Review: Ratatouille

What a delight! This new film from Pixar is the story of a rat (Remy) who loses his colony, but becomes attached to an incompetent young chef, Linguini. Remy, on the other hand, IS a chef! So the two join forces, and soon become a culinary phenom in Paris. Remy calls the shots from beneath Linguini's toque - and they are the toast of Paris. Much to the dismay of the restaurant's head chef, Skinner. Skinner knows the truth: Linguini is the son of the Restaurant Gusteau's founder - and heir to it.

The scenes behind the scene at the restaurant are wonderful - full of authentic detail on how a gourmet kitchen is run. The female chef, Colette, is the true embodiment of a woman trying to establish herself in a gourmet kitchen. As the famed restaurant critic Ego, Peter O'Toole makes a real impression - much more so than the other voice artists.

The true joy in the film, though, is the animation. Pixar is coming closer and closer to making their animated creatures look and act like real people. The rats in the film are so close to real - you see their fur rustle in the wind. When the colony of rats swarms and flees en masse, it is so real that I actually cringed! You have to often remind yourself that these are vermin - the scene where they assist Remy in the kitchen is a real torment for those who love sentiment and love clean food at the same time!

A lovely film. I really enjoyed it - and will add it to my DVD collection when the time comes. Be warned that the film runs much longer than you would expect from an animated (aka "chilren's film) - it runs over two hours. But you won't want to miss a single cel!