'Ratatouille' (G)(out of four)

It's certainly not your usual recipe for family film success. Take a rodent who wants to be a chef and put him in a French restaurant. But the ingredients are really what makes the film "Ratatouille," dare I say, a feast for the eyes.

With the same comic timing and ingenious knack for taking non-humans and having them convey a universal human message, "Ratatouille" follows in the footsteps of Pixar predecessors like "Cars," "Finding Nemo," and "Monsters, Inc.," to tell the story of a rat who has an impossible dream.

Remy, a young rodent with a nose for gourmet food (and a voice that sounds like Garry Shandling, although the voice actor is Patton Oswalt), finds his calling when he and his brother – Emile, a slug of a rat who will eat anything -- break into a house to steal food. Remy gets a glimpse of the story of chef Auguste Gusteau on television. Gusteau once owned Paris' five-star restaurant, but it's since gone downhill since the chef's death.

When Remy gets separated from his herd, he finds that there's life above the sewer and that all along he's been just a few blocks underground from Gusteau's. Meanwhile, his eventual partner in gourmet grime, a clumsy garbage boy named Linguini, has found himself in a perilous position in the kitchen of Gusteau's.

The two form a partnership that takes them to a higher plateau of delectable, and many times improbable, situations. They also have to get past the scheming Skinner, the top chef now that Gusteau's gone.

With its twists and turns, the movie's slapstick comedy, action, universal message, family themes and foodie knowledge never overwhelms, but sets the tone for a movie that is tastefully done.

But a rat? Rodents cooking in a kitchen? A health inspector tied up and thrown into a freezer? And a movie for kids that takes place in Paris and is about French food? Hard as it is to believe, it really works.

It will take the younger set some time get engrossed in the 110-minute film; many times the food discussions become thick, but lots of cartoon peril will keep them from distraction. For parents, there's lots of emotional appeal.

While "Ratatouille" may not have the mass appeal of "The Incredibles," the movie works on so many levels it's difficult to dismiss it merely based on an unusual premise. Like any good dish, the film will have to be digested slowly. And as is typical with kids' films, parents will have to endure repeat showings of this one when it arrives on DVD.