Despite the fact he’s a rat, Remy (voice of Patton Oswalt) longs to be a chef. After being separated from the rest of his pack, Remy winds up in Paris, where he secretly enters the kitchen of Gusteau’s, a restaurant whose reputation has been on the decline since the death of its original proprietor. Remy witnesses the arrival of Linguini (Lou Romano), a young man who has come to the restaurant looking for a job.

Linguini is hired as a janitor, but Remy realizes he can use Linguini to achieve his dream, so the two team up, with Linguini supplying the arms and Remy supplying the talent. Their dishes are a hit, but Skinner (Ian Holm), the restaurant’s current owner, suspects something is up. Skinner also has a secret reason for wanting to get rid of the young man, so he does everything he can to expose Linguini as a fraud.

CRITIQUE

One day the people at Pixar are going to fail. There’s no way they can keep this up. Heck, they should already have failed by now. They’ve released eight feature films over the past twelve years and there hasn’t been a clunker among the bunch. Sure, not all of them have been masterpieces, but even their worst release (yes, I mean Monsters, Inc.) was still a pretty good movie. But one day they’re going to fall flat on their faces. I don’t want to see it happen, but I know it’s going to happen eventually. And I have no doubt that they’ll get right back up and quickly make a spectacular return to form.

I mention all of this because Ratatouille seemed like the perfect recipe for disaster. The idea was originally hatched by Jan Pinkava, who spent several years working on the story, creating the characters, and establishing the overall look of the locations and settings. But Pinkava was removed from the project in 2005 (exactly why he was given the boot has never been revealed), and Brad Bird, whose The Incredibles had just won an Oscar, took over (Pinkava is still credited as co-director). Bird overhauled the script and revamped the characters, all the while working under incredible time restraints. Like I said--the perfect recipe for disaster. But Ratatouille is by no means a disaster. As a matter of fact, it’s a near-perfect stew of heart and laughs.

Much as he did with The Incredibles, Bird takes seemingly disparate elements and successfully blends them into a cohesive whole. Ratatouille is a romance, a farce, a broad comedy, and a treatise on togetherness and finding one’s purpose all rolled into one. Exactly how Bird and the numerous members of his production team managed to pull it off is beyond me (maybe it’s true that some people are capable of anything). But pull it off they do, with the movie effortlessly moving back and forth between plotlines, and smoothly shifting gears between the hysterical and the human. It’s a truly stellar piece of work. If only they’d trimmed it a little...

The animation itself is stellar. I don’t understand how Pixar keeps raising the bar with every single movie they release, but they do. There’s a fluidity both to the characters’ movements and the movements of the camera (if you can call it that) that is staggering. Just look at the scene in which Remy and his pack escape through the storm drain, or the sequence where Remy hops on the serving cart and zips around the dining room. Honestly, how do they do it?

And, not surprisingly, the voice work is perfect. Oswalt struck me as an unlikely candidate for this sort of thing, but I have to admit I was wrong. I was practically shocked to learn that Romano isn’t an actor but is actually an animator at Pixar. That’s not to say an animator can’t necessarily act, but it’s hard to believe this is his first big role. Holm is hysterically nasty as Skinner. And Peter O’Toole voices a particularly nasty vicious critic, and the only word to describe his work is delicious. (Don’t worry--that one made me groan too.)

Ratatouille ended up being a considerably bigger hit overseas than it was at home. Part of me isn’t surprised, as there’s a quality to the film that mass audiences may not initially latch onto. Like Cars, there’s a certain something here (I hesitate to call it a maturity, although that’s close) that will only reveal itself to many people over time. Kids are likely to take to the rats and the zaniness, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find that they appreciate the movie more and more as they get older.

THE VIDEO

Know someone who’s a next-gen naysayer? Show them this movie and watch them eat crow. The 2.39:1/1080p transfer--created straight from the original digital files--is flawless. Every nuance in the animation is clearly visible. I never thought I’d find myself floored by the texture of an animated rat’s tail, but that’s exactly what happened. The rich, warm colors (just about every hue you can imagine pops up at some point) are gorgeously rendered. I was also struck by how the transfer perfectly handles the diverse lighting; look at the clearly delineated areas of hard and soft lighting in the kitchen of the restaurant.

THE AUDIO

Flawless is also the best way I know to describe the uncompressed PCM 5.1 audio. The sound is beautifully atmospheric, with every setting given its own signature (and realistic) sonic character. And watch out for the scenes where the audio cuts loose. The aforementioned drain escape and dining room romp are dizzying, as is the madcap finale. Dialogue reproduction is perfect. And the LFE action is surprisingly robust, and by that I mean it will punch you in the gut. Just check out the scene at the farmhouse if you don’t believe me. English, French, and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks are also included. English, French, and Spanish subtitles are available.

THE EXTRAS

Lifted (5 minutes) is the animated short that ran before theatrical screenings of Ratatouille. It was written and directed by sound designer Gary Rydstrom, and anyone who’s familiar with his Oscar-winning audio work will certainly understand why the plot is right up Rydstrom’s alley. 

Your Friend the Rat (11 minutes) is a new animated short created specifically for the DVD releases of Ratatouille. Using a combination of CGI, stop-motion animation, and good old cel animation, Remy and Emile attempt to change the public’s perception of the rat and its place in our world. Viewers who fondly remember Disney’s old animated history lessons should really take to this.  

Three deleted scenes (15 minutes total) are also available. These were cut early on, so they’re presented here as animatics. You’ll also find what’s been dubbed Deleted Scenes R.I.P., which is a novel take on the heartbreak filmmakers encounter when they’re forced to excise scenes.

Fine Food and Film (14 minutes) features Brad Bird and chef Thomas Keller discussing their respective professions/passions.

In The Will (3 minutes), composer Michael Giacchino briefly discusses the scoring process and presents a scene from the movie with both its final cue and an alternate piece of music.

Remembering Dan Lee (3 minutes) pays tribute to a longtime Pixar character designer who died while Ratatouille was in production.  

As they did with the concurrent Blu-ray release of Cars, the folks at Pixar have supplied Ratatouille with a Cine-Explore option. Select this and you’ll be treated to a great audio commentary by Brad Bird and producer Brad Lewis, who succinctly and interestingly explore every facet of the movie’s road to the screen (the commentary is available only through the Cine-Explore option).

Picture-in-picture material (such as storyboards and production art accompanies) the track, and there’s also some branching video-based material. You have the choice of automatically viewing the branching material (in which you’ll leave the movie, view the material, and then return to the movie) or you can manually choose to view it if you so wish (an onscreen indicator will alert you when the material is ready for viewing).

Or you can simply search through the menus and view the material as a series of short featurettes and galleries. Whatever the case, rest assured you’ll learn virtually everything there is to know regarding the creation of Ratatouille.  

The final extra is the interactive Gusteau’s Game, in which the player controls Linguini, who is charged with preparing orders that are constantly pouring into the restaurant’s kitchen.

FINAL THOUGHT

I know they just entered the game, but Pixar is batting a thousand when it comes to next-gen releases. If you own a Blu-ray player, you owe it to yourself to pick up Ratatouille.