Ratatouille
Ratatouille (2007)
Starring - Patton Oswalt, Ian Holm, Lou Romano, Peter Sohn, Brad Garrett, Janeane Garofalo
Directed by - Brad Bird
The recent great film keep coming, this time from a hugely unlikely source. Surely a story about a rat who wants to be a chef cannot work? Well, I'm here to tell you, oh yes it can! Remy the Rat is sweeping cinemas, and deservedly so.
Remy dreams of becoming a great chef, depite the major problem of being a rat. He has a highly developed sense of smell with esnures he can feel the full aroma of the finest food. His dad and brother the wonderful Emile, are not so impressed by Remy's love of good food, their motto, 'Shut up and eat your garbage' makes Remy more determined to seek out the finer tastes in life.
When the group of Rats are threatened and have to take a long escape through the sewage works, Remy ends up in Paris, home to the restaurant of his chef hero Gusteau. Gusteau used to run a five star rated restaurant which has since his death been in decline. Remy is also a follower of Gusteau's book, 'Anyone Can Cook.' Remy pays a visit to the restaurant and aids the boy who takes out the garbage take the credit for a soup that goes down hugely well. The evil head chef Skinner then spots Remy and asks the garbage boy, called Linguini, to dispose of him.
With Linguini contemplating his poor position, he realises the rat is sympathising with him, he also realises the rat can cook. They then come up with a bizarre method of the rat controlling Linguini's actions. What follows is a wondeful journey as Remy helps Linguini be recognised as a great chef, He also helps Linguini find love with Collette, the female chef at Gusteau's. All is well until the harshest food critic in France comes for a visit, the rat is revealed to the staff as the true chef, and Remy has to rely on his family and friends (all rats of course) for help as only Luinguini and Colette stick around to help.
The animations are beautiful, the storyline is a pleasure to watch, as the unlikeliest of ideas combine to create a compelling and fun film. The film moves at a good pace and lets face it, how many films have you cheering on a rat? You will be too however, will the flagship Ratatouille dish win over the critics and win Gusteau's it's five star glory back, or does it all end down the sewage? I suggest you go and see for yourself.
MOON OF LIBERTY VERDICT - RATING 'A-' Remy cooks up a treat, this is great fun with a great story, will surely have to win best animation come the OSCAR's, it really is that good, or should that be yummy.
