Ratatouille is another Pixar masterpiece from acclaimed animation filmmaker Brad Bird, who also helmed The Incredibles and Finding Nemo.

This film tells the tale of Remy (voiced by Patton Oswalt), a rat with a highly developed sense of taste and smell, which naturally puts him at odds with his fellow rubbish rummaging kin. Inspired by his hero, the late Chef Gusteau (Brad Garrett), Remy leads a double life as a chef only to find himself putting his culinary skills to the test when he is separated from his family and friends and whisked away to Paris at the restaurant of his hero, no less.

There he forms a bond with doltish garbage boy Linguini (Lou Romano), using him as a decoy to serve mouth watering meals to the people of Paris, in the process becoming their most celebrated chef.      

With Ratatouille, Bird provides and highly entertaining, funny, and charming film which will appeal to both adults and children. It excels in all critical fields of the animated feature, displaying great character animation, sound effects, art direction and production design, and voice performances, including a chilling Peter O’Toole as the harsh food critic Anton Ego.

In the meantime, Bird also manages to successfully place sympathy and hero status upon the most despised of animals (even naturalist Sir David Attenborough detest the little buggers), whilst providing a (slight) insight into the existence of the rat as they scramble through sewers and pipes in search of food, with their heads constantly on a swivel as humans try to kill them.      

On top of this, Bird breaks the curse placed on films set in restaurants (or those about chefs) which are usually drab affairs, bringing in acclaimed chef Thomas Keller as a consultant on how to present delicious recipes which transcend the animation format.

In the process, Bird has created a film which celebrates fine cuisine, and pays tribute to Paris, the City of Romance, with a number of lush visuals of the city’s unmistakable sights. Overall, Ratatouille is a masterful animation feature sure to bring 2 hours of joy to whoever watches it.