Rats.......Why'd It Have to Be Rats?

Rating: Null/10 (25 July 2007)

A rodent in Paris dreams of becoming a chef and actually gets the chance in a high-class restaurant when he crosses paths with a helpless cook. Arguably the weakest film of its type from the Pixar Studios as "Ratatouille" struggles with an uneven story, poor pacing, uninteresting characters, and by-the-numbers techniques. The animation is still as strong as ever, the rats have their moments, but the cartoonish people are as dull and unwanted as 1980s yuppies trying to make their millions so they could retire at 40. With a whole list of criticisms, I still gave the film a marginal recommendation for its state of the art animation and for the fact this summer has been dying for a few critical winners. A film with rats running rampant all over streets and kitchens is definitely not a turn-on though. 4 stars out of 5.