Ratatouille Movie Review

Ratatouille is a Pixar animated feature film which was released in 2007, and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. I did not see this film when it was in theaters, although I usually enjoy watching all of Pixar's movies on DVD after they are released. I borrowed my friend's Ratatouille DVD so that I could enjoy the film, as I wasn't sure if I would purchase it. I was surprised to find that Ratatouille is a great film for adults as well as children, which should be no surprise as Pixar usually makes excellent animated features. The bonus features on the DVD make the purchase worthwhile for those who are interested in how animated features are produced.

The protagonist of the film is a rat named Remy, who unlike other rats, has a gastronomic gift in that he learns fine French cooking by watching a cooking television show, and by reading a cook book. Eventually Remy becomes separated from his family in a French sewer, and finds himself observing a restaurant in Paris, Gusteau's, which was once very famous until the Chef died.

Remy befriends a teenage bus boy who doesn't know a difference between a souflee and a pudding, and uses him to cook fantastic recipes in the kitchen of the restaurant. There are a couple of plot twists, but nothing too unpredictable, what makes this movie great is excellent character development for everybody in the film, from the wicked sous chef who took over Gasteu's, to the kitchen staff, to the world's toughest food critic.

There are numerous physical gags, which work well in this animated feature as the expressions of the characters are more life like than I have seen for any other animated feature. Indeed, it is easy to become emotionally involved and lost in this film as the depictions of the characters are very realistic. While the movie is focused on Remy, a bright animated rat who could run a restaurant on his own, the real stars become the bit players and the supporting cast. Indeed, I thought that Remy's interaction with his rat family, with whom he finally meets up with in Paris, is some of the slower parts of the movie.

Indeed, the multiple plot lines in the kitchen involving everyone from the bus boy to head chef becomes the focus of the movie, and you almost get a sense that the rat Remy was invented just for the gags where he secretly helps the bus boy to invent gastronomical wonders.

The whole "ick" factor of having a rat inside a restaurant is nonexistent as the animated Remy looks nothing like his real life counterparts that swarm around trash bags each night in New York city. Disney has even introduced an animated, robotic Remy to their french restaurant in Epcot Center. And there are whispers of a Ratatouille ride in the works for, naturally, Disneyland Paris. Eventually, a copy of this attraction, if successful, may find its way stateside.

If you want to have a good laugh, and see some romantic computer generated imagery of Paris, then I would highly recommend Ratatouille. This is one of Pixar's best that was better received in Europe that the United States which you should catch on television or DVD.

Sources: Ratatouille, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratatouille_(film); Disney's New Toy Story Ride Ready to Amuse - Media Money with Julia Boorstin, http://www.cnbc.com/id/25210747