Ratatouille

Rating: 8/10 (27 February 2008)

From Pixar, the geniuses behind Toy Story and Monsters, Inc., and director Brad Bird (The Iron Giant, The Incredibles) this is another pleasant experience. Basically young rat Remy (Patton Oswalt) lives with his brother Emile (Peter Sohn) and father, leader of the pack of rats, Django (Brian Dennehy), and because of his great sense of taste and smell, he is a rat poison checker. But he dreams of becoming a great chef, like his hero Auguste Gusteau (Brad Garrett), who he often imagines talking to. The rats escape the house when the old woman living there discovers them, but Remy is separated from his family, however he does find good luck when he sees that he has been living under Paris for all long, and he heads to Gusteau's restaurant. There he encounters Linguini (Lou Romano), who spots the rat putting ingredients into a soup that he almost spoilt, and when it is taken away to a customer, who they didn't realise was a food critic, everyone believes it was Linguini, and chef Colette (Janeane Garofalo) convinces nasty owner Skinner (Sir Ian Holm) not to fire him, as long as he can recreate the same soup. Linguini realises Remy knows how to cook and can understand him, so they soon form a "partnership", and to make Linguini do what he wants Remy controls him by pulling his hair. After a long while, Linguini is made to look like a great chef, and unfortunately for Skinner, he may be the heir of Gusteau, and obviously later it turns out to be true. Oh, and there is a small bit of love story with Linguini and Colette. Of course there are negative turns, when Skinner discovers it's Remy that is the genius, Remy sees the bad side to human when he is reunited with his family, but there is a happy ending, and the man they are desperate to please, food critic Anton Ego (Peter O'Toole) gives his praise, and the kitchen is revealed to run by all the rats. Also starring Will Arnett as Horst, Julius Callahan as Lalo/Francois, James Remar as Larousse, John Ratzenberger as Mustafa, Teddy Newton as Lawyer (Talon Labarthe), and if you have the British version, it would be Jamie Oliver as The Health Inspector. The animation is (as always) impeccable, the characters are all well thought out, and the story is good fun and gives a great perspective into the restaurant and recipe creating world, all the family will enjoy this charming animated comedy. It won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film of the Year, and it was nominated for Best Music for Michael Giacchino, Best Sound, Best Sound Editing and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen, it won the BAFTA for Best Animated Film, and it won the Golden Globe for Best Animated Film. Very good!