Review: ‘Ratatouille’

Zac:

Hands down the best animated film of the year (unless Persepolis blows me away whenever I get to see it) and probably the best since Brad Bird’s last film, the masterpiece that is The Incredibles, Ratatouille is a fantastic story about rats, cooking, and believing in anyone.
We follow two main characters in this film Remy the rat and who is a masterful chef who embraces humans and there ways. As well as Linguini, a wanna be chef without a chance to every be good. The two happen to fall in each others laps and are able to help one another out through a little fantasy twist and imagination.
This movie is just full of beautiful shots, exhilarating moments, great comedy, touching scenes, a fun villain, and is just a joy to watch every time you see. I’ve seen this 3-4 times and it is more rewarding with every experience. Remy’s first shot at cooking is a great beautiful cinema moment, the opening is does a great job of introducing us to the world without being at all boring, the sleepy Linguini scene is hilarious, and the ending is just about perfect even if it is a bit of a stretch.
The voice work is stellar through out with Brag Garrett doing some of his best as Gusteau, Patton Oswalt is perfect for Remy, Janeane Garofalo is unrecognizable as Colette but does the French accent superbly, but the best work belongs to Peter O’Toole who gives Anton Ego so much more life, if you could call it that, with his raspy and commanding voice.
The animation is also spectacular and continues to get better every time Pixar goes out and makes a new movie. Brad Bird gives us a wonderful view of Paris, and is one of three great looks at the City of Lights this year. The score by Michael Giacchino is also wonderful and he proves again that he is one of the best composers around today in film. Praises can not be said enough for Bird and his team, while Bird cements himself as one of the best directors ever, if he hadn’t already in most peoples eyes.
With Ratatouille Pixar is back at the top of its game, not that Cars was bad it was just a understandable step below the Incredibles, and while not quite topping Brad Bird’s last this is definitely just as good as, if not better, Finding Nemo and the Toy Story’s.

[rating: 5/5]