Movies: Ratatouille

Ever since the success of "Toy Story," lots of other animation studios have been scrambling to capture the Pixar magic. Some of these efforts have been palatable ("Shrek"), while others have not worked out so well ("The Polar Express"). "Cars," Pixar's last movie, was a tepid, by-the-numbers "Doc Hollywood" remake with some questionable design decisions. I never actually saw the end of that one - by about three-quarters of the way through, I left the movie theater to see something else.

"Ratatouille" is a good return to form for Pixar. It's more of a light comedy than some of Pixar's previous films, which have been mostly action-adventures ("Toy Story," "A Bug's Life," "Finding Nemo," etc.). It's a charming story about a rat named Remy who dreams of becoming a master chef. The "gimmick" of the movie is that Remy has a keen sense of smell, allowing him to cook with amazing intuition. "Ratatouille" is more about honesty, friendship, and family than anything else, however.

The movie has some flaws - like "Finding Nemo," this is a one-man show - Remy is the only truly intriguing character, which prevents "Ratatouille" from attaining the richness of "The Incredibles" or "Toy Story." The absurd premise works well enough, but there's never any real sustained notes of physical peril for Remy, which seems like a missed opportunity. The various action sequences are lively, but sometimes lack that trademark Pixar polish.

The folks over at Pixar have pretty much mastered this CGI animation thing, and are free to focus all their efforts on the details and story. There are long stretches of "Ratatouille" where you forget you're looking at the product of some server farm in California. Once they can bring this same sort of verisimilitude to all their characters on a consistent basis, Pixar won't just be the best CGI moviemakers, they'll be the best moviemakers period.

Rating: 8/10