Culinary Rat Pack | Ratatouille

Brad Bird who gave the world The Incredibles, returns with the hilarious story of a mouse who can only smell the sweet smell of cooking success in animated film, Ratatouille (*** ½ stars).

The film tells the delightful story of a rat named Remy. While his rat colony searches for food, Remy dreams of culinary delights. He spends his days poring over cookbooks and watching celebrated chef Gusteau cooking show. His fortunes take a turn for the better when he is separated from his family and friends escaping the home of an angry inhabitant.

Remy finds himself in the home of fine dining, Paris, and immediately is drawn to Chef Gusteau’s restaurant, where he hooks up with bistro’s new garbage boy, Linguini. He forms a friendship with the introverted boy using him as a human puppet to fulfill his culinary dreams. Linguini becomes the chef du jour, creating tasty dishes with the help of his four-legged friend. But when the bistro’s nosy and selfish proprietor senses that something is not right, the two outcasts form an unlikely friendship that will test Remy’s tolerance with humans and help Linguini find his true love.

While Ratatouille is delightful and fun-filled, one has to wonder who the target audience for this film is. The film possesses too much story for children but is not the type of movie that older audiences typically attend without them.

While this flick firmly establishes Bird as a rising-star director in animated films, it would be interesting to see him direct a live-action feature.

Discussing themes such as family acceptance and getting in touch with your “inner child,” Remy is probably the first rat since Ben that is sure to be embraced. Ratatouille is rah-rah fun!