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Rats!

Inside Edition's recent expose of rat-infested high end steakhouses in Boston couldn't have come at a better time for Disney and Pixar. On June 29th, they hope to have families lined up paying to see rats in kitchens. In Ratatouille, Patton Oswalt (Best Week Ever, The Comedians of Comedy) stars as Remy,a gourmand rat living in Paris and surreptitiously realizing his dream of cooking in a famous (if perhaps resting on its laurels) French restaurant. Pixar has always done an eerily effective job of putting very adult anxieties in a kid-friendly setting. Many of their films have exploited a "Let's scare the pants off the parents" theme. The Incredibles was an almost heartbreaking portrait of the family dynamic, Monsters Inc cheekily explored truly alternate lifestyles, and Finding Nemo may as well have been called, "Not Without My Flounder!" Ratatouille seems aimed at the dusty but not quite forgotten dreams we too often force ourselves to forget when real life gets in the way. Visually, the film is a treat. The chaos of a professional kitchen is in full play, and one almost expects to hear Gordon Ramsay spin around the corner and unleash a torrent of expletives at the hapless staff. Perfectly rendered CGI knives chop virtual food with precision and speed. The critters are fuzzy and non-threatening, the people are cartoonish enough to not be creepy, and the Parisian cityscape seems real enough to touch. Ratatouille is up against stiff competition this summer. This simple rat-in-the-kitchen story will have to duke it out at the cineplex with pirates, ogres, and wizards. But if you've seen every repeat of Top Chef six times and you can't stomach another minute of Rachael Ray's fingernails-on-chalkboard wheeze, spare an afternoon for Remy. Don't be surprised if your eight-year-old walks out of the theater intent on attending Le Cordon Bleu.