Director: Brad Bird, U, 110min

Voices: Peter O’Toole, Patton Oswalt, Lou Romano

On general release

The omens for the kitchen-based cartoon Ratatouille were bad from the start. It was to be Pixar Animation’s follow-up to Cars, which was panned by the critics. It was quickly exposed as a salvage job on an abandoned project by the Czech animator Jan Pinkava. And, furthermore, it was immersed in the esoteric and hardly kiddie-friendly world of haute cuisine. And yet, somehow, in an “only in Hollywood” way, Ratatouille has emerged as one of the smartest and sweetest movies of the year, and an animation classic in its own right.

The story set-up is fantastically complicated, though never confusing, and revolves around Gusteau’s fictional Parisian restaurant, where a gastronomically inspired rat called Remy (Oswalt) creates dream dishes while hiding in the toque of a kitchen porter called Linguini (Romano) – Remy uses Linguini like a human marionette and thus directs him, via deftly yanked hair curls, to the correct ingredients.

Meanwhile, Linguini has fallen for the fiery sous chef Colette (Janeane Garofalo), the unscrupulous boss Skinner (Ian Holm) is turning Gusteau’s into a brand name for junk food, the terrifying restaurant critic Anton Ego (O’Toole) is on his way, as are the multitudes from Remy’s rat brood, and all while the secret of Linguini’s cooking skills and of his very identity (there is a bloodline mystery in there as well) are about to be revealed.

During all this meticulously constructed frippery Bird keeps the action set-pieces flowing fast (a breakneck street chase is just one of the highlights) and the one-liners duly piquant – “I hate to be rude,” says Colette. “But I’m French.” The movie, like all classics, also has a modest soul and celebrates creativity over commercialism, and loudly denigrates fast food (possibly a stretch for a global corporation not above a McDonald’s tie-in or two). The finale, however, featuring O’Toole’s impeccably voiced critic is unexpectedly moving and leaves, yes, you’ve guessed it, a delicious aftertaste.

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