Greatest Animated Film since Finding Nemo

Rating: 10/10 (1 July 2007)

Ratatouille is a film that, with Pixar now at the helm of Disney's animation department, firmly and squarely places Disney right back at the peak of the animation business. It's is a sumptuous feast of cinematic delight that comes close to and may even be better than Finding Nemo.
Remy is a young rat with a nose for good food and a mind for big dreams. He lives in the house of a grumpy old lady with a shotgun and spends his days daydreaming about delicious feasts and reaching that perfect pinnacle of good dish. A world-renowned French chef, Gusteau, is Remy's inspiration, and his book, Anyone Can Cook, is practically Remy's Bible. Remy's dad, however, isn't so fond of Remy's aspirations - in his mind, rats should stay in the garbage heap where they belong and not get picky about what they eat, so he uses Remy's talented nose to sort out the poisoned food from the safe food.
Remy's passion is too great, though. His love for food knows no bounds, and he regularly sneaks off to try to cook. One day he screws up so badly that he and his family are forced to flee the old lady's house into the sewers, where Remy is separated from his family and discovers he's in one of the greatest cities for food in the world - Paris, and definitely the most beautiful CGI city that I've ever seen.
From its first frame to its last, Ratatouille sparkles with a warm glow that is hands-down Pixar's best computer animation work. Everything about it is beautiful. They take a filthy creature like a rat and make it into this lovable little animal that will win you over instantly. The fur on Remy is also of astounding quality - if it weren't for his very human-like expressions it would look like a very believable rat. And it's not as if Pixar skimped on the rest of the rats while perfectly animating Remy. Every single one of Remy's colony is just as realistic as he is. The animation of the humans doesn't suffer either. Every single one of them, from the villainous Anton Ego to the hopeful chef Linguini is a perfect caricature, a brilliantly animated and creatively drawn masterpiece of character, life, and action.
The story surrounding Remy and Linguini is simply inspirational. To see Remy dropping spices joyfully into soup, to see him happily sniffing his concoction to discover the perfect taste and smell is to watch Picasso paint a masterpiece, Beethoven compose a soothing piece of music, an Olympic gymnast land the perfect routine. Remy's refusal to settle for anything less than excellent is a testimony. "Don't eat garbage!" he yells at his brother. This isn't a movie about a rat cooking in a kitchen. This is a movie about one person following his dream and not settling for anything less than the best. And as much as it's not simply about a rat cooking, it is about food. The food in this movie and the way it was prepared and presented like the perfect dish - I was salivating throughout, even especially when Remy was cooking the foot. It all looked delicious and wonderful and perfectly good enough to eat.
Yet another great thing about Ratatouille is its perfect pacing. At an hour and fifty minutes, one would think a cartoon would drag, but each scene is great and the film moves along at a nicely clipped pace, never pausing too long in once place and never cutting one scene too short. There wasn't once in this movie where I thought it dragged - from the very beginning I was sucked in and I wasn't released until the beautiful credits finished rolling. The gorgeous soundtrack perfectly suits the beautiful city of Paris and it's one of the best soundtracks I've heard in an animated film in a long while.
The list of what makes this movie great just keeps going on and on. The voice acting in Cars was kind of unremarkable, and though the Incredibles was accomplished in every way and the voice acting was nothing bad, it wasn't particularly memorable. I questioned Patton Oswalt as the voice of Remy when I first heard about it. I don't particularly care of the comedian in real life, so I wondered how wise of a choice he was. But he perfectly conveys Remy's little passionate spunky self, wonderfully nuanced, great comedic timing, and absolutely believable. Brad Garrett did possibly the best voice work of his life - normally his voice is instantly recognizable, but he fit greatly into the role of Gusteau. Peter O'Toole was perfectly frightening, conniving, and evil in his role as the food critic.
Another very clear strength of this movie is that it refuses to cater and stoop to traditional close-minded views that cartoons are just for kids. Even films like Shrek that adults are allowed to consider cool clearly pander to younger children - especially the last installment in the series. Ratatouille is for adults. It is not a movie that is meant for kids. This is not to say that kids will not get plenty out of it - there are bright colors, hilarious characters, and a funny story - any seven-year old will love it. But there is also plenty for adults to enjoy too. A lot of the humor is too subtle for the young ones to catch.
I still don't know if Ratatouille beats Finding Nemo, I would need to see it again to decide, but it is most definitely close. It's undoubtedly the best movie so far this year, and the best animated film I've seen in a long while. A delicious and filling and wholesome feast of animated goodness and solid story combined with hilarious comedy and real characters, Ratatouille succeeds in every possible way and I wouldn't be surprised if it ended up being the greatest movie of 2007.