" has a consistently great sense of humor, with puns, amusing character interactions, vocal performances, physical action, and throwaway visual gags all contributing. My favorite character voice comes from Peter O'Toole as food critic Anton Ego. Monsieur Ego also provides one of the best visual jokes, with his skull-shaped typewriter.
What really distinguishes "Ratatouille," though, is its larger theme. Remy is kind of a loner, and that's rare for the hero of a kids' movie. Usually, a loner exists in these types of movies only so he can learn the lesson "You can't succeed without friends." Though this applies to Remy as well (actually, he knows from the start that as a rat, he'll need special help to realize his dreams), the real message of "Ratatouille" is about uncompromisingly pursuing excellence and teaching others to appreciate itabout leading a community rather than simply belonging to it. Let's hope that Pixar, too, can continue to take the lead in upping the standards of computer animation.