Remy has a problem. He’s not like his brother or his father, who are pretty much content to eat anything they come across. In fact, he’s not like anyone he knows. You see, he has a unique gift when it comes to the sense of smell, and it enables him to do wondrous things with food. Remy’s hero is a famous Parisian chef named Gusteau whose landmark cookbook is entitled Anyone Can Cook.

Remy has another problem. He’s a rat.

The scuttlebutt in the industry is that, supposedly, the public is going to have a big problem with plunking down money for an animated movie about rats. Personally, I suspect that’s just industry excuse-making for the disappointing boxoffice results for last year’s Flushed Away. Audiences will go ga-ga for great characters and excellent entertainment regardless of their species. After all, one of the most famous animated characters ever is a mouse. Right?

Nonetheless, the human bias against rats plays directly into the plot of Ratatouille. After Remy is accidentally separated from his “pack,” the spirit of Gusteau leads him directly into Gusteau’s kitchen. He is in heaven.

There, Remy meets the bumbling cook’s assistant, Linguini. It’s a match made in heaven, sort of, as Remy is able to make Linguini look like a culinary genius. But there’s still the problem of rats in the kitchen… And there’s Gusteau’s jealous successor… And there’s Colette, Linguini’s feisty mentor… And there’s health inspectors, naturally… And finally, there’s Anton Ego, the restaurant critic whose negative review could sink Gusteau’s for good.

As multilayered as Ratoutille’s plot is, however, it’s easily the most out-and-out cinematic fun of the summer so far. Think of it as Curse of the Black Pearl, without guns, swords, skeletons, buried treasure, or pirates.

Maybe think of your favorite Pixar flick, whether it be The Incredibles, Monsters Inc., Cars, or Toy Story 2, and figure on Ratatouille giving a hard run at number one on your list.

And as good as the animation is here, generally speaking, Pixar’s monumental achievement is in making animated human characters fun again. Long, long gone are the days of Ice Age’s lumbering, mechanically sloth-like Neanderthals.

Better yet, director Brad Bird totally eschews stunt voice casting. While there are indeed some big names in this cast, virtually none of them trots out the expected and obvious vocal mannerisms. Bird directs real voice characterizations here, a rarity in animated films since the days of Robin Williams and Aladdin. (I actually encourage you to avoid looking at the cast list before seeing the film. That way you won’t waste any of your time playing spot-the-voice when there are so many really delightful things to be paying attention to. Then you’ll be delighted afterward to find out how surprising and talented some of your favorite actors can really be.)

Finally, Bird has managed to tell an effectively paced story that will keep kids occupied while entertaining adults at the same time. As promising as Meet the Robinsons was for Disney, the House of Mouse has Pixared itself one better with Ratatouille. If you splurge on one film for your family this summer, think really really hard about making Ratatouille your main course.

Ratatouille is rated G. Yessiree. And no political mumbo-gumbo snuck into the recipe, either, unlike many other kids’ movies this year. Just good clean fun, and a sophisticated parable about the film business that will sail cleanly over even your teenagers’ heads.

Courtesy of a local publicist, Greg attended a press screening of Ratatouille.