Ratatouille Chop Suey: Ratatouille (Movie Review)

My eight-year-old grandson and I saw Disney/Pixar's Ratatouille Thursday afternoon; his first choice was Transformers, but when I hesitated on that one, he volunteered to see the Disney movie based on his best friend's review.

The movie was very inventive. The Pixar computer-generated animation was quite good, with the artists nobly resisting the tendency to make the long-tailed rodents too "cute." Remy is recognizable as what he is, but as a rat with a curiously subtle palate, his rattiness had a certain gentility, a bit sly but but also tentative, which renders him a sympathetic character.

There was enough action to please viewers from age three or so on, with chase scenes that would do justice to Tom and Jerry, and one perfectly conceived villainous character (the sous chef who connives to inherit the Gusteau empire) who is just self-promoting enough to draw quiet boos.

The theme, a sort of haute cuisine "I gotta be me" story (along with a bit of a conflicted hero sub-theme, as the would-be rat chef struggles to choose between his own dream of fine cookery and loyalty to his garbage-noshing family) gives the story a bit of weight. In contrast, the noodle-head garbage boy Linguini, who is guided by Remy inside his toque to produce exquisite eats, provides plenty of comic relief as he courts the feminist but tasty cook Colette and turns out to be the long lost son and sole heir of the late great chef Gusteau.

All in all, it's a a different take on the cartoon movie genre which will amiably entertain kids between 3 and 10 years of age on a steamy summer's afternoon and give the adults along for the ride a real case of the munchies! Local bistros should be advertising apres-cinema specials in the lobby.