Pixar cooks up another delicious entrée in an already impressive menu

Rating: 10/10 (17 June 2007)

Pixar has definitely leveled off from there grand epics Finding Nemo and The Incredibles to the more simple story lines of Cars and Ratatouille. However while Cars offered little new to the "fish out of water" story, except for some fantastic animation, Ratatouille has many new things to bring to the table about chasing ones dreams and discovering your inner person.
As the story begins we follow the antics of a rat named Remy whose acute scene of smell gives him a very refined pallet for food but unfortunately his family only wishes to use him as a rat poison detector. In defiance of his father, Remy often enters homes to discover new foods and learn to cook. It is here where he idolizes the chef Gusteau and lives by his motto of "anyone can cook". Remy eventually becomes torn between his family and his dream's of becoming a chef and also struggles with the moral question of whether rats are thieves because they steal food from people. When the "gig is up" at the home the rats have infested they must flee to the city and Remy becomes separated in the confusion. Finding himself lost in Paris he discovers Gusteau's Restaurant which has had 2 of its 5 stars removed after the tragic death of Gusteau and poor reviews from food critic Anton Ego. This is where Remy befriends Linguini, a garbage boy of the kitchen who accidentally ruins the soup moments before it is served to a food critic. Luckily Remy's "nose" for spices salvages the soup and it becomes a big hit, potentially being the saving grace of the restaurant. The two decide to work out a system whereby Remy makes all the cooking decisions and Linguini...well...passes the two for human.
Though the animation here is impressive I fear it will be lost will the common audience. There's nothing big and flashy this time around, instead the animators at Pixar bring the city of Paris to life with wide scenes that have incredible depth and detail. Also the water effect which has plagued animators for years seems to have been perfected and for one reason or another they really want to stress that point. Watch how almost every character becomes absolutely drenched in one way or another. You will also love the creative points of view that are shown while Remy scurries through the walls of buildings.
The true breakout roll here is Peter O'Toole giving a tremendous performance and incredible depth to the character Anton Ego, a menacing food critic with dreams of closing down Gusteau's restaurant permanently. The character is both sinister and likable, stealing the show towards the end, and the emotionally poetic overture of his final review on Guesteau's "little chef" Remy is worth the price of admission.
For such a simple story there are some welcomed surprises and the film bravely avoids a lot of family movie conventions and familiarities, daringly sending the audience to an unexpected, though entirely enjoyable conclusion. I cannot recommend this stunningly superb achievement from Pixar any higher and although few could defend this as Pixar's greatest work I bet a lot of viewers will comfortable discover it as one of their favorites, this reviewer included.