As a movie concept, the idea of a rat becoming a famous cook doesn't hold much promise. It's a counterintuitive storyline considering the rodents inhabit the opposite end of the hygiene scale from anything we would want associated with food preparation. The first reflex is more ick than hilarity.

But it says something about the extraordinary run of animated hits by Pixar Studios that "Ratatouille" - the story about the rat who would be chef - is one of the most satisfying bits of entertainment to come out of Hollywood this year.

"Ratatouille" is the story of Remy (voiced by Patton Oswalt), a rat who loves fine food the way other rats love garbage. His passion as a gourmet leads him into a secret life, hiding in a farmhouse kitchen to watch a cooking show on TV and occasionally raid the spice rack to perk up his own creations.

Eventually Remy is discovered by a sweet little old lady with a shotgun and a trigger finger that would be the envy of the NRA. Remy's narrow escape leaves him clinging to a beloved cookbook as he is washed down a culvert and ultimately into the sewers under Paris.

Once there, he makes his way into the restaurant of the cookbook's author and an unlikely alliance with a kitchen boy, Linguini (Lou Romano), who has ambitions to rise in the cooking world but none of the rat's talent.

The pairing of Remy and Linguini is a complicated conceit that would have beached a lesser effort. But the genius of Pixar Studios has never been so much in the stories they tell as making sure you're having a lot of fun while it unfolds.

In the case of "Ratatouille" that means physical comedy. Remy and Linguini try to blend themselves into a single super-chef with the rat guiding the young cook's movements. Their delightfully spastic efforts are reminiscent of Kramer on "Seinfeld."

Everywhere you turn the inspired comedic timing of "Ratatouille's" animators sweeps the story along. Even the most clich