Movie Review - Ratatouille

Southern Man's taste in movies runs more to action-adventure and sci-fi than animated cartoons, but given that Pixar Studios is seven for seven so far he has been rather eagerly awaiting their eight animated film Ratatouille and finally got a chance to see it with his eight-year-old daughter last week. Southern Man was anticipating a thoroughly enjoyable film and he was not dissapointed. The animation is technically excellent without being overpowering. There's plenty of genuine physical comedy and verbal wit with little of the overly cute animal humor or pop-culture references that have been so annoying in other recent animated films. The voice acting is, as always in the Pixar films, top-notch. And the plot is full of little pleasures and small surprises. This is perhaps lighter fare than the usual Pixar film and won't rank as Southern Man's favorite of the eight (and while Southern Man's mother didn't much care for a movie about rats in the kitchen) adjectives like "charming" and "delightful" come to mind. If you have children, you will almost certainly enjoy this one in the theatre and the DVD will get plenty of playing time for years to come.