RATATOUILLE

Director: Brad Bird & Jan Pinkava

Stars: Patton Oswalt, Lou Romano, Ian Holm, Janeane Garofalo, Brad Garrett, Peter O'Toole

Year: 2007

Rating: G

A Pixar film is always a treat - a real feast for the eyes - and Ratatouille, in that sense, might be the company's best film yet. The animation is nothing short of breathtaking, Paris coming to life majestically on the screen as the story starts off in the French countryside ... with a field rat named Remy (voiced by actor and stand-up comic Patton Oswalt) who has the passion - not to mention talent - of his idol and mentor from Paris, the great chef Gusteau (Brad Garrett).

No eating out of garbage cans for Remy; no, this rat has fine dining tastes and an impeccable palette, even as he tries to convince his dad, brother, and the other rats of his colony that food should be eaten fresh, blended together for the best combinations of flavor and smell, and savored instead of swallowed without even enjoying the taste. When Remy and his colony are driven off the country land where they've been living for some time, Remy gets detached from the group and eventually finds himself in Paris, the City of Lights, known for its culinary excellence ... and the home of Gusteau and his four-star restaurant.

But Remy is shocked to find, on his arrival, that the great chef has passed away - and, worse yet, the wickedly derisive critic Anton Ego (Peter O'Toole) has since blasted the restaurant to three-star status with a scathing review. Sneaking his way into Gusteau's, Remy is just in time to help - without the guy's knowledge - a fledgling young mop boy/chef wannabe named Linguini (Lou Romano) to create a soup that immediately bowls over the entire eatery clientele that evening. Even as Linguini discovers Remy, acting fast to hide him (a rat, after all, discovered in a three-star restaurant isn't exactly going to be met with enthusiasm by customers or health inspectors alike), the other kitchen workers and chef believe a new culinary star is born ... even as the head chef, the diminutive but rather crotchety Skinner (Ian Holm, wonderful here), suspects something is not quite right with the situation.

It's Skinner, in fact, who ends up out to get Linguini - even as Linguini and Remy (though Remy can't talk, only communicating with Linguini via gestures) become friends, and work out a system where Linguini can cook Remy's recipes at Gusteau's with no one around them being any the wiser (Remy hiding under Linguini's oversized chef's hat). As Linguini's fame and popularity grows, Linguini himself begins to fall for the lone female chef in the kitchen, who's been assigned to train him - the lovely, outspoken Colette (Janeane Garofalo). Meanwhile, Skinner plots to take over Gusteau's restaurant and legacy, by marketing the great chef's image out for a series of frozen-style dinners, as (per Gusteau's will) he prepares to legally control the entire Gusteau empire in just three days' time. That is, until Skinner learns that Linguini is, in fact, the illegitimate son of Gusteau - making the young boy not only the sole legal heir to the famed chef's restaurant and fortune ... but also a threat to all of Skinner's plans.

Again, the look of this film is truly amazing. Streets and characters and even Gusteau's restaurant all come to life with such energy and color and vitality, you won't be able to take it all in. Remy is a lovable character, as is Linguini, and the two form a friendship that - despite the fact that Remy is a rat - seems genuine, complete with imperfections (it's even kind of cool that, though we the viewers can understand Remy, no humans in the film can; none of the cutesy, talking animals of Disney here). Skinner and even Anton Ego, as the "bad guys" in the film, hold up their end wonderfully - especially Skinner, who, in a style reminiscent of Inspector Dreyfus (Herbert Lom) in the Pink Panther films (another reference to France), gets himself into more trouble than ever trying to spy on Linguini and learn his secrets.

But the end of the film, to me, is where things go awry. Without giving anything away, a series of circumstances leads Remy to call on his family and buddies of the rat colony to cook a very important meal in the kitchen of Gusteau's - and it might be me, but something about seeing a restaurant kitchen overrun with rats preparing a meal for human consumption (even though the script/storyline accounts for the rats who are handling the food to wash up beforehand) really turned me off to that entire scene in the film. Further, the ending of Ratatouille was a bit too "pat" for me, with things winding up all too conveniently (also a bit unrealistically, even given the subject matter and characters of the film) ... even as one of the bad guys goes from bad to good in an instant, also an unconvincing plot point for me.

So as much as I enjoyed the film, and marveled in watching one of the most technically-perfect animated films of all time, in the end it's the story of Ratatouille that is a bit of a letdown. Like a no-hitter baseball game that's suddenly decided in the 13th inning by walking a man home, Ratatouille has a wonderful build up, and is a great ride for most of the way - only to end with a fizzle instead of a bang. Not a bad film, by any means ... but just not quite as good, in the end, as the first three-quarters of the film would lead you to believe. ***1/2 - Reel Cool-Reel Awesome