Ratatouille messages.

Good movies may be hard to find in the summer, and there's nothing like a cartoon to keep the kids quiet on a hot or rainy day, but I was still surprised at the number of kids in the audience for "Ratatouille," the cartoon movie about restaurants, rats, and celebrity chefs.

The use of rats was serendipitous, with the awful news about rats in the New York City Taco Bell, but it also asked us to reconsider our prejudice. I wondered if the children being taken to see this movie were watching the Food Network along with Sesame Street, or had some prior exposure to celebrity chefs and restaurants as well as cartoons. Just one more reason that so many of our kids are overweight.

The film was as full of messages as "Sicko" or an old-fashioned morality play. Here are some of the messages it was delivering to a surprisingly wide audience:

* Anyone can cook

* Fine dining is complex and beautiful

* Prejudice is widespread and stupid

* Most of us are stuck in assumptions

* Good food is better than garbage

* There is no reason to eat junk or garbage except laziness and habit

* Great food is sublime--a spiritual experience

* Sublime food is transporting

* Simple food that is perfectly prepared can be sublime

* Greatness requires experimentation, failure, and creativity

* Mentoring helps to develop greatness

* Family comes through when all else fails

* The pursuit of excellence means breaking away

* Restaurant reputations are volatile

* Restaurant critics make and break reputations

* Celebrity chefs are egomaniacs

* Health departments equate rats with dirt

* To get good food, many people will go around health department closures as they went around Prohibition

* Love conquers all

* Ratatouille can taste sensational

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