rats and mice

I went up to my family’s cottage this weekend. It was very cold, and there were mice. Probably didn’t get warmer than 20 degrees (C) ’til the day we left (of course). Still got to get in a little swimming (had to traverse debris though - my dad was rebuilding the dock).

We saw Ratatouille before we left, and I was quite surprised by it (although really, what was I expecting from a Pixar flick? Anything less than amazingness?).

Thanks to Disney’s inept marketing I knew pretty much nothing about it going in, other than it was a Pixar movie about rats (which is really a good thing - I’m sick of seeing movies where I already know all the good moments because they put them all in the trailer).

It is about a adorably ambitious little rat who has a stirring passion for cooking who finds himself in the (once) finest kitchen in all of Paris. He pairs up with similarly adorable but not nearly as ambitious human to take on all the snobbery and bad tempers that France has to offer. Hilarity ensues.

What this movie comes down to is rats, the cooking of truly fine food and Paris - and Pixars animators captured them all in a gloriously gauzy haze of nostalgia (which won me over to their chubby, fuzzy, adorable little interpretation of rodents - they already had me with the Paris and the fine food).

They actually used Chefs from French Laundry (one of the finest restaurants in the world, with the most beautiful food) to oversee the food design. A more appropriate choice could not have been made, and speaks to Pixar’s incredible taste and discretion.

There were also small references to Amelie, and larger allusions to the Muppets (Jim Henson being the patron saint of adorably sarcastic rats and underground dwellers).

Do I even have to tell you how much I loved this movie?

It did, occasionally, have it’s faults (overlong by a about twenty minutes, and there is this speech at the end that I didn’t really get the point of - and felt was a little misplaced). But overall it sucks you into it’s golden little epicurean world, and you don’t mind staying there at all (even during the slow bits, even with all the rats).

All in all, I am definitely putting Brad Bird on my “geniuses I would someday like to steal the brains of” list. He has more than proved himself with this one.