Ratatouille

Ratatouille is a sweet and savory dish from writer/director Brad Bird. Bird is a master when it comes to Pixar animation and people who love this genre will love this film.

But Ratatouille is more than just a great animated film. It is a wonderful and highly intelligent story and for that reason I think that many young children might miss a few things. That doesn't mean that parents shouldn't take them to see this film. It just means that this is not a film that is meant for just children.

The story takes place in the sewers of Paris. Little rat Remy lives there with his family. But he has a gift of a strong sense of taste and smell. In other words, he has the potential to be a great chef. But how can a rat become a chef. Something happens to separate Remy from his family and he winds up right outside Gusteau's restaurant. Gusteau, who is now deceased, wrote a book entitled Anyone Can Cook. So why not Remy? Unfortunately, the restaurant has been taken over by the wicked Skinner. There is a new addition to the restaurant, the sad sack Linguini, who is in charge of washing the floor and taking out the garbage. He is taken under the wing by Colette.

I don't want to say more about the plot. It is most interesting and not predictable. All of the voices are spot on. Some of the voices and characters are: Remy (Patton Oswalt), Skinner (Ian Holm, Linguini (Lou Romano), Django - Remy's father (Brian Dennehy), Emile - Remy's brother
(Peter Sohn), Anton Ego - a snotty food critic (Peter O'Toole), Gusteau (Brad Garrett), and Colette (Janeane Garofalo).

I love food (albeit of the vegetarian variety) and I loved watching the characters create the cuisine. I have taken a good number of cooking classes and I own many cookbooks. But you don't have to be into cooking to love this film. Do yourself a favor and take yourself to see Ratatouille. It is the perfect thing to do on a hot summer's day.