When the producers of "Ratatouille"
started making their movie, they wondered who in their right
mind would pay to see an animated tale about a rat cooking in a
high-class French restaurant.
"We are still wondering," said producer Brad Lewis, despite
the fact that the Disney/Pixar film has grossed $620 million at
worldwide box offices and is widely expected to win Sunday's
Oscar for 2007's best animated film.
Academy Award pundit Tom O'Neil calls the movie, "the big
cheese in the contest. It has the highest critics' ranking of
any film this year -- 93 percent of critics liked it and it
should have been nominated for best picture."
Only one animated film has been nominated for best film,
1991's "Beauty and the Beast," and it lost.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences created a
separate category for the world's top film honors to single out
full-length cartoon movies starting with nominees for 2001.
While "Ratatouille" is the front-runner for this year's
Oscar, it has stiff competition from "Persepolis," a French
film about a schoolgirl's rebellion against the repression of
women in Islamic Iran, and "Surf's Up" about surfing penguins.
All three have won critical respect and praise from fellow
animators. French officials liked "Persepolis" so much they
made it the country's candidate for best foreign language film,
but it failed to be nominated in that category and wound up as
a rare foreign language entry in animation.
A BIRD AND A RAT
"Ratatouille" producer Lewis credited the success of the
film to director Brad Bird, the Oscar-winning animator for "The
Incredibles," who was implored by Disney/Pixar to take over a
project that was spinning out of control.
Lewis said that when Bird stepped in, "It wasn't that the
film was going nowhere, but that it was going everywhere at
once. Brad came in and gave it focus."
"Ratatouille" is the latest in a long line of Disney/Pixar
animated hits that includes two "Toy Story" movies, "Finding
Nemo" and "Cars." Many critics believe this newest movie is the
best so far.
Maxim film critic Pete Hammond said Bird has a great talent
for humanizing his subjects, especially in the case of the hero
in "Ratatouille," a rat named Remy who has a knack for
preparing fine cuisine and a dream of being a great chef.
"There is something relatable about someone following a
dream when he doesn't have a chance, an outsider who knows he
is talented and is just looking for a way in," Hammond said.
"Even in our presidential race, where either a woman or an
African American is about to win a major party nomination --
just like a rat running a French restaurant -- who would ever
have thought that would happen?" Hammond added.
Despite his four legs, furry body and long tail, Remy is
about as human as a rat can be, and he befriends another
dreamer -- this one human -- the garbage boy in the restaurant
of a once famous chef, Auguste Gusteau.
Together, the pair of unlikely kitchen mates create the
best restaurant in Paris. While their journey is not without
its perils, eventually the two learn lessons about friendship.
(Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
In Theaters 
