The winner of the 2007 best animated feature Oscar from Pixar (home of Toy Story, Monsters, Inc and The Incredibles) measures up to, if not quite surpasses, the best of that animation stable. Here, a country rat with a gift for haute cuisine ends up saving the bacon - actually, the soup - of the garbage boy at Paris's finest restaurant. Together, they set out to fulfil each other's culinary dreams. Though it's a wee bit on the long side, this fast-moving, wholesome comedy nevertheless has some absolutely brilliant comic turns, the highlight being Peter O'Toole as Anton Ego, the tough, bitter food critic (who, rather disconcertingly, looks like Will Self). Working with a tight, well-judged script and sensational animation that makes you want to go home and cook - as well as be nicer to rodents - director Brad Bird delivered the best family comedy of that year.

Remy, a rat, possesses a palate far more refined than that of his fellow comrades. He dreams of becoming a chef, one who creates rather than scavenges. When fate deposits him in the sewers beneath one of Paris’s most famous restaurants, he finds himself ideally placed to fulfill his dream. Forming an unusual alliance with a hapless young kitchen worker, Remy begins a daring culinary double life. As Remy pursues his vision, he must navigate the suspicions of the calculating Head Chef Skinner, the disapproval of Remy’s own colony, and the foreboding presence of renowned food critic Anton Ego, who strikes fear in the hearts of chefs all throughout France.