by Heather Lyon

Created on: June 17, 2007

Ratatouille is a cute, funny, family film featuring a good message. That message being follow your dreams no matter how impossible it seems. It features a good plot, great computer animation, and wonderful voicing.

Ratatouille is a story about a rat named Remy with an impossible dream, he wants to be a cook in a five star restaurant! Now we all know that rats don't belong in the kitchen but that does not phase Remy or convince him to give up his dream. Circumstances conspire to bring Remy to the city of Paris, the food capital, and then plop him underneath the restaurant of a famous chief that Remy has seen on television. So all Remy needs now is an opportunity to prove himself. This opportunity comes in the form of a young man named Linguini. Linguini is down on his luck and his only chance at a job is to be the garbage boy for the restaurant. While cleaning up, he accidentally messes up the soup. Remy sees this happen and he fixes the soup and actually improves on it. The restaurant staff thinks that Linguini cooked the soup and the customers like it so well that the boss has no choice except to hire Linguini as a cook-except he can't cook! Linguini figures out that Remy was the one who fixed the soup and they come to an understanding. Linguini will be Remy's human front and Remy will "cook" or direct Linguini so that they both get what they want. But can they keep the facade up without getting caught? You will have to watch the movie to find out.

The computer animation is nicely done. The movie is lovely and the rats move amazingly well. The animation itself was a joy for me to watch. The voicing was also nicely done with no voice seeming out of place for the characters. You might recognize Peter O'Toole as the voice of the evil food critic whose opinion could shut down the restaurant. Brad Garrett as the chief Remy admired who has past away but visits Remy as a figment of his imagination that gives him advice. Or Janeane Garofalo who plays Colette a chief at the restaurant and Linguini's love interest. Linguini is voiced by Lou Romano, and Remy is voiced by Patton Oswalt. All the voice actors did an excellent job with their characters.

Overall this a great family film. It has enough action to keep the kids interested and enough plot to keep the adults from falling asleep with humorous moments scattered throughout. I would recommend this movie for any family night outing.

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