Cheese wiz

Voiced by the comedian Patton Oswalt , Remy is a foodie -- part snob, part epicure, totally bewildered that no one else can tell the difference between a morel and chanterelle. This guy is an alchemist. His obsession with the gustatory possibilities of mixing ingredients turns out to be serious. In one lovely sequence, the scene goes black around him as he tries out a toasted goat cheese, mushroom, rosemary treat. The combination is a jackpot, and when he tastes it the screen goes wild with color. These same ingredients, eaten by his dim, gluttonous brother, Emile (Peter Sohn ), leave the screen comically dulled, like a dud firecracker compared to Remy's Fourth of July sparklers.

Sadly, Remy has been living with Emile, their father, Django (Brian Dennehy ), and about a zillion other rats in the streets and sewers, using his refined olfactory sense to detect whether the food swiped from the garbage by his grubby, uncultured colony contains poison. He wants more for himself. He wants to be a chef at a five-star restaurant, not one for rodents, one for people -- people who happen to hate rodents. His father detests humans and forbids Remy to walk like homo sapiens (when he does, it's to keep his paws clean).

After he's separated from the colony, Remy's wish begins to come true. He's swept to the surface of a city he's shocked to discover is Paris (it gleams like a Fabergé egg). Not only that, he's in the kitchen of his favorite chef's restaurant. The late Gusteau (Brad Garrett) produced a culinary legacy that the current head chef -- a gnome named Skinner (Ian Holm) with Peter Lorre's face -- is guiltily leasing as a series of down-market microwaveable dinners (Chopsocky Pockets!).