Ratatouille

...then "Ratatouille" is a good choice. It's a great story with a lot to offer kids and adults. But, the reason for my comment is that apparently computer animation has reached a point where it can render the stuff of nightmares.

The rats have likable personalities and make surprisingly sympathetic characters, but each and every hair is rendered. When there is rat pack on the screen, you can see each and every hair, to the point where it taps into conscious and subconscious feelings towards rodents (personally, I like 'em.)

The juxtaposition of fine food with the image of 1001 rats scurrying across a kitchen makes this animated feature worth the investment of 90 minutes.

Just don't try the trick of cooking mushrooms over a rooftop chimney in a thunderstorm!

There should never be blasting shot guns in a G rated movie. That constitutes violence to me. My 3.5 year old daughter got very upset and we did not even get to the wonderful parts because the gun scene appears within the first 15 minutes of the film.

A young rat named Remy is shunned by his family and other rats for his mature palate. While they, like all rats, eat garbage, he tries to blend flavors to enhance his food. When he, then, becomes unfortunately separated from the other rats he must learn to fend for himself for the first time and winds up in the most unlikely of situations. He teams up with Linguini, an awkward young man who is an aspiring chef. Together they are able to bring Remy's culinary visions to the (human) public. The unconventional duo must fight through adversity that is more than just what would happen if people found out that not only is there a rat in the kitchen, but that rat just prepared their dinner.

I liked this movie. It wasn't my favorite Pixar movie, but I certainly enjoyed the creativity. And it looked great, as the Pixar movies all do. The story was a little weak on its own, and I feel that I enjoyed it a little more on a personal level than others might. If you don't enjoy being in the kitchen, you might miss some of the charm, I feel, was present in this movie.

Many, many companies have created movies that focused on relationships between animals, people, and inanimate objects as key plot lines. Most of these movies come up short as the interactions between humans and non-humans often seem forced or fake; examples include "All Dogs go to Heaven", "Howard the Duck", "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" and "Cool World". But Pixar has mastered this art, with classics such as Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and now Ratatouille. Released in 2007, this movie is by far the best animated movie of 2007, if not one of the best movies overall. It features an original cast of characters that include a cooking rat, his clumsy human apprentice, the latter's lady of interest, a conniving head chef, an imposing restaurant reviewer, the rat's lackadasical brother, and their selfish, hard-headed father. The setting is Paris and the surrounding French countryside, and the musical score fits the French setting perfectly. The storyline itself is amazing and original; I cannot remember any other movie with even a slight similarity in plot. And the animation is perfect; to see the rats move, the ripples in a bowl of soup, the flutter of leaves; all of it looks so real. Best of all is the comedy, again a trademark of all Disney classics. All in all, one of the best movies of 2007.

This is a great movie, very good story line and excellent on Blu-Ray. The video looks great on the Blu-Ray player.