Ratatouille 07/21/07

I personally don't care much for baseball. Never watch it, probably never will. But for hours, I could listen to Billy Crystal talk about it. It's not so much the baseball that's interesting, it's the excitement and intensity that it conjures up in fanatics such as Crystal. That I just love. This movie has that in spades. Though it's not baseball it's cooking.
The film is about a rat named Remy, voiced by somewhat known comedian Patton Oswalt, who loves food and dreams of being a chef. There is something so special about this charachter that its intoxicating. I just couldn't get enough of him. He not only loves food, he raves about it, he'll even risk death to get into the kitchen of a famous restaurant and cook something up himself. The way Remy delights in food fuels the entire picture. This is a smart, intelligent, funny, fantastic, beautiful and moving movie. and it works even if, like me, you know very little about cooking.
There's a fantastic scene when Remy is cooking a mushroom on a weathervane and is struck by lightning. He tastes the mushroom, finds it delicious and decides he would want to do it again. And then another great scene when he tries to get his family of rats to stop eating garbage, and taste real food. But not just scarf it down, savor the peculiarites of taste in different flavors. And another great speech at the end by a food critic that is downright poetic and spine-tingling. These are fantastic roles, and this movie is probably a lock for best animated feature. I feel comfortable saying that in the middle of July. 
The movie was written and directed by Brad Bird, same man who did The Incredibles. Although the Incredibles has more mass appeal, this is a superior film. Not just for animation, but film in general. Only problem it might have, is that I wouldn't say it's geared specifically toward kids. There's plenty of slapstick but still the movie's heart and soul has a refined mature palate. This is probably a film that parents drag their kids to see not vice versa. Other than that, Pixar has added another classic film to its already spectacular film canon. I don't care what the next film is about, I will be in line already. As Ego, the film critic, gleefully says with full confidence in the chef at the end, "Surprise me."