Movie Review: "Ratatouille"

I will admit. When I first saw the trailer for this movie, while I thought it was cute, I wasn't too giddy to see this movie. A movie about rats? Rodents will long tails that touch food people eat? *Shudder* Pixar seemed like they were really stretching it. I love Pixar's movies. Toy Story 2 and Finding Nemo were excellent. But I've since I've seen all of them, I figured I'll give this one a chance. My whole family went on a movie outing to see Ratatouille which is rare for us. Rare because we seldom go out for movies as a family and also because this was an animated film. The last one we went to was Cars and Mom and Dad came away being so so. Even so we went to this movie on opening weekend. Things started off bad because we had to sit in the second row.

But then the movie started. Let me tell you Pixar has proved me wrong. I ADORED THIS MOVIE! The whole family did! Even the parents were cracking up and enjoying it. Mom didn't even yawn once! The story is very good, the voice work is top notch (the guy who played Remy is from my city!), the animation extremely advanced and realistic. It's just hilarious and oh so cute. Once you get over the fact that a rat can cook, you get sucked into the movie. You can almost taste and smell the food that's being cooked. And you learn to enjoy the art of cooking. Even more fun was that since there's so much talk about food in the movie, the popcorn we were eating tasted so much better. We ended up having to get refills because we finished the bag. Granted we were eating it the way Remy would have highly disapproved. My favorite scene was when the food critic (played by Peter O'Toole- give this man an Oscar!) tastes the ratatouille and is brought back to his childhood. This scene was a hoot because it was so unexpected and touching because it made the guy nice. The only thing that grossed me out about the movie were the scenes where there were hundreds of rats at one place. Like when the lady shoots down her roof. It's enough to make anyone throw up. Ugh, I still grimace thinking about it.

I think kids will like this movie because it's funny, and talking rats who cook are always an appeal. Adults will like it for the European culture and humor. And did I mention that the Paris scenery is absolutely gorgeous? It looked so lifelike and real. Ratatouille now ranks in my top 3 Pixar movies. I will never doubt Pixar again.