Pixar has created gold once more with the concept of a little hero dreaming big dreams. This time it is in the form of a culinary rat named Remy (Patton Oswalt), whose expert nose and fondness for humans makes him abnormal in his rodent family, and bad associations with his species keeps him an outsider from the human world. In the little village where his clan lived he stole spices and cookbooks from a local cottage and dreamed fondly of making new discoveries in the realm of fine dining.
An attack on the family that was always perplexed by Remy leads them down two differing, metaphorical tunnels and brings our friend to the sewers beneath Paris. Guided by the ghost of his hero, the master chef Gusteau (Brad Garrett), he finds himself on the roof of restaurant Gusteau's where fate leads him into the hands of Remy's ticket to becoming a chef.
These hands belong to the hapless Linguini (Lou Romano), a bumbling, idiotic young man with no cooking talent at all, but who works as the garbage boy for the restaurant. When Linguini is mistakenly identified as the creator of a fantastic soup which Remy concocted he must spin a web of lies making it seem as though he is the new, gifted face of food. Teaming up with Remy after learning of the rat's skill, they devise a hilarious plan to keep up Linguini's facade while providing Remy with an outlet to do what he loves most.
This is a lovely little poem to the power of dreams encapsulated in Gusteau's mantra "Anyone can cook." Set against the dazzling yet somber backdrop of a CGI Paris, the magic of the city combined with the adorable Remy, "Ratatouille" cooks a romantic blend of genuine pathos and endearing messages. There are troubles that the Remy and Linguini face of course, but it's impossible for them not to succeed. Knowing that the plot is comedic and will technically be considered a comedy makes our rat's journey to his inevitable success all the more enchanting.
The film is teaming with wonderful characters including Linguini's tough-as-nails love interest, Colette (Janeane Garofalo), Remy's unsupportive father and dimwitted brother (Brian Dennehy and Peter Sohn) and the head chef Skinner, voiced by Ian Holm. My favorite, however, is Peter O'Toole as Anton Ego, the loathsome food critic whose scathing review almost closed Gusteau's at one point. It's very apparent that the people at Pixar hate critics (though they really needn't considering their outstanding track record). Ego is tall, gaunt and vampiric, whose cunning words and preceding reputation threatens once again to destroy the restaurant that has been turned around by one disguised rat. His final review is something critics probably did take to heart and hopefully reflected upon--I know I have...but I still love it.
Clever, exciting, beautifully painted and impeccably voiced this is one of the best animated films to come from the Pixar team. These are timeless themes and a really wonderful film for the child at heart. Maybe it's only Paris that has the magic to make unforeseen worlds collide, but I certainly hope not. This movie left me hungry for Remy's passion and his satisfaction.
4/4
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