Ratatouille
US Poster
Directed by	Brad Bird Jan Pinkava (Credited as co-director)
Produced by	Darla K. Anderson John Lasseter Brad Lewis
Written by	Brad Bird Story: Jan Pinkava Jim Capobianco Brad Bird Emily Cook Kathy Greenberg
Starring	Patton Oswalt Lou Romano Peter Sohn Brad Garrett Janeane Garofalo Ian Holm Brian Dennehy Peter O'Toole
Music by	Michael Giacchino
Editing by	Darren T. Holmes
Distributed by	Walt Disney Pictures
Release date(s)	June 28, 2007 June 29, 2007 August 1, 2007 September 6, 2007 October 12, 2007
Running time	111 min
Language	English
Budget	US$150 million[1]
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Ratatouille (IPA pronunciation: /ˌɹætəˈtui, -ˈtwi/; French: (ra-ta-too-ee) /ʁataˈtuj/^[2]) is a 2007 animated feature film produced by Pixar and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. It tells the story of Rémy (voiced by Patton Oswalt), a rat living in Paris who wants to be a chef. The film was directed by Brad Bird, who took over from Jan Pinkava in 2005, and it was released on June 29, 2007 in the United States.

[edit] Plot

The film follows the story of a rat named Rémy (Patton Oswalt), lives in a colony in the attic of a French country home with his brother Émile (Peter Sohn) and father Django (Brian Dennehy). Inspired by France's recently deceased top chef, Auguste Gusteau (Brad Garrett), Rémy tries to live the life of a gourmet with his keen sense of smell. Not appreciating his talents, his clan puts him to work sniffing for rat poison in their food.

Rémy and the rats flee the house when the resident, an old woman, discovers the colony. Rémy, separated from the others, floats in the storm drains to Paris on a cookbook by Gusteau, following the chef's image to his namesake restaurant, now run by former sous-chef Skinner (Ian Holm). As Rémy looks into the kitchen from a skylight a young man with no culinary talent, Alfredo Linguini (Lou Romano), arrives with a letter of introduction from his recently deceased mother, and is hired on to do janitorial duties. While cleaning, Linguini accidentally spills a pot of soup and attempts to cover up his mistake by adding random nearby ingredients. Horrified by Linguini's actions, Rémy falls into the kitchen and though desperately trying to escape cannot help but try to fix the ruined soup. Linguini catches Rémy in the act, just as Skinner catches Linguini. In the confusion, however, some of the soup is taken and served. To everyone's surprise, the soup is a success.

Rémy discovers that he can control Linguini's movements by pulling on his hair.

The kitchen's sole female cook, Colette (Janeane Garofalo), convinces Skinner not to fire Linguini provided he can recreate the soup. Skinner orders him to take Rémy away; Linguini can't bring himself to kill Rémy, and thus begins an alliance by which Rémy secretly directs Linguini to cook in return for his protection. The two perfect a marionette-like arrangement by which Rémy tugs at Linguini's hair to control his movements and stays hidden under Linguini's toque blanche.

Skinner plies Linguini with vintage Château Latour in an unsuccessful attempt to discover the secret of his unexpected talents. The next morning, hung over and disheveled, Linguini nearly confides his secret to Colette. Desperately trying to stop Linguini, Rémy pulls his hair, making him fall on Colette and leading the two to kiss. They begin dating, leaving Rémy feeling abandoned. Meanwhile, Skinner learns after some sleuthing that, unknown to everyone, Linguini is in fact Gusteau's son and stands to inherit the restaurant. This would thwart Skinner's ambition to exploit Gusteau's image to market prepared frozen foods.

One night Rémy and his colony are reunited. While scrounging food Rémy discovers Gusteau's will which, after a chase by Skinner, he presents to Linguini. Linguini now owns the restaurant, fires Skinner, and becomes a rising star in the culinary world. Later, Rémy and Linguini have an argument, with Linguini deciding he no longer needs Rémy, and Rémy retaliates by leading a kitchen raid for his rat colony. Linguini attempts to apologize to Rémy, only to discover and expel his colony. Rémy feels guilty about hurting his friend, and refuses to join them in resuming the raid.

Things come to a head the night of a planned review by food critic Anton Ego (Peter O'Toole), the same critic who ruined Gusteau's life after he gave him a bad review and reduced his five-star restaurant to four stars. When asked what he would like for the evening, Ego challenges the staff to prepare whatever they dare serve him. Linguini, unable to cook without the rat's guidance, admits his ruse to the staff when Rémy shows up, leading them all to walk out. Colette returns after thinking through Gusteau's motto, "Anyone can cook!" Django, inspired by his son's courage, returns with the entire rat colony to cook under Rémy's direction, while Linguini, discovering his true talent, waits tables on roller skates. Rémy decides to prepare ratatouille, and while Colette is initially skeptical, decides to help him anyway. Rémy's new recipe produces a dish so good that a bite of it leads Ego to relive childhood memories of his mother. Ego asks to meet the chef but Colette insists he must wait until the rest of the diners have left. At the end of the service, Rémy and the rats are revealed. A changed man, Ego writes a glowing review, declaring that the chef at Gusteau's is the greatest chef in all of France.

In the dénouement Gusteau's is closed by a health inspector, who finds the rats after being tipped off by Skinner. Ego loses his credibility and job when the public discovers he has praised a rat-infested restaurant. Everything is for the best, however; with Ego as investor and regular patron, Linguini, Colette, and Rémy open a successful new bistro called "La Ratatouille," which includes a kitchen and dining facilities for both rats and humans.

[edit] Production

Jan Pinkava came up with the concept and directed the film from 2000, creating the original design, sets and characters and core storyline.^[3] Pixar management replaced him with Bird in 2005.^[4][5] Bird was attracted to the film because of the outlandishness of the concept and the conflict that drove it: that kitchens feared rats, yet a rat wanted to work in one.^[6] Bird was also delighted that the film could be made a highly physical comedy,^[4] with the character of Linguini providing endless fun for the animators.^[7] Bird rewrote the story, with a change in emphasis. He killed off Gusteau, gave larger roles to Skinner and Colette,^[8] and also changed the appearance of the rats to be less anthropomorphic.^[9]

Because Ratatouille is intended to be a romantic, lush vision of Paris, giving it an identity distinct from previous Pixar films,^[4] director Brad Bird, producer Brad Lewis and some of the crew spent a week in the city to properly understand its environment, taking a motorcycle tour and eating at five top restaurants.^[10] There are also many water-based sequences in the film, one of which is set in the sewers and is ten times more complex than the blue whale scene in Finding Nemo. One scene has Linguini wet after jumping into the Seine to fetch Rémy. A Pixar employee (Shade/Paint Dept Coordinator Kesten Migdal) wearing a chef uniform and apron jumped into Pixar's swimming pool to see which parts of the suit stuck to his body and which became translucent from water absorption.^[11]

[edit] Food design

A challenge for the filmmakers was creating computer-generated food animations that would appear delicious. Gourmet chefs in both the US and France were consulted,^[9] and animators attended cooking classes at San Francisco-area culinary schools,^[12] to understand the workings of a commercial kitchen. Sets/Layout Dept Manager Michael Warch, a culinary-academy trained professional chef prior to working at Pixar, helped teach and consult animators as they worked. He also prepared dishes used by the Art, Shade/Paint, Effects and Sets Modeling Departments.^[13][14] Celebrity chef Thomas Keller allowed producer Brad Lewis to intern in his French Laundry kitchen. For the film's climax Keller designed a fancy layered version of the title dish for the rat characters to cook, which he called "confit byaldi" in honor of the original Turkish name.^[12] The same sub-surface light scattering technique that was used on skin in The Incredibles was used on fruits and vegetables,^[15] while new programs gave an organic texture and movement to the food.^[16] Completing the illusion was music, dialogue, and abstract imagery representing the characters' mental sensations while appreciating food. The visual flavor metaphors were created by animator Michel Gagné inspired by the work of Oscar Fischinger and Norman McLaren.^[17] To create a realistic looking compost pile, the Art Department photographed fifteen different kinds of produce, such as apples, berries, bananas, mushrooms, oranges, broccoli and lettuce, in the process of rotting.^[18]

[edit] Character design

According to Pixar designer Jason Deamer "Most of the characters were designed while Jan [Pinkava] was still directing," "He has a real eye for sculpture."^[19] For example, the critic Anton Ego was designed to resemble a vulture, according to Pinkava.^[20]

Rat expert Debbie Ducommun (aka the "Rat Lady") was consulted on rat habits and characteristics.^[21] An aquarium of pet rats sat in a hallway for more than a year so animators could study the movement of the animals' noses, ears, paws and tails as they ran.^[15]

Bird chose Patton Oswalt to voice Rémy after hearing his food-related comedy routine.^[6] Other cast members strove to make their French accents authentic yet understandable. John Ratzenberger notes he often segued into an Italian accent.^[10]

Skinner's behaviour, diminutive size and body language are loosely based on Louis de Funès^[22], while Anton Ego has some resemblance with Louis Jouvet.^[23]

Many reviewers drew upon similarities between the character of the deceased chef Auguste Gusteau and the real life chef Bernard Loiseau, who committed suicide after media speculation that his flagship restaurant was going to be downgraded from 3 Michelin stars to 2.^[24]

[edit] Cast

• Patton Oswalt as Rémy
• Lou Romano as Alfredo Linguini
• Janeane Garofalo as Colette Tatou'
• Ian Holm as Skinner
• Brian Dennehy as Django
• Peter Sohn as Émile
• Peter O'Toole as Anton Ego
• Will Arnett as Horst
• James Remar as Larousse
• Brad Garrett as Auguste Gusteau
• John Ratzenberger as Mustafa
• Teddy Newton as Talon Labarthe
• Brad Bird as Ambrister Minion
• Thomas Keller as Dining patron^[12]
• Jamie Oliver as Health inspector (UK version)^[25]

Ratatouille is the first full-length Pixar film without Joe Ranft due to his recent death.

[edit] Marketing

The trailer for Ratatouille debuted with the release of its immediate predecessor, Cars. It depicts an original scene where Rémy is caught on the cheese cart in the restaurant's dining area sampling the cheese and barely escaping the establishment, intercut with separate scenes of the rat explaining why he is taking such risks. Similar to most of Pixar's teaser trailers, the scene was not present in the final film release.

A second trailer was released on March 23, 2007.^[26] The Ratatouille Big Cheese Tour began on May 11, 2007, with cooking demonstrations and a film preview.^[27] Voice actor Lou Romano attended the San Francisco leg of the tour for autograph signings.^[28]

The front label of the planned Ratatouille wine to have been promoted by Disney, Pixar, and Costco, and subsequently pulled for its use of a cartoon character.

Disney and Pixar were working to bring a French-produced Ratatouille-branded wine to Costco stores in August 2007, but abandoned plans because of complaints from the California Wine Institute, citing standards in labeling that restrict the use of cartoon characters to avoid attracting under-age drinkers.^[29]

In the United Kingdom, in place of releasing a theatrical trailer, a theatrical commercial featuring Rémy and Émile was released in cinemas prior to its release to discourage obtaining pirated films.^[30]

Disney/Pixar were concerned that audiences, particularly children, would not be familiar with the word "ratatouille" and its pronunciation. The title was therefore also spelt phonetically within trailers and on posters.^[31][32]

[edit] Release

The Academy Award nominated short film Lifted precedes Ratatouille in theaters.^[33]

[edit] Popular and critical reaction

Ratatouille opened to much acclaim. As of mid October, 2007, the film is 97% 'certified fresh' on Rotten Tomatoes and scores 96/100 on Metacritic. The film, as of July 2007, is the sixth highest Metacritic film rating ever, and the highest for Pixar and Disney in general.^[34]

[edit] Box office

The film debuted at #1 with $47 million United States weekend sales,^[35] the lowest Pixar opening since A Bug's Life. However, in France, the location in which the film takes place, the film broke the record for the biggest debut for an animated film.^[36] In the UK, the film debuted at #1 with sales over £4million.[1] As of October 15, 2007 the film has grossed $204 million in North America and a total of $475.4 million worldwide.^[37]

[edit] DVD release

Ratatouille will be released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc in North America on November 6, 2007,^[38]. One of the special features on the disc will be a new animated short film featuring Remy and Emile entitled Your Friend the Rat.^[39]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Ratatouille

• Official site
• Ratatouille at the Internet Movie Database
• Ratatouille at Rotten Tomatoes
• Ratatouille at Metacritic