the most beautiful CGI-animated film he's ever seen, and I have to agree. The promise shown by the lovely backgrounds in is realized perfectly here. The film is set not in a certain time period, but rather in the iconic storybook Paris that we've seen in countless paintings and live-action movies.

You almost expect to see Gene Kelly dancing by the Seine. I've grown used to seeing ugly representations of animals in CGI-animated films, but the rats in this movie look almost sweet by comparison. Stick around and watch the closing credits, which are done in hand-drawn animation style and have a fabulous vintage Parisian look.

The soundtrack isn't intrusive -- no Randy Newman here -- but simply adds depth and texture to the setting of the film. One odd thing about is the inconsistency of accents, although let's face it, Hollywood has been doing this since the beginning of sound films. Since the movie is set in France and nearly all the characters are French, why do only half of them have French accents?

Colette has such a bouncy French accent that it's hard to believe it's Janeane Garofalo's voice underneath. The villain of the film, Skinner, has a French accent ..

. but so does good-chef Gusteau. And yet the rats and Linguini sound positively American.

Despite this silly inconsistency, the voice talent is all excellent. The actors and animators have succeeded in creating believable and even compelling characters. also has a critic as one of its characters -- the formidable Anton Ego (Peter O'Toole), whose negative review of Gasteau's may have led to the chef's death.

Normally when you see critics in movies, even if they are not specifically critics, you have to wonder if the filmmaker has some sort of axe to grind (*cough* Lady in the Water However, filmmaker Brad Bird's movies have all been well received. When the critic says that he loves food so much that he simply cannot swallow anything he doesn't like, I felt a certain empathy. In fact, writing this review right now, I feel uneasily like that critic -- maybe Bird put him in the movie just to make film critics feel weird.

Or maybe I'm just being a bit of an egotist myself. Even if you don't have kids to bring, go see , and see it in a theater with a nice big well-lit screen so you can enjoy every detail of the animation. Grown-ups may want to see it in the evening so you don't have to deal with a small child incessantly kicking your seat or even pulling your hair, like I encountered, but I was so absorbed by the movie that I didn't mind.

is in fact a fine date movie (said the woman who went on a date once to see the most beautiful CGI-animated film he's ever seen, and I have to agree.