Film Reviews

Ratatouille

• Rating:
• Director: Brad Bird
• Starring: Peter O'Toole
• Details: US / 110mins (G).

"Everybody can cook." Remy (Oswalt) is not your everyday rat: he has a nose for food and, haunted by the ghost of his favourite chef Gusteau (Brad Garrett), turns that finely-tuned nose up at the usual rubbish his boorish family drag home for dinner. When separated from his colony, Remy winds up in a Parisian restaurant, which coincidently turns out to be Gusteau's: a once 5 star eatery now fallen on hard times and run by the frightful chef Skinner (Holm). While escaping the brooms of the kitchen staff, Remy notices shy new boy Linguini (Rommano) destroy his chef's soup and in the process of correcting it, Remy creates a starter that's a winner with the customers. Linguini is hailed as a genius and he and Remy team up to become the best cook(s) in all Paris. Soon Gusteau's is back on the top but Skinner suspects something's afoot and surly food critic Anton Ego (O'Toole) is determined to destroy the restaurant's reputation all over again. Inundated with animation lately, it takes something special for one to stand out from all the rest; having Brad Bird calling the shots is definitely one way to go about it. Bird is responsible for The Iron Giant and The Incredibles, and although Ratatouille doesn't have the heartbreaking ending of the former or the post-modern gags of the latter, it's still one of the best animation films around. This is because Bird is not just an excellent animator (the breathtaking escape from the kitchen is arguably one of the finest animated sequences in history), he's an excellent filmmaker. Aimed more squarely at kids than Brad's previous ventures, Ratatouille can still be enjoyed by the old and young alike.

Review by Gavin Burke