Ratatouille

Pixar must be pretty confident by now in the product they're putting out.  I doubt there is any idea brought to them that is too far-fetched.  How could it be when they know their stellar production will always make up for any flimsy concepts.  That would explain how the idea of rats making food for humans was able to get past their brain trust.

In "Ratatouille", Remy (voiced by Patton Oswalt) is a rat who has dreams of becoming a predominant French chef.  Linguini (voiced by Lou Romano) is hired in the renown Anton Gusteau restaurant as a garbage boy.  When Remy gets separated from his fleeing family, he ends up in the same famed restaurant of his favorite chef of all-time.  Opportunity and necessity bring the two together to team up to become the hottest new chef in all of France.

Every animated tale must have a villain and here, it is the insane new head chef Skinner(voiced by Ian Holm).  Gusteau has passed away and Skinner is counting the days until he takes over the restaurant for good.  That is until he discovers Linguini is Gusteau's long lost son and rightful heir to the restaurant.  Skinner then does everything he can to keep Linguini from finding out the truth while trying to discover the secret to his overnight cooking success.

Having a keen eye for small details is what has always set Pixar apart from your run of the mill animated flicks.  Little intricacies.  Like the rat traveling an entire tunnel system from building to building.  They did an amazing job of taking us inside their world from a rat point of view.

Still, I can't help but think the entire time that we are watching a movie about a rat.  They can make it look as cute as they want but it still comes down to the fact that it's a nasty rat.  I keep thinking about that video from the Taco Bell in New York.  Nothing cute about rats scurrying around food.  And one cooking your food?!

Nevertheless, it is about food.  Even being an animated film, they do make some of that cooking look SOOO good.  More proof about how good Pixar is.  Something else that came to mind was this lobster bisque I once had.  Watching them do all that high end cooking had that lobster bisque smell infiltrating my nostrils once again. 

I liked the little midget Skinner as a villain.  He reminded me of a cross between Jack Tripper's boss Mr. Angelino and his assistant chef who always had it in for him, Felipe Gomez.  For some reason, chef characters in no matter what I'm watching always cause me to have "Three's Company" flashbacks.

Unlike the previous outing of "Cars" this one is an original story.  As much as I loved that movie, it always bothered me that they ripped off the concept from the lesser known "Doc Hollywood".  "Ratatouille" relies on its own devices, even if the story is a little far-fetched.  But it's an animated movie.  It's supposed to be far-fetched.  And far-fetched or not, it was entirely better than I imagined it would be when I originally dismissed it.  Don't you make the same mistake.

My rating:  B+