A Rat who can Cook!!!

Ratatouille - is the name of the movie released recently by Pixar. It was an exciting time for me and my wife to take our 2 year old son for this movie.

My son is a fan of Pixar's movie "Cars" and so when the movie trailers of "Ratatouille " were out, we were on the lookout for taking him for this movie. We got a chance to take him for this movie on 2nd Sept. at Eng Wah Cinemas at Suntec city. There is this company called Berri Works Pte Ltd. who has been organising movies for families with kids as small as 1-2 years old. There are a few games organised for the kids before this show & goodie bags are provided for the families booking the tickets.

My son is still new to the animal Rat so he was not sure what is the sound a Rat makes so he tends to say "who who" pointing at the rat on the poster. He has a gleam in his eyes when he is doing this and I love to watch him like this. This movie starts with a space ship trying to pick this boy when he is asleep in an isolated house far from all the towns. This part was something which was not linked with the movie & apparently sound was too loud to scare a few kids come to see the show.

The movie starts with this Rat, Rémy who is different from all the rats in this small village near Paris, who likes to eat good food & watch TV. But he is most impressed by Gosteau - A famous chef who has a TV show where he presents his speciailities every show. The Remy developes a liking for good food & his passion for cooking also takes over all other things that Rats tend to do. Due to certain reasons, the rats end up in the water drainage system and by chance Remy ends up at the Restaurant of Gosteau, who has just recently died. He is thrilled to see this place & wants to see more & so lets himself into the Kitchen where he sees chef's busy cooking.

The story progresses with a new recruit Linguini, Alfredo Linguini who arrives with a letter of introduction from his recently deceased mother, and is hired on to do duties. Linguini spills a pot of soup and attempts to cover up his mistake by adding random ingredients. Upset, Rémy falls into the kitchen and attempts to fix the ruined soup rather than trying to escape. Linguini catches Rémy in the act, just as Skinner(the head Chef) catches Linguini. In the confusion some of the soup has been served. To everyone's surprise, the soup is a success.

Linguini, discovers that Remy is the one who can cook very well and so does the restaurant starts getting orders for recipes being prepared by Linguini. To achieve this feat of cooking without knowing cooking is worked out by Remy and Linguini, where Remy hides in Linguini's Chef hat & pulls his hair when he needs Linguini to do the cooking, so that Linguini's body moves in a way, Remy wants & it appears that Linguini is doing the things right.

Skinner plies Linguini with vintage Chateau latour in an unsuccessful attempt to discover the secret of his unexpected talents. The next morning,hung over and disheveled, Linguini nearly confides his secret to Colette. Desperately trying to stop Linguini, Rémy pulls his hair, making him fall on Colette, leading the two to kiss. They begin dating, leaving Rémy feeling abandoned. Meanwhile, Skinner learns after some sleuthing that, unknown to everyone, Linguini is in fact Gusteau's son and stands to inherit the restaurant. This would thwart Skinner's ambition to exploit Gusteau's image to market prepared frozen foods.

One night Rémy and his colony are reunited. While looking for food Rémy discovers Gusteau's will which, after a chase by Skinner, he presents to Linguini. Linguini now owns the restaurant, fires Skinner, and becomes a rising star in the culinary world. After a falling out, Linguini decides he no longer needs Rémy, and Rémy retaliates by leading a kitchen raid for his rat colony. Linguini attempts to apologize to Rémy, only to discover and kick out his whole colony. Rémy feels guilty about hurting his friend, and refuses to join them in resuming the raid.
Things come to a head the night of a planned review by well known food critic Anton Ego. Linguini, unable to cook without the rat's guidance, admits his ruse to the staff when Rémy shows up, leading them all to walk out. Colette returns after thinking through Gusteau's motto, "Anyone can cook!" Django, inspired by his son's courage, returns with the entire rat colony to cook under Rémy's direction, while Linguini, discovering his true talent, waits tables on roller skates. Colette helps Rémy prepare Ratatouille (is a traditional French Provencal stewed vegetable dish, originating in Nice. The full name of the dish is ratatouille niçoise); Rémy's new recipe produces a dish so good that, in the climax of the film, a bite of it leads Ego to relive childhood memories of his mother. Ego asks to meet the chef but Colette insists he must wait until the rest of the diners have left. At the end of the service, Rémy and the rats are revealed. A changed man, Ego writes a glowing review, declaring that the chef at Gusteau's is the greatest chef in all of France. And rest is history.

There are quite a few occassions in the movie, when there are comic scenes and make kids laugh, but more so the movie is about friendship and in this case, talks about friends who need not be both humans. I guess we all have seen friendship between a Dog and man or a horse and a man. But this I guess is one of the first attempts to depict a relationship between a Rat and a human being. The movie is worth watching & applauding for its sweet story line. Looking forward for the next Pixar release.