Ratatouille. Adorable little film. A Fine Cut about the latest animated tripe.

Rating: 9/10 (2 July 2007)

Ratatouille - A young adorable looking rat Remy (Patton Oswalt) has dreams of being a chef in Paris and teams up Cyrano-style with a sheepish no-talent named Linguini (Lou Romano) to cook and restore glory to a formerly 5-star restaurant (booted down to 3. Ouch.) Animated films are getting hard to judge and harder to sit through these days. As the quality of animation gets higher, the pool of ideas gets lower. it seems we have more and more talking penguins, fish, and Shrek rip-offs (Heck, from what I've heard, Shrek3 was a Shrek rip-off). Ratatouille succeeds in bringing something new to the table. Brad Bird directs, so like The Incredibles, this one is more for the adults than the kids (Suprising as it is G rated) but that shouldn't be a bad thing. It's still talking rats and there are many well constructed prat-falls to hold their interest.
The movie was not as funny as I had hoped, though it still is genuinely funny at times, but what held me was how much the film sucked me in and had me really caring about the characters. I barely worried about the logistics of a rat being able to read and cook and control Linguini from under his chef's hat. The graphics, when I noticed, were breathtaking. The food and the "tasting" animation looks wonderful.
There is a great voice cast as well. Remy is well animated and I just love that little guy. Patton Oswalt did a great job. Lou Romano managed to convey awkward yet well-meaning in a way that borrowed a little from Jon Heder. He has some great scenes with Janeane Garofolo who plays hard-edged Collete. Peter O' Toole has a wonderful bit as the creepy critic (animation style straight out of Tim Burton) Anton Ego.
I was happy that there weren't that many digs at the French. There still are, and I'm a touch disappointed that both the leads speak in completely neutral American accents, but test audiences have to be pleased I'm sure. Ian Holm is nearly undetectable as the villainous super-stereotypical French head chef Skinner.
I like that Remy the Rat can't talk to any of the humans including Linguini, something that always bugged me in most of the other animated movies involving animals or people talking in different languages (most irritatingly Pocahontas). It's of little consequence to the review but it's a little personal preference note. Ebert includes those so why can't I?
The film meanders a little between the second and third acts but the conclusion is adorable and hilarious. I love the little touches to the animation and the story. This film was clearly a labor of love, not profit, though it'll acquire a lot of both to be sure. An A-