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Ratatouille has generated a certain amount of buzz in the media and I'm happy to say that the film lives up to the hype. This story of a humble, yet talented rat who pursues his culinary dreams is a great piece of work. It's suitable for all ages, well written, and a lot of fun.

This movie works on several levels. There's the simple plot of a country rat coming to the big city and finding a way to pursue his dreams. The writers have also managed to ladle in a couple of sharp commentaries on modern society. All this, and the animation's pretty cool, too!

The first big message in this movie has to do with quality, while perhaps taking a sneaky nip or two at mass-media and mass-production. Remi is a food connoisseur (and on par with some humans, for that matter) who is reduced to detecting poisons for his clan, as that's the only useful talent his father recognizes. What's interesting to me is how Remi's clan essentially exists on garbage: easily available, leftover, and somewhat lacking in form. To his brother, food is food is food no matter where it comes from and what it looks like. Remi, by contrast, is entranced with distinct smells and tastes. He's obsessed with finding interesting new combinations of foods and making them himself.

In short, Remi's not just a food connoisseur, he's a food artist. He represents the creative soul in all of us who tires of mass-produced, common denominator food, movies, music, and television, while yearning to experience the best and to create wonderful food. He represents every talented soul who can't find immediate acceptance in the masses and desperately wants to achieve more. Why? Because he can! He has things to say and things to show and his medium is cooking. I think the use of rats in this movie is an inspired choice because the rat is normally seen as dirty, thieving, and parasitic, which makes Remi the Rat shine brightly on the screen.

This message blends nicely with the other main message in this movie: those with talents have an obligation to pursue them, not just for the greater good, but for the artist's own good. Remi is a food artist and he always will be. Whenever he tries to run away from that talent he winds up in even bigger trouble. But when he finds a way to express himself, odd as it is (sorry, you'll have to watch the movie to find out this plot point!), it works beautifully. It's a great statement about self-actualization.

There's a lot more to this movie than the points I've described in this article. However, I'm not going to spoil the rest for you; I don't want to cheat you out of a tasty movie treat. All I can say is that you owe it to yourself to try this great animated movie and, like any good meal, savor and contemplate it both during and afterward. You won't regret it!

Learn more about this author, Mark Dykeman.
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