From Pixar who brought us the magical wizardry in “Toy Story’ then “Finding Nemo” and “Cars” this time wins its own competition by bringing us their most brilliant movie to date. Remy is a rat from a fat family of rodents in the underbelly of Parisian society. His greatest desire is not to eat the garbage outside of somebody’s backdoor, but instead to be a famous chef. Caught between his alliance and his desire – a cook makes and a rat takes – Remy finds the perfect scape-goat in Linguini, a nerdy cook who is the heir to the great Gusteau! (Think Emerill with an illegitimate son who can’t boil water.) With Remy’s quivering little pink nose he knows how to mix cheese and saffron and vegetables to make the perfect soup, so long as he can use the human Linguini to pose for his brilliance. It all sounds like a piece of cake except they have to deal with the Napoleon dictator chef (Iam Holm) who wants to make frozen food lines using the great Gusteau name, while winning over the ultimate food-snob critic (voice of Peter O’Toole) who hasn’t left his home because “If I don’t love it, I don’t swallow.” The story resounds the theme that “anyone can cook” but my thought is not anyone can make a movie like this. The imagery and landscape, the sound of French accordion music, the foodie attitude, the snotty accents, is so delightfully sweet, so flawlessly real, such a delicious experience, one can practically smell the stew boiling off the perfectly polished yet slightly nicked copper pots. Four tiaras
