I Don't Like Rats

A typical day in Remy's life

... But I can't help liking Remy a lot. He's the star chef in the very endearing and funny Ratatouille. Managed to catch it yesterday with a dear friend. It was a truly wonderful evening.

I think everyone who's anyone can relate to the movie. That's because there's a Remy in everyone of us. We have big and seemingly impossible dreams. And sometimes we feel like such a small fry in the face of giants and that everything else is against us.

Being a cat lover, I naturally detest rats. They are so cunning, dirty and have screechy voices. There were some parts of the movie where I cringed upon seeing a bastion of rats swarming about the kitchen. Yeeech.

Coincidentally, just last week, I was introduced to a character very much like Remy. He's none other than Detective Conan.

• Both of them have a hero. Remy's is a famous dead French chef, Conan's hero is Sherlock Holmes.


• Both of them are especially gifted. Remy has amazing culinary skills, Conan is a brilliant detective.


• Both are small. Remy's a medium-sized rat, Conan shrunk to the body of a 7-year old kid.


• Both are the hidden genius behind their unskilled and often-times idiotic 'bosses'. Remy controls his chef alter ego like a puppet, Conan tags along this big and lumbering adult detective in his cases.

Another observation is that a couple of my guy buddies were inspired to cook French cuisine after the movie. Whereas for me, I just wanted to pig out on authentic French foodies. This just confirms my belief that men make better chefs. If my dad were to watch Remy in action, methinks we'll have French food this whole week at home

Anyway, after the movie, I thought that maybe rats weren't that horrible after all. That was until we were crossing this road and I saw a real-life rat appearing from the sewer and skulking under a car. It was huge and black. Its fur glistened with droplets of drain water.

Eeeeeew. Nah, I still hate rats.

But do go catch the movie if you can. The typical Pixar intro in the beginning is great, too

Photo credits