Ratatouille (2007)

Film Review. If anything was certain in the film world this year, it would be this, Ratatouille is the best animated film in 2007. By large, and by far. And after The Iron Giant and The Incredibles, Brad Bird has certainly firmed his position as one of the top man in animation films.

Ratatouille takes the tale of a gifted rodent (Remy) who had an acute sense of smell and wanted to become a chef. Given the premise, most of the scenery would therefore mostly at a restaurant's kitchen, in Paris.

The stars of this animated flick was of course, rats. There's no mistaking of the rat-ness or the rodent-ness of these rats even though the animated rats made them slightly cuter but again, there's no mistaking of that they are. Rats. Now, this would oppose a slight problem from some. For example, substitute the rats with snakes and there'd be no chance for me to see the film. None at all.

Anyway, the most unlikely combination of rats' dirtyness and kitchen's cleanliness worked well as a light-hearted entertainment that could be enjoyed for both children and adults alike. With almost two hours running time, the film had more than sufficient time - and did just so - of plot development time. I was delightly surprised when the film opens at the rural French where we learned about Remy's gift and his (this is an assumption really, but i think that it was a 'he' rat rather than a 'she rat) penchant to cook. Some of the later elements as the plot develops might be a little too thick for children but it never dwells long enough to make these kids bored. After all, the animation was so slick. Well, with Pixar, you really not expecting less than stellar. It sets the new bar for visual animation, if you asked me, check the chase sequence. Or, my personal favourite, the sewer scene at the beginning of the film.

Again, these are rats we're talking about. If you don't like the film, it's probably because you hated rats. Oh, the food critic rocks, he (voiced by the amiable Peter O'Toole, he practically steals every single scene he's in. And his final review at the end of the film, ah, now that's how you'd write a review and that's a part of why i had wanted to study English literature.

My Rating: ***1/2 / ****