Friday, June 29, 2007

Ratatouille Wins Over Even a Restaurant Critic's Heart

Was that chervil Remy was about to toss into the soup?

While a theater full of young kids giggled along with the slapstick hijinks of Ratatouille's animated rodent hero at a recent screening, I sat agog at the film's painstaking re-creations of culinary minutiae.

It wasn't just parsley in Remy's paws. It was, indeed, chervil, the less common herb with smaller leaves whose delicate flavor is ideal for exactly the sort of creamy potage Remy was scurrying to concoct. And he wasn't merely readying to hurl the sprig into the pot. He had crushed it, a technique used to release the herb's aromatic oils and more quickly absorb its flavor into the soup.

Boy, that's specific. But it illustrates the kinds of pains through which Pixar went to accurately mimic Ratatouille's world of French restaurants. And as someone who has spent most of his professional life either working in restaurants or reviewing them, I was mighty impressed. ...
I have to say that I was impressed to see that the Dallas Morning News sent not only their movie critic but a restaurant critic as well to see Ratatouille.

Now I really can't wait ... except that we have opted to see it on the Fourth of July so I'll have to hold out for just a few more days.

To see what the movie critics say, check out Decent Films and Past the Popcorn.
Ratatouille is rated G. Yessiree. And no political mumbo-gumbo snuck into the recipe, either, unlike many other kids’ movies this year. Just good clean fun, and a sophisticated parable about the film business that will sail cleanly over even your teenagers’ heads.

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