Voice Cast: Patton Oswalt, Brian Dennehy, Brad Garrett, Janeane Garofalo, Ian Holm and Peter O’Toole
Director: Brad Bird
Studio Synopsis: A rat named Remy dreams of becoming a great chef despite his family’s wishes and the obvious problem of being a rat in a decidedly rodent-phobic profession. When fate places Remy in the city of Paris, he finds himself ideally situated beneath a restaurant made famous by his culinary hero, Auguste Gusteau. Despite the apparent dangers of being an unwanted visitor in the kitchen at one of Paris’ most exclusive restaurants, Remy forms an unlikely partnership with Linguini, the garbage boy, who inadvertently discovers Remy’s amazing talents. They strike a deal, ultimately setting into motion a hilarious and exciting chain of extraordinary events that turns the culinary world of Paris upside down. Remy finds himself torn between following his dreams or returning forever to his previous existence as a rat. He learns the truth about friendship, family and having no choice but to be who he really is, a rat who wants to be a chef.
Rating: G
Running Time: 115 minutes
Official Web site: http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/ratatouille/
Trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney/ratatouille/

The Verdict: There’s a rat in the Mouse House’s kitchen. But don’t call pest control. In the latest Pixar offering via Disney, a rodent with a rather refined palete (excitingly voiced by The King of Queen’s Patton Oswalt) dreams of becoming a world-famous chef. So Remy takes up residency in a Parisian restaurant that, following the death of its much-loved owner Auguste Gustea (Brad Garrett), has hit hard times. In need of a human pair of hands, Remy enlists the aid of perhaps the worst cook in all of Paris, the young and clumsy Linguini (Lou Romano). The prospect of a rat running loose in a 3-star eatery isn’t particularally appealing, but Remy’s a charming and enterprising fellow who utlimately comes to embody Gustea’s belief that anyone can cook. Director Brad Bird whips up many amusing moments of Remy honing his culinary skills, especially when he’s directing Linguini to do his bidding by tugging on his red mop of hair. Still, you may not want to step foot in your pantry again without taking with you a rat trap, and Bird knows this. So he turns the kitchen into such a place of great peril for Remy that Ratatouille often rivals his Incredibles in terms of thrills and spills. But Bird also discovers so much joy in the art of cooking that Ratatouille proves to be as tasty as such gourmet delights as Big Night, Like Water for Chocolate and the recent Waitress. Even Big Night’s Ian Holm gets in on the fun, as he gleefully turns Linguini’s convinncing boss Skinner into a paranoid and vindictative monster remincient of Herbert Lom’s Chief Insp. Charles Dreyfus in The Pink Panther series. Then there’s Peter O’Toole, whose ominiously commanding delivery ensures that a seemingly self-serving restaurant critic never becomes a very obvious object of hatred and ridicule. More droll than laugh-out funny, the rich, vibrant and rousing Ratatouille marks a magificent return to form for Pixar after last year’s stuck-in-neutral Cars. Ratatouille also confirms that—in the wake of The Incredibles and the non-Pixar Iron Giant—Bird is one of the brightest and imaginative directors working today. And thanks to Bird and Remy, don’t be surprised if Ratatouille does for its namesake French stewed vegetable dish what Sleepless in Seattle did for tiramisu.
—Robert Sims

Reviews:
Boca News (3 out of 4 stars)
City Link (5 out of 5 stars)
Hollywood.com (4 out of 4 stars)
Local 10 (3 1/2 out of 4 stars)
The Miami Herald (3 out of 4 stars)
New Times Broward-Palm Beach
The Palm Beach Post (A-)
The Sun-Sentinel (2 out of 4 stars)