NPR 07-08:In a Paris Kitchen, a Comedy that Genuinely Cooks“

Remy, the rodent¹ hero of Pixar's perfectly² seasoned Ratatouille, is a country rat with city tastes.

Pixar, the animation³ studio that created Finding Nemo and The Incredibles, has had an unbroken string of hits since it released Toy Story in 1995. Pixar’s pictures have almost always been as popular with critics as with audiences, though some felt last summer’s Cars needed a tuneup.

This weekend brings Ratatouille, a movie about a rat who wants to be a top chef. Bob Mondello says the Pixar animators have gotten the recipe just right.

Remy is a country rat with city tastes where his rodent relatives happily eat garbage. Remy watches cooking shows and has learned to sniff⁴ out spices. So when fate takes him to Paris, he hangs out at a restaurant, a cable TV chef made famous before he died. Alas⁵, restaurants don’t like having rats around, so Remy perches⁶ on the skylight, feeling sorry for himself and imagining what the chef would say to him if he was still around.

What do I always say? Anyone can cook.

Well, yeah, anyone can. That doesn’t mean that anyone should.

Well, that is not stopping him, see?

The clean-up boy has spilled some soup and he is guiltily and a little arbitrarily filling the pot back up.

He is ruining the soup, and nobody is noticing it. It’s your restaurant, do something.

What can I do? I am a figment of your imagination.

But he is ruining the soup, you gotta tell someone. Is that…

Falling from skylight to sink, Remy leaps into a series of what you might call kitchen ballets, sometimes sprinkling ingredients into pots, other times dodging⁷ knives thrown his way. What Remy needs is a front man for the kitchen, so he teams up with that clueless garbage boy by sitting under his chef's hat and telling him what to do. Imagine a culinary Cyrano de Bergerat in which the boy who is acceptable in the kitchen keeps wanting to confess to a lady chef he is sweet on about a rodent who isn’t acceptable.

When I added that extra ingredient and started following the recipe like you said. That wasn’t me.

What do you mean?

I mean I would have done that. I would have followed the recipe; I would have followed your advice, I would have followed your advice to the ends of the ear because I love your advice.

(but) But I(don’t do it) I have a secret. It’s sort of disturbing. I have a rat.(what, what you…) I have a rat. (You have a rat.) No, no, no. I have this, this tiny, a little, little, a tiny chef who tells me what to do.

Director Brad Bird is the guy who made The Incredibles. And like his super characters in that one, Ratatouilles’ food-obsessed folks inhabit a recognizably real world as they snipe about prepackaged meals and inadequate⁸ cheeses. They even acquaint an audience that may not know chives from chervil with restaurant terminology⁹. Don’t be surprised if your kids come home knowing what a sous-chef dose or asking for rice with saffron. With food so lovingly digitized that you can tell stale bread from fresh. Ratatouille isn’t just amusing, it’s downright mouthwatering. Also very pretty - Paris hasn’t looked so gorgeous since Gene¹⁰ Kelly danced there - and engagingly down-to-earth, all the way from its faintly harrowing rat swarms¹¹ ( Remy’s family drops by his workplace on occasion), to its hilariously¹² demanding food critic, Anton Ego¹³ (voiced by Peter O'Toole).

The studio is reportedly nervous about whether Ratatouille is too sophisticated. But it’s silly to underestimate the public appetite when a picture is this much fun. Kids are gonna gobble Ratatouille up, adults will relish¹⁴ its wit and everyone will wanna go out to eat afterwards. I am Bob Mondello.

1 rodent   

n.啮齿动物；adj.啮齿目的

参考例句：

• When there is a full moon,this nocturnal rodent is careful to stay in its burrow.月圆之夜，这种夜间活动的啮齿类动物会小心地呆在地洞里不出来。
• This small rodent can scoop out a long,narrow tunnel in a very short time.这种小啮齿动物能在很短的时间里挖出一条又长又窄的地道来。

2 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

3 animation   

n.活泼，兴奋，卡通片／动画片的制作

参考例句：

• They are full of animation as they talked about their childhood.当他们谈及童年的往事时都非常兴奋。
• The animation of China made a great progress.中国的卡通片制作取得很大发展。

4 sniff   

vi.嗅…味道；抽鼻涕；对嗤之以鼻，蔑视

参考例句：

• The police used dogs to sniff out the criminals in their hiding - place.警察使用警犬查出了罪犯的藏身地点。
• When Munchie meets a dog on the beach, they sniff each other for a while.当麦奇在海滩上碰到另一条狗的时候，他们会彼此嗅一会儿。

5 alas   

int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等)

参考例句：

• Alas!The window is broken!哎呀！窗子破了！
• Alas,the truth is less romantic.然而，真理很少带有浪漫色彩。

6 perches   

栖息处( perch的名词复数 )； 栖枝； 高处； 鲈鱼

参考例句：

• Other protection can be obtained by providing wooden perches througout the orchards. 其它保护措施是可在种子园中到处设置木制的栖木。
• The birds were hopping about on their perches and twittering. 鸟儿在栖木上跳来跳去，吱吱地叫着。

7 dodging   

n.避开，闪过，音调改变v.闪躲( dodge的现在分词 )；回避

参考例句：

• He ran across the road, dodging the traffic. 他躲开来往的车辆跑过马路。
• I crossed the highway, dodging the traffic. 我避开车流穿过了公路。 来自辞典例句

8 inadequate   

adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的

参考例句：

• The supply is inadequate to meet the demand.供不应求。
• She was inadequate to the demands that were made on her.她还无力满足对她提出的各项要求。

9 terminology   

n.术语；专有名词

参考例句：

• He particularly criticized the terminology in the document.他特别批评了文件中使用的术语。
• The article uses rather specialized musical terminology.这篇文章用了相当专业的音乐术语。

10 gene   

n.遗传因子，基因

参考例句：

• A single gene may have many effects.单一基因可能具有很多种效应。
• The targeting of gene therapy has been paid close attention.其中基因治疗的靶向性是值得密切关注的问题之一。

11 swarms   

蜂群，一大群( swarm的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They came to town in swarms. 他们蜂拥来到城里。
• On June the first there were swarms of children playing in the park. 6月1日那一天，这个公园里有一群群的孩子玩耍。

12 hilariously   

参考例句：

• Laughing hilariously, Wu Sun-fu left the study and ran straight upstairs. 吴荪甫异样地狂笑着，站起身来就走出了那书房，一直跑上楼去。 来自互联网
• Recently I saw a piece of news on the weband I thought it was hilariously ridiculous. 最近在网上的新闻里看到一则很好笑的新闻。 来自互联网

13 ego   

n.自我，自己，自尊

参考例句：

• He is absolute ego in all thing.在所有的事情上他都绝对自我。
• She has been on an ego trip since she sang on television.她上电视台唱过歌之后就一直自吹自擂。

14 relish   

n.滋味，享受，爱好，调味品；vt.加调味料，享受，品味；vi.有滋味

参考例句：

• I have no relish for pop music.我对流行音乐不感兴趣。
• I relish the challenge of doing jobs that others turn down.我喜欢挑战别人拒绝做的工作。