Ratatouille (film)
Ratatouille is a 2007 American animated comedy-drama film written and directed by Brad Bird, from a story by Jan Pinkava, Jim Capobianco and Bird. Produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures, the film stars the voices of Patton Oswalt, Lou Romano, Ian Holm, Janeane Garofalo, Peter O'Toole, Brian Dennehy, Peter Sohn and Brad Garrett. The title refers to the French dish ratatouille, and also references the species of the main character, a rat. Set mostly in Paris, the plot follows a young rat Remy who dreams of becoming a chef at Auguste Gusteau's restaurant and tries to achieve his goal by forming an unlikely alliance with the restaurant's garbage boy Alfredo Linguini.
Development for Ratatouille began in 2000 when Pinkava wrote the original concepts of the film, although he was never formally named the director of the film. In 2005, following Pinkava's departure from Pixar for lacking confidence in the story development, Bird was approached to direct the film and revise the story. Bird and some of the film's crew members also visited Paris for inspiration. To create the food animation used in the film, the crew consulted chefs from both France and the United States. Lewis interned at Thomas Keller's The French Laundry restaurant, where Keller developed the confit byaldi, a dish used in the film. Michael Giacchino composed the Paris-inspired music for the film.
Ratatouille premiered on June 22, 2007, at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, California, with its general release on June 29, in the United States. The film became a critical and commercial success, grossing $623.7 million worldwide. It finished its theatrical run as the sixth highest-grossing film of 2007 and the year's second highest-grossing animated film (behind Shrek the Third. The film received widespread acclaim for its screenplay, animation, humor, voice acting, and Giacchino's score. It also won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and was nominated for several more, including Best Original Screenplay. Ratatouille was later voted one of the hundred greatest motion pictures of the 21st century by a 2016 poll of international critics conducted by the BBC.
Plot
Remy, a young rat with heightened senses of taste and smell, dreams of becoming a chef like his human idol, the late Auguste Gusteau. Conversely, the rest of his colony, including his older brother Émile and their father, Django, the clan leader, only eat for sustenance and are wary of humans. The rats live in an elderly woman's attic outside Paris, but when the woman discovers them, Remy becomes separated from the others during their hasty evacuation. Encouraged by an imaginary Gusteau, he explores until he finds himself on the roof of Gusteau's namesake restaurant.Remy sees the restaurant's new garbage boy, Alfredo Linguini, struggling to fix a leek soup he ruined. Remy sneaks in and improves the soup; Linguini notices and traps Remy while keeping his presence secret from Skinner, Gusteau's former sous-chef and the restaurant's new owner and head chef. Skinner confronts Linguini about the soup, but it is served by accident and unexpectedly becomes a hit. Colette Tatou, the restaurant's only female chef, persuades Skinner to keep Linguini and support Gusteau's motto, "Anyone can cook." Skinner demands Linguini replicate the soup but spots Remy, ordering Linguini to take him outside and kill him. Alone, Linguini realizes Remy understands him and persuades Remy to assist with cooking.
Remy discovers that he can control Linguini's movements like a marionette by pulling on his hair while hiding under his toque. They recreate the soup and continue cooking at the restaurant. Colette begrudgingly trains Linguini but steadily appreciates him heeding her advice. Later, Remy reunites with his clan. After Remy tells Django that he intends to stay at the restaurant, Django shows him a group of exterminated rats to convince him that humans are dangerous, but Remy defies his warnings and leaves.
Meanwhile, Skinner is shocked and enraged to discover through a letter from Linguini's late mother that Gusteau is Linguini's father, making him the rightful owner of the restaurant. After Skinner's lawyer verifies that Linguini is Gusteau's son, Skinner hides the evidence in an envelope; Remy steals the envelope and brings it to Linguini, who fires Skinner. The restaurant thrives as Remy's recipes become popular, and Linguini develops a romantic relationship with Colette. Food critic Anton Ego, who negatively reviewed the restaurant shortly before Gusteau's death, announces to Linguini that he will review the restaurant again the following day. After Linguini takes credit for Remy's cooking at a press conference, he and Remy have a falling out. As revenge, Remy leads his clan on a raid of the restaurant's pantries. Linguini arrives to apologize, but upon discovering the raid, he furiously expels Remy and his clan from the restaurant.
The next day, Skinner captures Remy, who is quickly freed by Django and Émile. After returning to the restaurant, he and Linguini reconcile, and Linguini reveals Remy and his cooking techniques to his staff, who all immediately quit. Django, impressed by Remy's grit, summons the clan to help him cook while Linguini waits tables. Reminded of Gusteau's motto, Colette returns to help. Skinner and a health inspector attempt to interfere, but the rats tie them up, gag them and lock them in the pantry.
Remy prepares confit byaldi, a variation of ratatouille, which evokes in Ego fond memories of his mother's cooking. Astonished and delighted, Ego asks to meet the chef and is stunned when introduced to Remy. The next day, he writes a glowing review, stating that he has come to understand Gusteau's motto and praising Remy without revealing that he is a rat. Skinner and the health inspector are released; as a result, Gusteau's is shut down, costing Ego his job and reputation. Remy, Linguini, and Colette open a bistro called La Ratatouille, which a now-happier Ego invests in and frequents. The rat colony settles into the bistro's attic as their new home.
Voice cast
- Patton Oswalt as Remy. Director Brad Bird chose Oswalt after hearing his food-related comedy routine.
- Lou Romano as Alfredo Linguini
- Ian Holm as Skinner. His behavior, small size, and body language are loosely based on Louis de Funès. The character was named after the psychologist B. F. Skinner.
- Brian Dennehy as Django
- Peter Sohn as Émile
- Peter O'Toole as Anton Ego, whose appearance was inspired by Louis Jouvet.
- Brad Garrett as Auguste Gusteau. He was inspired by real-life chef Bernard Loiseau, who died by suicide after his restaurant, La Côte d'Or, was rumored to be losing a Michelin star. La Côte d'Or was one of the restaurants visited by Brad Bird and others in France. Gusteau was also inspired by chef Paul Bocuse for the character traits.
- Janeane Garofalo as Colette Tatou, Gusteau's rôtisseur, inspired by French chef Hélène Darroze
- Will Arnett as Horst, Skinner's German sous chef who changes his backstory every time he is asked
- Julius Callahan as Lalo, Gusteau's Haitian saucier and poissonnier
- * Callahan also voices François, the advertising executive handling the marketing of Skinner's microwaveable food under Gusteau's name
- James Remar as Larousse, Gusteau's garde manger
- John Ratzenberger as Mustafa, Gusteau's chef de salle
- Teddy Newton as Talon Labarthe, Skinner's lawyer
- Tony Fucile as Patrick Pompidou, Gusteau's pâtissier
- * Fucile also voices Nadar Lessard, the health inspector. In the UK version, Lessard is voiced by Jamie Oliver.
- Jake Steinfeld as Git, a former lab rat and member of Django's colony
- Brad Bird as Ambrister Minion, Ego's butler
- Stéphane Roux as TV narrator
Production
Because Ratatouille is intended to be a romantic, lush vision of Paris, giving it an identity distinct from the studio's previous films, 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. There are also many water-based sequences in the film, one of which is set in the sewers and is more complex than the blue whale scene in Finding Nemo. One scene has Linguini wet after jumping into the Seine to fetch Remy. A Pixar employee jumped into Pixar's swimming pool wearing a chef's uniform and apron to see which parts of the suit stuck to his body and which became translucent from water absorption.
A challenge for the filmmakers was creating computer-generated images of food that would appear delicious. Gourmet chefs in both the U.S. and France were consulted, and animators attended cooking classes at San Francisco-area culinary schools to understand the workings of a commercial kitchen. Sets/Layout department manager Michael Warch, a culinary-academy-trained professional chef before 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. Renowned chef Thomas Keller allowed producer Brad Lewis to intern in his French Laundry kitchen. For the film's climax, Keller suggested a fancy, layered version of the title dish for the rat characters to cook, called "confit byaldi". The same sub-surface light scattering technique that was used on the skin in The Incredibles was used on fruits and vegetables, while new programs gave an organic texture and movement to the food. Completing the illusion were 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 Oskar Fischinger and Norman McLaren. To create a realistic 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.
The cast members strove to make their French accents authentic yet understandable. John Ratzenberger notes that he often segued into an Italian accent. Ian Holm was cast as the character of Skinner after Bird saw him in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. According to Pixar designer Jason Deamer, "Most of the characters were designed while Jan was still directing… He has a real eye for sculpture." According to Pinkava, the critic Anton Ego was designed to resemble a vulture. To save time, human characters were designed and animated without toes. Dana Carvey was originally approached for a role but he declined as he was busy raising kids.
Rat expert Debbie Ducommun, also known as the "Rat Lady", was consulted on rat habits and characteristics. Along with Ducommun's insight a vivarium containing pet rats sat in a hallway for more than a year so animators could study the movement of the animals' fur, noses, ears, paws, and tails as they ran. Promotional material for Intel credits their platform for a 30 percent performance improvement in rendering software. They used Ratatouille in some of their marketing materials. The film was animated with traditional techniques rather than motion capture, as stated in a "Quality Assurance Guarantee" at the end of the credits. Although it was initially believed that Pixar included the "guarantee" as a reminder to the Academy after Cars lost the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature to Happy Feet, which used mocap technology, Bird claimed that the "guarantee" was unrelated to Cars