Food, Paris, and Pixar. What's not to like?

Rating: 8/10 (2 August 2010)

"No! You waste energy and time! You think cooking is a cute job, eh? Like Mommy in the kitchen?"
Who knew that a movie about rats could be so charming and visually beautiful? Mice? Sure, The Great Mouse Detective and An American Tail did it years ago. But leave it to Pixar to make a lowly rat lovable, and even make him someone that we'd want fixing our food! Now, that is quite an accomplishment.
Visually, this is one of my very favorite Pixar movies. The character designs are very appealing to me, and the technical detail is outstanding. The look of the characters themselves are only outshone by the marvelous Parisian backdrops that we get glimpses of through windows and from sky shots. The music is great, the message is good, and the story is entertaining for kids and adults. I put Ratatouille on that second Pixar tier. Not quite up to the brilliance and cleverness of Monsters Inc. and Toy Story, but a great animated movie in every regard.