If Jamie Oliver revealed it's OK to shove hands into the ingredients, Gordon Ramsay encouraged swearing, and Keith Floyd proved that operating an oven while drunk can be safe, Auguste Gusteau showed that anybody could cook.

Remy the rat doesn’t care that the legendary French chef wasn’t exactly addressing rodents. Blessed with a remarkably good sense of smell, the little critter acquires a taste for fine foods and harbors dreams of becoming a culinary genius — even if there are a couple of obstacles in his way. One: his garbage-devouring family merely see his olfactory talents as a way of sniffing out rat poison in their food. Two: he's a rat.

But when Remy finds himself in Paris — at the late Gusteau's restaurant no less — he enters into an unlikely arrangement that allows him to cook up a storm while helping out a hapless dishwasher on the brink of being fired, tantalising an ice-hearted food critic, and saving the once great eatery from the less than noble ambitions of its new head chef.

Implausible? Yes. Utterly believable? Absolutely. This is a Pixar film after all, so everything — including the astounding animation — serves the story, ensuring that you're completely swept up by it. Just as the bitter journalist Anton Ego is transported back to his youth by Remy's cooking, 'Ratatouille' transforms you into a child, listening, spellbound, to bedtime stories.

The only difference is even those stories were never quite as mesmerising, inventive or uproariously funny as Brad Bird's magical movie. An instant classic.

Move over Mickey…

Extras:

Did you know that there are 1400 edible insect species? That's but one of the (useless but) interesting facts in 'Remy's Incredible But Edible', just one of the umpteen special features spread over two discs. Apart from the bizarre culinary treats (piranha salad, stink head surprise, chocolate covered bug treats…) these featurettes include insights into the characters courtesy of writer-director Bird, often complemented by unseen and works-in-progress footage; and five short behind the scenes documentaries that detail the amount of work the animators put in — from studying French mannerisms to taking cooking lessons.

Four deleted scenes — presented in the form of static storyboard drawings and accompanied by detailed explanations from Bird and his cohorts — reveal how the story took shape. Providing fewer revelations, 'Your Friend The Rat' is more entertaining than educational with Remy and his brother Emile presenting a stylishly animated but superficial short film on their own species.

'Fine Food And Film', meanwhile, draws parallels between the director and chef Thomas Keller (basically, both work hard and are creative), although the repetitive international trailers and progression reel showing a scene's development from original concept to finished product are both a bit of a flop.

The same can't be said of hilarious alien spaceship driving lesson 'Lifted', easily the funniest ever Pixar short, appropriately accompanying the company's best film yet. Move over Mickey, you know the drill by now…