In toon

The best: Patton Oswalt in "Ratatouille"

Here’s another Pixar gem, hot off an Oscar win for best animated feature, and Oswalt's vocal performance is another study in how to wring laughs from inhabiting a character rather than stepping outside it with distancing wisecracks.

As Remy, a rat blessed with the gift of cooking and the curse of being a member of a species not commonly associated with kitchen etiquette, Oswalt—best known for a recurring role on "The King of Queens”—is simultaneously snobby and insecure, pleading and confident, naive and worldly. Gratifyingly complex, especially considering the form, it's a Portrait of the Artist as Social Pariah.