Not Pixar's best but has its funny moments, great voice acting and is preferable to 'Lifted'

Rating: 8/10 (30 November 2013)

I've only seen this film a few times so far and while it's not Pixar's best ('Toy Story 3' is) due to being a little overlong and having some slow and forgettable moments, it is preferable to the short film shown before it in the cinema (I didn't see this in the cinema by the way, I rented the DVD once) and has some amusing parts, especially Remy's father telling him to shut up and eat his garbage and another rat spitting grapes at Linguini later in the film.
The CGI animation is as good as always for Pixar with some great 2D segments thrown in (the book illustration of Gusteau coming to life and part of the closing sequence) and Paris is realistically rendered. A lot of the characters are intriguingly modelled, the voice acting is exquisite (Skinner and Colette sound the most authentic) if the actors are somewhat lesser-known and the music has some variety to it - the French song by a female singer that plays twice is hard to understand yet lovely. The plot is clever with a lot of 'close shave' parts (especially Skinner thinking he had seen Remy but Linguini denying this) and I like how some of its elements link to the title and the title itself could be a pun on rats. Remy is especially cute and is a talented chef who eventually goes out of his way to assist Linguini. While Linguini is insane at times, he is also ambitious although Colette is sometimes threatening but eventually has a change of heart towards Linguini. Certain parts of the film made me sympathise with Remy, especially when he gets separated from his family, and I liked the earlier scene where Remy is shown flying out of a broken window with a recipe book, which leads to him telling us how it happened. I can see why the moment the food critic has a flashback of eating ratatouille as a child was the inspiration for the Richmond Sausages advert where a man has a flashback of eating them when he was younger but it was an effective scene nonetheless. I also liked the closing shot of the 'La Ratatouille' restaurant sign superimposed over a lovely view of Paris with the Eiffel Tower intact.
Overall this isn't my favourite Pixar film but it has a valuable message saying "anyone can be a chef" and moments that made me giggle. 8/10.