Ratatouille: Critic Reviews

Ratatouille has the Pixar technical magic without, somehow, the full Pixar flavor. It's Brad Bird's genial dessert, not so much incredible as merely sweetly edible.

Displaying the usual meticulousness associated with the Pixar brand, Ratatouille is a nearly flawless piece of popular art.

I loved Ratatouille. I was even tempted to drop the odd bit of popcorn, like tipping the waiter after a particularly good meal.

Ratatouille is delicious fun sure to be savored by audiences of all ages for its sumptuous visuals, clever wit and irresistibly inspiring tale.

Ratatouille doesn't center on the over-familiar surfaces of contemporary life. It harks back to Disney's older era, when cartoons seemed part of a more elegant world with less edgy characters.

The movie doesn't have to strain for liftoff the way Pixar's Cars did (that movie had a Volvo's boxiness). Ratatouille keeps inventing surprises.

The Pixar magic continues with Brad Bird's Ratatouille, a gorgeous, wonderfully inventive computer-animated comedy.

The characters are irresistible, the animation is astonishing and the film, a fantasy version of a foodie rhapsody, sustains a level of joyous invention that hasn't been seen in family entertainment since The Incredibles.

Pixar, the undisputed heavyweight champion of the animation world, retains the title with this winning tale.

Writer and director Brad Bird keeps Ratatouille moving without resorting to the cute animal jokes or pop-culture wisecracking that ruined so many other recent animated films.

Brad Bird wrote and directed Ratatouille and tops his previous work. Since his work includes The Iron Giant and The Incredibles, this puts him somewhere between Chuck Jones and Michelangelo.

In Ratatouille, the level of moment-by-moment craftsmanship is a wonder.

A lot of animated movies have inspired sequels, notably Shrek, but Brad Bird's Ratatouille is the first one that made me positively desire one.

Ratatouille will make you wonder why animation needs to hide behind the mantle of 'it's for children, but grownups will like it, too.' This one's for Mom and Dad, and yep, the kids will like it, too.

The film may be animated, and largely taken up with rats, but its pulse is gratifyingly human. And you have never seen a computer-animated feature with this sort of visual panache and detail.

Brad Bird's second collaboration with Pixar is more ambitious and meditative than his Oscar-winning The Incredibles.

With Ratatouille, Bird once again delivers not just a great, witty story, but dazzling visuals as well.

It's not just the computer animation that is vibrantly three-dimensional. It's also the well-rounded characters... I defy you to name another animated film so overflowing with superfluous beauty.

Ratatouille has the technical genius, emotional core and storytelling audacity to lift it into the ranks of [the best] Pixar films, the creme de la creme of modern animation.

Like the burbling soup that plays a key part in Ratatouille, the movie is a delectable blend of ingredients that tickles the palette and leaves you hungry for more.

Ratatouille is a veritable feast for the eye and the ear. Don't miss it.

The master chefs at Pixar have blended all the right ingredients -- abundant verbal and visual wit, genius slapstick timing, a soupcon of Gallic sophistication -- to produce a warm and irresistible concoction.

Arguably the finest 'toon in the Pixar canon.

Has Pixar lost its magic recipe? Ratatouille is filled with fairly generic animated imagery, a few modest chases, a couple of good gags, not a lot of laughs.

Had Bird gone the safe route, he would have robbed us of a great new cartoon figure in Remy, who like the rest of the film is rendered with animation that is at once fanciful and life-like. It's also my pick for Pixar's best.