Ratatouille

(Note: As of this writing it will be 12 days before Ratatouille hits theaters, but since I saw it at a sneak preview, I decided to review it over Fantastic Four 2. Don’t worry, I’ll review Fantastic Four 2 next week and likely give it a negative review.)

Toys living their own lives and adventures, battling for the affection of their owners.
Bugs unknowingly hiring actors to fight off enemy bugs.
Monsters being more afraid of kids than likewise.
A clownfish desperate to find his son, aided by a fellow amnesiac fish.
A dysfunctional superhero family who come out of retirement.
A hot-shot racecar who discovers what life is like in the slow lane.

And now, a kitchen rat who aspires to be a chef in Paris.

What are these genius ideas I am listing? Well, the plotlines that the geniuses at PIXAR Animation Studios have cooked up over the years for their masterpieces. Yesterday I caught a sneak preview of Pixar’s newest film, Ratatouille at my local theater. And come June 29, sure, Die Hard 4 and that new Michael Moore documentary are coming out…But this is the film to see.

PIXAR has yet to falter, and every film they’ve made sports an excellent plot, a great voice ensemble, and revolutionary animation. Ratatouille not only fits all those categories, but ranks with Toy Story and Finding Nemo as PIXAR’s best of the best.

Remy is a rat whose extraordinary sense of smell nets him a job among his vast family of fellow rats: food checker. See, whilst Remy’s large family tree prefer eating (literally) garbage, Remy sneaks into a house regularly and cooks up delicious meals. And the best part about liking fine food? He’s in France! But the worst part? Being a rat, eating fine food for rats is like eating garbage for us.

One day while Remy is making a delicious recipe in an old lady’s house (don’t ask), he gets caught and through odd circumstances gets separated from his family. He winds up in Paris, and soon discovers the great food…So while he is in a restaurant kitchen, he makes a great soup and…gets discovered. But he befriends the garbage boy Linguini and they gradually become better and better friends. Linguini doesn’t speak rat, but Remy understands human talk so when Linguini discovers Remy’s passion for making food, they work out a system where Remy controls Linguini’s movements so that when Remy is pulling the meal together, it’s on Linguini’s movements. So at the restaurant, now everyone applauds Remy’s recipes, thinking that it’s Linguini working the magic.

This of course, does not go unnoticed. Indeed, as the scheming owner of the restaurant suspects something is up with Linguini, he devises several plans to ruin Linguini, all which backfire. But how long can Linguini keep this up? If at all? Brad Bird, director of several Simpsons episodes, The Iron Giant, and The Incredibles has long been one of the best animation directors of all time. But where The Iron Giant and The Incredibles didn’t have many roots into genuine reality, this (despite the rat chef thing) has many real-life issues that really, really work in a kids movie.

Now that Shrek 2, Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles were smash hits, every studio in every corner is sending out computer-generated kids movies, and not many of them are good. But PIXAR remains faithful. Their animation, ensemble casts, and plots get better and better, and I, for one am their biggest fan. I see no flaw with this movie, it is pure magic. A