A DELICIOUS TALE FEATURING A FOUR-LEGGED CHEF
Written: Jun 16 '07
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great story, beautiful animation and excellent "voice" acting
Cons: None
The Bottom Line: For a thoroughly enjoyable time for the family, this is a great choice.
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| mike.holmes's Full Review: Ratatouille |
What would you do if you found a rat in your kitchen? Scream? Jump up on a chair? Try to kill it with a meat cleaver? Most of us would not welcome the rodent into our kitchen at home much less a major restaurant in Paris.
But that is where the main character in this Pixar animated film ends up-in the kitchen of a once five-star restaurant by the name of Gusteau's. The rat in question is named Remy (voice of Patton Oswalt-"Calendar Girls") and when we first meet him, he is a not-so-simple farm rat in rural France. Unlike his family and friends, he aspires to something greater than foraging through the trash for his meals. In fact, Remy has learned to cook by watching the weekly cooking show featuring France's greatest chef, Gusteau (Brad Garrett-"Everybody Loves Raymond") and reading the chef's best selling book, "Anybody Can Cook".
Neither Remy's father, Django (Brian Donnehy-"Death of a Salesman"), or his brother Emile (Peter Sohn) approve of Remy's human traits of reading or cooking but the entire colony of farm rats are forced into an escape from the farm on improvised boats and end up in the sewers of Paris. Remy is separated from every rat and ends up right under Gusteau's. Through some hilarious situations, Remy literally controls the movements of a hapless "garbage boy" named Lingini (Lou Romano-"Cars", "The Incredibles") and turns the boy into a world class chef.
The restaurant has seen better times because Gusteau has died and left the place in charge of the less imaginative, purely commercial "Chef Skinner" (Ian Holm-"Alien", "Chariots Of Fire). With Remy's secret direction, Lingini turns out dishes that bring the eatery back to prominence. Lingini has to fool everyone in the restaurant, including the only female chef in the place, Colette (Janeane Garofalo) into thinking he is the master chef. In the process, Skinner tries to sabotage his every move and world class food critic, Anton Ego (Peter O'Toole) challenges Lingini to change his mind about the place.
Several of the dishes in the film appeared to be delicious, even with a rat cooking them.
Remy, Lingini, and Remy's entire family get involved in a wild series of events that is both humorous and, at times, touching. The ending is thoroughly satisfying.
WHY I LOVED THIS MOVIE
I went to the sneak preview of the film with my wife, my daughter and my two granddaughters who are 3 and 4 years old. The adults in our group all loved the film but the children were a little restless due to the fairly long length of the film and the fact that much of it was over their heads. Older children in the crowd seemed to enjoy it more.
The reasons I liked the film included the clever storytelling and direction of Brad Bird ("The Incredibles", "The Iron Giant"). Of course, we had to suspend belief throughout the movie, but Bird and his characters kept the movie interesting through a series of exciting events in and out of the kitchen.
The voice "acting" of the characters was excellent with O'Toole in particular showing why he has been nominated for eight Oscars (several of which he should have won.) O'Toole's characterization of the food critic along with Brad Bird's dialogue were beautiful parodies of the "modern critic" who seems more bent on destroying rather than critiquing.
Another reason I loved the film is the beautiful animation supervised by Mark Walsh ("Finding Nemo", "The Incredibles"). The entire film was beautifully animated but two scenes (or series of scenes) in particular fascinated me. The first concerned the rats' escape via the waterway into the Paris sewers. I could have sworn this I was witnessing an actual death-defying water adventure. Second, was the vision of the City of Lights that Remy first sees the full city. The Eiffel Tower in all its brilliance as well as all the other beauty that is Paris was breathtakingly gorgeous.
This is a film that the entire family can enjoy, although I think the children should be a little older. I should point out that you should stay for the credits also as they are extremely clever.
FIVE STARS
Recommended:
Yes
Movie Mood: Funny Movie
Viewing Method: Sneak Preview at My Local Theater
Film Completeness: Looked complete to me.
Worst Part of this Film: Nothing
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Epinions.com ID:
mike.holmes
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Member: Mike Holmes
Location: Odessa, Texas
Reviews written: 1260
Trusted by: 360 members
About Me:
TO HONOR TED KENNEDY, CONGRESS SHOULD PASS A MEANINGFUL HEALTH CARE BILL
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