Ratatouille

Unquestionably the studio with the longest chain of unbroken success over the last few years (maybe even ever) Pixar have churned out critically acclaimed film after critically acclaimed film. From their first, the world's first feature length CGI film, Toy Story, through to their last, Cars, they've notched up an incredible 19 Academy Award nominations - in categories ranging from Original Screenplay and Original Score, not to mention the more obvious Best Animated Film. Worldwide grosses have never been less than $350 million for any of their 8 releases, which together have pulled in half a billion dollars in box office receipts. Their worst reviewed film, and the only release that can be described as anything even resembling a disappointment, scored 76% on rottentomatoes and grossed $461 million worldwide. The next worst reviewed film scored 91%. Two of their 8 productions, the two Toy Story films, scored 100%. By any measure, their creative output has been absolutely outstanding.

Pixar's latest film is Ratatouille and sees a return to the more familiar, near unanimous, glowing reviews that they've received for every release except for Cars. It stars Rémy (Patton Oswalt), a rat living in Paris who dreams of being a chef and with the inspiration of the recently deceased finest chef in Paris, Auguste Gusteau, he does just that. Rémy is left behind by his colony during an escape from a shotgun toting old lady and ends up in Gusteau's former restaurant. Its former 5 star rating has fallen to 3 since his death and it is now run by the former soux-chef Skinner (Ian Holm). One day Rémy teams up with a useless garbage boy, Alfredo Linguini (Lou Romano) to produce a soup that is hailed by a visiting food critic as wonderful, and soon Linguini and his hidden talent are entrusted with creating new dishes and winning over both the unscrupulous Skinner and France's toughest food critic Atom Ego (a wonderful Peter O'Toole).

Writer/director Brad Bird has delivered a brilliantly realised movie that is as visually impressive as anything yet created by computers for the big screen. With each release Pixar's films push the envelope in the visuals, but in Ratatouille that bar is set to all new heights. Every inch of canvas is lovingly crafted in every single scene. It really is an absolute wonder to view something so impressive. The crazy thing is that this is so very clearly so much more visually impressive than Finding Nemo, but when that came out it was so stunningly impressive that you thought they'd reached the limit with texture, light and shadow. Now it is obvious, especially during the underwater scenes and character close-ups, that they were only scratching the surface.

Ratatouille is certainly the best animated fare I've seen in a while, you've probably got to go back to Toy Story 2 to find something as enjoyable. I'm not actually someone who usually responds well to animated movies. One of the most enjoyable parts of a movie in my eyes is watching a great actor or actress on screen and you obviously don't get that with animation. Plus these films tend to play fast and loose with logic and, being the old grouch that I am, I just can't get past that. However, aside from a middle third that drags just ever so slightly, Ratatouille is a treat and well worth sampling.

B+