rating:
(out of
4 stars)United States; 2007
Directed by Brad Bird; produced by Brad Lewis; screenplay by Brad Bird
Starring (the voice of) Patton Oswalt, Ian Holm, Lou Romano, Brian Dennehy, Peter Sohn, Peter O'Toole, Janeane Garofalo
It seems Pixar is unable to make any mistakes. Their collaboration with Disney delivers yet another splendid animated feature. If 'Cars' (2006) was a little less impressive than we were getting used to, 'Ratatouille' is right up there with the best, including 'Toy Story' and 'Finding Nemo'. Although other production companies have had their share of success ('Shrek', 'Ice Age', 'Happy Feet'), the mixture of family entertainment, adult humor, and great animation is only perfect in a Pixar/Disney project.
In short, 'Ratatouille' tells the story of a rat named Remy (Patton Oswalt) who becomes the chef of an expensive restaurant in Paris. He does this by hiding under the hat of Linguini (Lou Romano), moving him around by pulling his hair, in the kitchen that belonged to Remy's idol, Gusteau (Brad Garrett). How he gets there is shown in a series of marvelous little scenes. Gusteau now is dead and his once great restaurant is trashed by critic Anton Ego (Peter O'Toole). It needs to start all over and Linguini seems the answer, of course not pleasing Gusteau's successor Skinner (Ian Holm). Because of apparent terrific cooking Linguini might even get the girl of his dreams Colette (Janeane Garofalo).
The film is directed by Brad Bird, who already showed with 'The Iron Giant' and 'The Incredibles' how good he understands this type of film. He tells an engaging story for kids, adds another layer for adults, and delivers it in a package that looks better with every new film. Although animated, I wanted to eat every little thing served in that restaurant. Come to think of it, after that rat cooked his first things I thought, just for a second, it would be great fun to be a chef. And then the chaos around it became visual again.