EMERYVILLE -- Six years in the making, Emeryille's Pixar Animations Studios was rewarded for its patience and determination Sunday night when "Ratatouille" came away with the Oscar as the best animated film of the year.

Scripted and directed by Brad Bird, who won two Oscars for Pixar's "The Incredibles," the film is the tale of a rodent named Remy, with delicate taste buds, who by chance is let loose on a classy Parisian restaurant and succeeds in winning over the city's top food critic.

In his acceptance speech, Bird backhandedly thanked his junior-high guidance counselor, whose questioning of his career choice as a filmmaker prepared him for the grilling down by Hollywood producers.

But, according to many critics, the night should have been a much larger triumph for the film.

Although it landed five Oscar nominations and was ranked by many critics as one of the year's best, it was never a serious contender for best picture. And its other nominations across three different disciplines -- best original screenplay, best score, best sound mixing and best sound editing -- suggested the kind of broad consensus that often results in bigger awards.

Its five nominations rank as the most ever for a computer animated film, and rate second among all animated films, only surpassed by the six received by Disney's "Beauty and the Beast." That picture, done in the traditional Disney style in 1991, stands as the only animated film to ever be nominated for best picture.

If not for the best animated feature category, it's safe to say "Ratatouille" would have been strongly considered for best picture. Lewis, the film's producer, is quick to point out that he has no sour grapes with the academy -- and that he's ecstatic about the five widespread nominations.

Still, he has to wonder.

"Ultimately, it makes it perhaps too convenient for people to look at an animated film from an isolated perspective," said Lewis before Oscar night. "Somebody can say, 'You know what? We have a place for that, so we don't necessarily have to give it broader consideration.' "

Tom O'Neil, a columnist specializing in awards coverage for the Los Angeles Times' "The Envelope" Web site, has pondered whether "Ratatouille" -- which he calls the best reviewed movie of the year -- is the equivalent of "Beauty and the Beast," only it had to deal with the specialized category.

"Is this a case where it's penalized and ghettoized because there's a separate category for animated fare?" O'Neill said. "It seems to have the same respect in the industry and among film critics as 'Beauty and the Beast.' "

"Ratatouille," made by Walt Disney Company and its Pixar Animations Studios, is also not a conventional animated movie. Its framing is largely based on the techniques of classic filmmaking, and the story of a rat who dreams to be a chef has been called a Joycean "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Rat."

"I don't think people when they walk out of 'Ratatouille' the first thing that they're thinking about is 'I went and saw an animated film today,' " said Lewis. "It's partly because we're telling more sophisticated stories and I think it's because we have a more sophisticated filmmaking tool."

"Ratatouille" also has the support of that great international critical body: the French. The film, which is set in Paris and imbued with French culture, was No. 1 at France's box office for six weeks in a row -- surpassing a record set by "Titanic." After making $206 million at the domestic box office, "Ratatouille" made $410 million internationally.

Those totals are much greater than any of the best picture nominees, which combined haven't grossed as much domestically as "Ratatouille."