Got cheese? Top movie mice and rats

Rizzo the Rat, “The Muppet Christmas Carol”
When Rizzo first appeared in the final season of “The Muppet Show,” it seemed like a desperate Cousin Oliver move from the Muppet people. But his personality turned out to be closer to Travis Bickle from “Taxi Driver,” which shouldn’t be a surprise considering his name was influenced by a “Midnight Cowboy” character. Rizzo’s star turn happened when he paired with The Great Gonzo to narrate “The Muppet Christmas Carol.” We’re rooting for him to get the CNN voice-over gig when James Earl Jones retires. 

Stuart Little, “Stuart Little”
Whether you’re a real kid or a small white mouse, it can’t be easy to get into a family where your mother (Geena Davis) has been married four times and your father (Hugh Laurie) is that mean doctor from “House.” Add to that a script that bears almost no relation to E.B. White’s book, even though it was written with the help of celebrity directors David O. Russell and M. Night Shyamalan. The steadying influence here is Michael J. Fox, who was born for this role. And that little car Stuart rides around in is pretty sweet.

Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”
Perhaps it’s their background in architectural engineering, but Mr. and Mrs. Beaver seem like the only two characters in Narnia (other than the Jesus-like lion Aslan) who aren’t complete idiots. They have a good knowledge for local history and they’re also fairly noble creatures, agreeing to shelter the children when every faun knew that the White Witch was paying top dollar for their capture. And despite his intellectual ways, Mr. Beaver wasn’t afraid to throw down against the forces of evil during that big “The Outsiders”-style rumble near the end of the movie.  

Roddy and Rita, “Flushed Away”
Never mind the fact that “Happy Feet” won the Oscar, “Flushed Away” was the best animated movie from 2006 — and Roddy and Rita were 50 percent of the reason. (The singing slugs were the other half.) Voiced by Hugh Jackman and Kate Winslet, the two rats have better chemistry than most live-action movie couples, and the role model Rita is the opposite from the typical Disney movie princess — spending most of the movie rescuing her leading man. 

Peter Hartlaub reviews movies and writes about pop culture for the San Francisco Chronicle.

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