Ratatouille

I’m a big Pixar fan and I’m not ashamed to admit it. They make consistently superior animated features that emphasize on the screenplay more than anything else. This is one of their best. The story deals with Remy (voiced by Patton Oswald), a common rat who just so happens to have a very acute sense of smell. When separated from his family, he gets to the beautiful city of Paris, where he befriends a bumbling Chef named Alfredo Linguini (played by Lou Romano). Both have the dream of becoming a famous chef, but it’s only Remy who has the art for it. Together, they become the toast of the city, with different rivals, from the skeptical head of the restaurant to a notoriously harsh food critic trying to take them down. The main theme of this film is rat meets his destiny, and it’s basic message is, “you can do anything if you work hard on it”, accentuated by the films line of Anyone Can Cook. The animation is typical of Pixar’s, in other words, top notch, making everything, even the rats, look very realistic, while comical at the same time. Also excellent is the voice cast. Not only do Romano and Oswald do great in their roles, but there is a host of actors who join in on the fun, like Janeane Garofalo, Ian Holm and more memorably Peter O’Toole as food critic Anton Ego. This is a great film, and recommended to all.