Ratatouille

'Bird flies again with Ratatouille'

Brad Bird is the little animation genius that could. Seriously. Some people started doubting Pixar back when Cars came out and they weren't as impressed as they had been. Not sure why really, but they were. Well, they are no longer allowed to gripe. Pixar houses many monumental talents including Brad Bird and John Lasseter. Considering Bird made this film after Jan Pinkava quit and he had to start from scratch for the project makes it all the more stunning when I say that this is by far the BEST Pixar film yet.

Ratatouille, unless you have been living in a windowless cave with no television (WHAT?) you should know, is about a rat that wants to be more and desires to cook who teams up with an awkward and highly unskilled boy to try and cook in a famous restaurant in Paris. The story is pretty simple on the outside, but it is not the mindblowing concept that wows us, or even the great animation, its how Bird weaves everything together to create fleshed out characters and story arcs for EVERYONE. Sure the main characters get the good stuff, but even the periphery characters have great arcs and are excellently voiced. My one gripe is the cliched cooking romance, but at least this film doesn't go off the deep end with it. Plus, its a Disney film, of course it is going to be full of cliches. I especially love the well thought out details such as Remy working as the poison detector for all of the rats at first. The film also does several references to the film's title which helps to solidify in my mind what I think the movie is actually about. Let's see, the motto is that anyone can cook, a rat is the main character who ends the movie by cooking a kickass peasant dish called ratatouille. Essentially emphasizing the fact that the poorest and/or dirtiest creatures in the world still have something to offer of worth. Also, sometimes its better to stick to your roots. Thinking back now, this film reminds me a lot of other films at times like Oliver! and Secrets of the Rats of N.I.M.H. If nothing else, the character of Anton Ego, the food critic in the film is entirely ripped off from the pervasively spooky style of Tim Burton. Seriously, my favorite little bit was that his room was in the shape of a coffin.

As for voice acting, no one does a bad job ever. Patton Oswalt, an unknown to me, does a great job as the rat Remy and needs to prepare for a career in animation at least. Loe Romano as Linguini is hilarious and perfectly captures Linguini's awkwardness without making him sound pubescent. Peter O'Toole is excellent as the villainous Ego. Although I approve of it in the end, I would have never suspected Collette to have been played by Janeane Garofalo since there weren't any terrible flat obtrusive jokes on her part. In the end there isn't one bad performance. The animation is top notch as always and the imagination is cranked high for this Disney film. I'm sure I'll be analyzing this film for screenplay reasons later. Til then, I recommend watching The Incredibles which is Bird's other Pixar movie, or The Iron Giant which was pre-Pixar. If that doesn't work for you, then just go watch the first few seasons of The Simpsons where he worked as an executive consultant. Yea, isn't that cool?

4.6 out of 5

Wannabe