run time: 118 mins
rated: G
considered: Animated, Comedy, Family
starring: Patton Oswalt, Ian Holm, Lou Romano, Brian Dennehy, Peter O’Toole, Janeane Garofalo,
movie summary: With dreams of becoming a chef, a culinary genius in the form of a rat, makes an unusual alliance with a young kitchen worker at a famed restaurant. (www.imdb.com)
The City of Paris is famous for many things like land marks, culture, and cuisine. Remy (Patton Oswalt) is a rat who lives his father, brother, and their clan outside of the city. Over the course of his life Remy has developed his taste and smell senses which leads to an interest in preparing and cooking food. While inside the house where the rats have colonized, he manages to read cook books and watch the famous french chef Auguste Gusteau’s cooking show. Shortly after the rat clan is discovered they have to flee down the river where Remy gets separated from the clan and as fate would have it, he ends up in a gutter outside of Gusteau’s famous restaurant.
Peeking in from a window Remy notices that the new garbage kid/kitchen help, Alfredo Linguini (Lou Romano), has decided to be sneaky and throw some ingredients into the soup of the night. Linguini has no clue what he is doing so Remy rushes in and works his magic to turn the soup into the tastiest dish of the night. The head chef, Skinner (Ian Holm) finds out that Linguini changed the soup and is furious despite the customers raving about how good it is. Skinner offers a proposition that if he can remake the same soup the next night he can keep his job otherwise he will lose it. Linguini doesn’t know what to do because he didn’t make the soup. He finds Remy in the kitchen and makes the connection that it was in fact the rat who changed the soup and put him in a tough spot.
Linguini figures out a way to sneak Remy into the kitchen so he can prepare the same soup from the night before. From that night on the pair form a bond that grows every day while Remy teaches Linguini to cook. They practice at home before heading into the restaurant where the rat will call the shots from inside a chef’s hat. They manage to pull off some of Gusteau’s famous receipts and bring some creditability back to the former 5-star restaurant. The customers begin to flock back hoping to try some of the new dishes, which also brings back world renewed restaurant critic Anton Ego (Peter O’Toole), who gave a bad review last time he ate at the restaurant. On the big night Ego shows up and orders the best dish that Linguini can make, only problem is back in the kitchen area everyone has learnt who the real chef is and walk out leaving only Remy and Linguini to save the restaurant and their careers.
my thoughts: Ratatouille came out in 2007 and I can honestly say I had no interest in ever seeing this movie. I am a picky eater and can’t cook anything fancy. Fast forward to the last week of 2013 and as I attempt to watch all 100 top grossing movies of all-time I finally sat down to watch this movie. I’m very ashamed I didn’t watch this earlier because Ratatouille is a fantastic movie. Despite being focused on cooking the main point of this movie is about an unlikely friendship that will over come obstacles to be there for one another. Another great point for movie goers is Remy believes he can be a cook despite everyone doubting him and thinking he is crazy. He never gives up on his dream and is willing to go on a crazy adventure to achieve his goals. This story and it’s characters are funny and charming which make for great family entertainment.
my star rating: 9 out 10
Ten Stars or Less 