Magic. Plain and Simple.

Rating: 10/10 (18 September 2018)

The critically acclaimed Disney animated film by Brad Bird has more humanity and originality than most films of the 2000s. It may be led by a rat and hundreds of other rats in his colony, but do not let that fool you into thinking this is a silly movie for boys who like gross things. If you are unappreciative of this, then you do not know much about the art of cinema.
Patton Oswalt is pretty funny in general. He provides the voice of the star of this picture: a rat named Remy. His family lives in the country where he peaks into a house and gets inspired by the world's greatest chef, Auguste Gusteau (voiced by Brad Garrett) to become a chef himself. Remy's perseverance causes him to become an expert on making excellent food. But he's a three-inch rat. What could he do? This sounds like a very unoriginal underdog story. Just stay tuned for the story to unfold.
The owner of the house blasts the rats which causes Remy to get separated from his family and wind up across from Gusteau's restaurant. Remy was in Paris the whole time but never even knew it. Now that he is in the city, he can be close to he idol's work. Gusteau recently passed away and mean food critic Anton Ego (one of Peter O'Toole's last performances) has made the restaurant lose its prestige. Gusteau has been appearing to Remy as his conscious and motivator.
Imagine the most elegant and fancy restaurant you can. An appetizer the size of your fist costing over $100. That is this restaurant. Sure there are other animated films better looking than this, but the overall value of the look should not be overlooked. Once we see it, we fall in love and want to go there ourselves.
Meanwhile, a useless janitor at the joint and total geek named Linguini (like the food) sees Remy and a bond between the two is formed. Although they speak different languages, Remy gets on Linguini and pulls on his hair which causes his body parts to move as a reflex. Linguini is now Remy's puppet. Back at the restaurant, Remy hides in Linguini's hat, puppeteers around and great dishes come about. Linguini doesn't know what he's doing, it is all in the rat. Head chef Skinner (Ian Holm) is really mean and tries to find the secret behind this wimp's success.
'Ratatouille' is a relatable story about passion. We feel Remy's love for cooking as much as he does. In fact, the entire food aspect of this is rubbed off onto us. In the duration of the film, we feel like cooking is the best job in the world. Job well done.
It is also one of the very few animated movies where the peril and action is limited. The biggest scene of danger is near the beginning when the old lady empties her shotgun on Remy's clan. The biggest obstacle is understanding. Who is going to believe that Linguini is being controlled by a rat? How will Ego find the food that Remy creates? These gentle and modest things are handled with such care and precision so that it stands out among other recent Pixar films.
And, of course, the animation is excellent. The real looking rats and fancy setting do not clash. It is simply perfect.
One thing that gets overlooked is the music by Michael Giacchino. He is one of the best music guys working in film today and he has made his best soundtrack in this film.
'Ratatouille' is a delicate, delectable piece of cinema to forever be cherished.
4/4