Ratatouille (2007)

"Those handling food will walk on two legs" ~ Rémy

Since I am not an artist and not geeky proficient, I am always in awe when I see a well done animated film. Perhaps never as awed as when I watched this one. The folks at Disney-Pixar are brilliant!

Rémy (Patton Oswalt) is a rat who lives with his pack including his brother Emile (Peter Sohn) and his father Django (Brian Dennehy), who is the pack leader. They live in a house in the French countryside.

Rémy is different from the other rats. For one thing, he has an amazing sense of smell and is assigned to sniff all edibles to keep his fellow rats from ingesting rat poison. But he also is fascinated by cooking and finds a wonderful cookbook -- Anyone Can Cook by Chef Auguste Gusteau (Brad Garrett), the noted Parisian restaurateur. Rémy watches the chef's television show and studies the cookbook and experiments in the kitchen when the homeowner sleeps.

In time, the homeowner realizes there's a rat infestation and the exterminator arrives thus forcing the rats to go on the run -- Rémy with his beloved cookbook. They end up in a storm sewer and are swept away but Rémy is separated from his pack. He ends up "coming ashore" in Paris where the recently deceased Chef Gusteau's ghost guides him to the chef's own restaurant.

Rémy arrives just in time to see young Linguini (Lou Romano) applying for a job and the evil and cruel former sous chef Skinner (Ian Holm), who now heads Gusteau's kitchen, scoffs at him. What kind of job would Skinner have for someone who knows nothing about food? But when Skinner reads Linguini's letter of recommendation, he knows he must hire the young man, if even only as a dishwasher and trash man.

Of course, Rémy, from his skylight perch, is stunned by the amazing restaurant kitchen. He watches as Linguini mops the kitchen floor and accidently spills some of the soup simmering in a pot. Rémy jumps down to help Linguini salvage the soup with seasonings by directing Linguini how to do it. But Skinner walks into the kitchen and accuses Linguini of tampering with the soup. By then, a bowl of the soup has already been served to a food critic. In a panic, the kitchen staff watches the reaction and are stunned when the critic shows vast appreciation of the soup.

Meanwhile, young Linguini is befriended by the only female in the kitchen, Collette (Janeane Garofalo). She is talented but hindered by her gender in a fine French kitchen. She and some of the others, cook Horst (Will Arnett) and waiter Mustafa (John Ratzenberger), urge Skinner to let Linguini cook since the critic gave the soup such high praise.

Skinner is forced to give Linguini a job as a cook but Linguini knows he can't really cook, even though he'd like to. Rémy, however, forms an alliance with him -- Linguini will allow Rémy to direct the cooking efforts and teach him about food in return for Linguini hiding Rémy from the already suspicious Skinner.

Without giving away more of the story -- which is a joy to watch unfold -- there is a romance, a visit from the pompous restaurant critic Anton Ego (Peter O'Toole), an enraged Skinner who is ousted from his kitchen, a rat raid on the pantry, a visit from the health inspector, and Rémy's pack coming to the rescue when the kitchen staff learns the reason for Linguini's culinary prowess.

Directed by Brad Bird and Jan Pinkava.

Rated G.

My personal rating: B