Ratatouille

Remy is a rat who lives in the attic of a French country home with his brother Emile and his father Django, the leader of a rat colony. Inspired by a television show hosted by France's recently deceased top chef, Auguste Gusteau, Remy does his best to learn how to cook. Underappreciating his exceptionally discerning sense of smell, his clan puts him to work sniffing for rat poison in their food.

The old woman who lives in the house discovers the rat infestation and the colony is forced to flee. Remy lags behind to grab Gusteau's cookbook and is separated from the others. He floats through a storm sewer on the book, ending up by chance at his idol's namesake restaurant, now run by former sous-chef Skinner.

Linguini, a young man with no culinary talent, shows up at the restaurant with a letter of introduction from his recently deceased mother. Because she is fondly remembered by the staff as Gusteau's old flame, a reluctant Skinner is pressured into hiring him to clean up. Linguini accidentally spills a pot of soup and attempts to cover up his mistake by adding nearby ingredients at random. A horrified Remy, watching from a skylight, falls into the kitchen. While desperately trying to escape out the window, Remy cannot help but try to fix the ruined soup. Linguini catches Remy in the act, just as Skinner confronts Linguini. During the confusion, some of the soup is served to a critic, who is favorably impressed. Colette, the kitchen's sole female cook, convinces Skinner not to fire Linguini; Skinner agrees, provided Linguini recreates the soup.

When Skinner spots Remy, pandemonium breaks out. After Linguini traps Rémy in a jar, Skinner orders him to dispose of him. Knowing Remy was responsible for the soup, Linguini cannot bring himself to kill him. He tells Remy his problems and discovers that Remy understands him. The unlikely pair form an alliance. Remy secretly directs Linguini like a marionette; Remy tugs at Linguini's hair to control his (involuntary) movements while remaining hidden under his toque blanche. Meanwhile, Skinner learns from Linguini's letter of introduction that, unknown to everyone but his mother, Linguini is in fact Gusteau's son and stands to inherit the restaurant, imperiling Skinner's ambition to exploit Gusteau's image to market low-quality prepared frozen foods.

When customers ask for another dish besides the soup, Skinner tries to sabotage Linguini by ordering him to prepare an old Gusteau recipe that had been a disaster. Remy changes the dish, over Colette's determined opposition, and it proves to be another hit. Skinner, suspicious of Linguini's success, plies the boy with vintage Château Latour wine in an attempt to discover his secret. However, the sly questioning yields nothing.

That same night, Remy and his colony are reunited. At the ensuing celebration party, he surprises his father by saying that he is not going to stay, but continue to associate with humans. Django tries to get Rémy to change his mind by showing him the storefront of a rodent control business, with dead rats in traps displayed in the window. Remy, though horrified, refuses to believe that enmity is inevitable between the two species and leaves.

The next morning, Linguini nearly confides his secret to Colette. Desperate to stop him, Remy makes him fall on Colette. They end up kissing and begin dating.

Remy finds the letter from Linguini's mother, along with Gusteau's will, in Skinner's office. He is discovered in the act by Skinner, resulting in a chase through the streets of Paris. Remy gets away and presents the documents to Linguini, which results in Linguini assuming ownership of the restaurant and firing Skinner. Linguini becomes a rising star in the culinary world. Skinner becomes obsessed with ruining Linguini and catching Rémy; he anonymously informs a health inspector that the restaurant is infested with rats.

Meanwhile, demanding food critic Anton Ego shows up and issues a challenge to Linguini by announcing that he will return the following night to review his cooking. (Ego's contemptuous review of Chef Gusteau's dishes had reduced his coveted five-star rating to four and eventually led to the chef's untimely death, which dropped his restaurant's rating another star.) Later, Remy and Linguini quarrel; Linguini decides that he no longer needs Remy's help. Remy retaliates by leading a kitchen raid by his fellow rats. Linguini looks for Remy to apologize, only to catch the rats in the act.

Things come to a head the next night with Ego's visit. Remy returns to help Linguini, who picks that ill-timed moment to finally admit the truth to the staff. They all think he has lost his mind and walk out, even Colette. However, she returns, remembering Gusteau's mantra, "Anyone can cook!" Django, impressed by his son's determination, has his rats work under Remy, while Linguini waits tables using roller skates. The health inspector chooses that night to show up and sees the rats in the kitchen; he is promptly tied up, gagged, and thrown in the closet. When Skinner bursts into the kitchen later, he suffers the same fate.

Remy decides to prepare Ratatouille for Ego, much to Linguini and Colette's surprise. It is a humble traditional dish not considered haute cuisine, but Remy prepares it so well that the first taste of it causes Ego to relive a childhood memory of his mother making it for him. When Ego insists on thanking the chef, Linguini and Colette insist that Ego wait until after the rest of the customers have left, whereupon Remy and the rest of the rats are revealed. A changed man, Ego writes a glowing review, declaring the chef at Gusteau's the greatest in all of France.

In the dénouement, Gusteau's is closed by the health inspector, and Ego loses his job and credibility when the news gets out that he has praised a rat-infested restaurant. However, with Ego as investor and regular patron, Linguini, Colette, and Remy open a successful new bistro called "La Ratatouille", which includes a kitchen modified to accommodate Remy and a separate dining area for rats in its attic. A line of people is shown waiting outside the filled restaurant, under a sign with a rat wearing a toque and wielding a cooking spoon.