I’m starting to run out of adjectives.

Beginning with Toy Story in 1995 and continuing through six more animated features, including last summer’s massive hit Cars, the creative geniuses at Pixar haven’t made a single bad movie. Sure some have been better then others, but these minute differences in quality pale when this unprecedented run of success is taken in for what it truly is.

Brad Bird’s Ratatouille might just be this Disney studio’s best film yet. The man behind The Iron Giant and The Incredibles, Bird has crafted another wondrously original and emotionally magnificent cinematic adventure the likes of which simply must be seen to be believed. Like Walt at his absolute best or Miyazaki when he’s firing on all creative cylinders, this fantabulous saga of a French rat trying to become a Parisian chef is so spectacular I can’t wait to see it again… and again and again and again and again!

The story is simple enough. Remy (Patton Oswalt) is a rat with an overly sensitive nose who dreams of becoming a chef. He longs to be just like his culinary hero Auguste Gusteau (Brad Garrett); his lifelong mantra “anyone can cook” a slogan the pintsized rodent holds deep within his heart like it is the single most important one he will ever know.

From there, Remy comes into contact with a variety of colorful characters including bumbling outcast Linguini (Lou Romano), duplicitous master chef Skinner (Ian Holm), the confidently driven Colette (Janeane Garofalo) and the sinisterly pompous restaurant critic Anton Ego (a virtuoso Peter O’Toole). All of them offer opportunities and roadblocks to the little furball’s seemingly impossible quest, his family, including bumbling older brother Emile (Peter Sohn) and overprotective father Django (Brian Dennehy), throwing their own interpersonal foibles into soufflé making Remy’s quest even that much more chaotic.

And that’s really it. The simplicity to the tale is also part of its charm, Bird and his panel of screenwriters crafting such richly complex and three dimensional characters getting deeply involved in the story is an absolute given. Remy’s dreams might be impractical but they are never absurd, the filmmakers refusing to ever make fun of their hero or his fantasies. Sure the little guy is funny (some of the comedic set pieces here recalling vintage Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton) but that doesn’t mean he is ever made fun of, and in a piece constructed such as this one that’s a mighty fine line for Bird and company to walk.

But they do walk it and, in fact, walk it brilliantly. It goes without saying that the animation is superb (like all of their features, Pixar has once again raised the bar on what computer animation can ultimately accomplish), it is the human (or, in this case, rodent) element that makes the picture so magnificent. Ratatouille is a breath of fresh air, a truly spellbinding achievement that’s eye-pooping and emotionally captivating as anything I’m likely to see this year. It transcends animated cinema to become something different and entirely new, so much so calling it an instant classic is probably an understatement.

It’s all starting to sound like a broken record, and I almost feel like I’m writing the same review over and over every time I see a new film from the studio. But that’s just the way it is, Pixar the giants of animated film just about everyone everywhere making these sorts of films is watching with unabashed awe just like the rest of us. With Ratatouille they are doing it again, this latest adventure a spectacle of gastronomical proportions guaranteed to live on forever. C'est magnifique!

Film Rating:  êêêê  (out of 4)