Director: Brad Bird
Year Released: 2007
Rating: 3.5
A rat with a refined palette (voiced by the hilarious Patton Oswalt) and a gift for cuisine helps a know-nothing kid restore the honor of a fledgling restaurant in Paris and establish himself as a premiere chef. Inimitable Pixar picture works on two different levels: it's family fun about being true to yourself and a defense of enjoying the finer things in life, arguing that stuffing yourself with garbage (Applebee's gets name-checked) just isn't good for the soul. I'm not sure how it's going to play in other countries (France in particular), but in America where the slightest sign of elitism is looked upon with disdain and suspicion, here's a mass-marketed picture that defends the right to relish high culture and not feel guilty about it (everyone can learn how to cook, but not all can be great cooks; anyone can try to make a movie, but not everyone can be Hitchcock). The voice-acting is superb (Janeane Garofolo and Peter O'Toole are excellent, as is Oswalt and Ian Holm) and the animation is irrefutably top-notch (no surprise there). It's a delight.
