With the DVD released on Monday, and currently with some time off work at the moment, today I was allowed the pleasure of watching Pixar's Ratatouille.

I'm a huge fan of the Pixar movies, and their ideologies and 'a-film-for-all' way of thinking usually ensure you'll be watching more than just standard-family fare. Oh, and their pioneers in CG animation too apparently. But I love the Pixar films all the same, and they're exactly that kind natural evolution from all the Disney animation I grew up watching with my sister, and yet, they're still a lot more pivotal than all the other contemporary movie fluff released for both adults and children as separate markets.

Ratatouille as has already been well promoted is a film about a rat in Paris with aspirations of becoming a chef. As a public enemy and social pest being a rat ensures his dreams are soon put on hold, but with the befriending of a hapless kitchen assistant it's not long before the completion of his goals begin to manifest. Theoretically it's a pretty surreal concept, but as with previous Pixar movies (talking cars, the concept of monsters, superheroes et al) this is soon forgotten as both characters and story is well-realised and developed. But once again it's these characters and this story that is the most appealing part of the film. There's no denying the appeal and draw of the visual fireworks (which are nice btw) and the humour, but the story is exciting, interesting, and to use a word perhaps better-suited to traditional Disney, enchanting.

Embarrassingly, Finding Nemo is one of my all-time favourite films, and while personally Ratatouille is good, it's still not my favourite Pixar film. But i'm the minority, and such references to it's predecessors are entirely unnecessary because of the overall quality that Ratatouille exudes and the quality that it brings not just to the CG animation genre but to films and story-telling in general. It was fun, and while it's still a bit too early to re-watch it, it is one of those films like Toy Story or Nemo that I can imagine re-watching countless time over the next few years.