Satisfying, but younger viewers may get fidgety

Rating: 8/10 (21 June 2007)

The biggest burden to having a reputation for excellence is having to meet or exceed the high level of expectation that comes with it. Consider Gusteau's, the Parisian restaurant in which most of Ratatouille takes place. Its eponymous chef delighted gourmands with his bill of fare, and his books and TV shows appealed to the common man. But Gusteau is now deceased, possibly from heartbreak over a less-than-stellar review from notorious food critic Anton Ego. And the new chef, Skinner, seems less interested in quality cuisine than in slapping Gusteau's image on boxes of processed/frozen/prepackaged food.
The parallels to Pixar Studios, which made Ratatouille, are obvious. Having taken animated films to new technical and creative levels with the Toy Story movies, Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles, the studio often takes an undue amount of lumps when its films aren't excellent, but "merely" great, such as A Bug's Life or last year's Cars.
SoÂ… can Ratatouille's hero, Remy, bring both Gusteau's and Pixar back into everyone's good graces? An aspiring chef with grand ambitions and a connoisseur's sense of taste and smell, Remy believes wholly in Gusteau's mantra: "Anyone can cook!" He's also funny, expressive, and well-voiced by Patton Oswalt. But--and it's a big "but"Â—Remy's a rat. And rats may be almost as unwelcome on a movie screen as they are in a restaurant.
Remy's shot at culinary fame hinges on his relationship with Linguini (Lou Romano), the restaurant's new garbage boy. The film purports that rats can understand human speech, but not vice versa (when rats "talk," humans only hear rodent chitters). By hiding under Linguini's hat and pulling his hair, Remy can manipulate Linguini like a marionette to prepare scrumptious new cuisine. Before long, the restaurant appears to be on the road to recovery, but obstacles remainÂ—Linguini must keep Remy hidden from the other cooks, the health inspector and his boss, Skinner (Ian Holm), who has his own plans for the restaurant. Moreover, the discriminating food critic Ego (Peter O'Toole) is preparing to write a new reviewÂ…
It should come as no surprise that the Pixar team, headed by "Incredibles" screenwriter/director Brad Bird (from a story by former Pixarian Jan Pinkava) executes the movie's antics with their usual technical aplomb. The Paris locales are gorgeous, and the film's food looks good enough to eat. And to the filmmakers' credit, Remy and his "colony" of fellow rats, although considerably cuter than their real-life counterparts, remain pretty darn rat-likeÂ—they have pink tails and scraggly fur, they usually crawl (though Remy likes to walk erect to keep his cooking paws clean), and in scenes in which they swarm en masse, it's as creepy and disgusting as it is hilarious. (I wouldn't want to be the parent who has to explain to their child why a pet rat would be a bad idea.)
However, some of Ratatouille's story elements may be too lofty for the juice-box set. When the film devotes large chunks of dialogue to wills and DNA testing, younger audience members are likely to get restless waiting for more slapstick. It's also a shame that most of the film's characters are, well, undercooked. Linguini is little more than a plot device, forced thru the motions by both Remy and the filmmakers with little personality of his own. Other than Oswalt, most of the film's voice talent (including Will Arnett, Janeane Garofalo, and Pixar stalwart John Ratzenberger) isn't given very much to do. O'Toole shines, however, as critic Anton EgoÂ—you haven't lived until you've heard an eight-time Oscar nominee wring laughs from the word "Boyardee."
Ratatouille may not reach the creative heights of Pixar's best films, but unlike other studios' second-tier animated films (e.g. Shark Tale or Open Season), a second-tier Pixar film is still well above-average for the genre. If your kids aren't put off by the culinary plot, and if you're not put off by relatively realistically-rendered rodents (sorry, couldn't resist), Ratatouille is well worth sampling.