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Ratatouille (film)

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Ratatouille (French: /ʁatatuj/) is a 2007 Academy Award-, Golden Globe-, BAFTA Award- and Grammy Award-winning 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, but is pressured to do otherwise by the disapproval of his family and the prejudice of humans. Using a somewhat hapless garbage boy as a means through which to indulge in his art, Rémy meets yet another obstacle in the form of a famous as well as antagonistic food critic named Anton Ego, "The Grim Eater." The film was the eighth movie produced by Pixar, and was directed by Brad Bird, who took over from Jan Pinkava in 2005. It was released on June 29, 2007 in the United States, to both critical acclaim and box office success. The title is named for the French peasant dish ratatouille of which a variation is served in the film, and a pun on the main character Rémy being a rat.

Plot

Rèmy is a rat who lives in the attic of a French country home with his brother, Émile, and his father, Django, the leader of a rat colony. Inspired by France's recently deceased top chef, Auguste Gusteau, Rèmy does his best to live the life of a gourmet. Underappreciating his exceptionally discerning sense of smell, his clan puts him to work sniffing for rat poison in their food.

The resident of the house, an old woman, discovers the colony. As they flee, Rèmy grabs a cookbook by Gusteau. He is separated from the others and floats through the storm sewer to Paris on the book written by Gusteau, following the chef's image to his namesake restaurant, now run by former sous-chef Skinner. As Rémy looks into the kitchen from a skylight, a young man with no culinary talent, Alfredo Linguini, arrives with a letter of introduction from his recently deceased mother, and is hired to do janitorial duties. While cleaning, Linguini spills a pot of soup and attempts to cover up his mistake by adding nearby ingredients. Horrified, Rèmy drops into the kitchen and attempts to fix the ruined soup rather than trying to escape. Linguini catches Rèmy in the act, just as Skinner catches Linguini. During the confusion, some of the soup is served to a food critic. To everyone's surprise, the soup is a success.

The kitchen's sole female cook, Colette, convinces Skinner not to fire Linguini, and Skinner agrees, provided Linguini can recreate the soup. Just as Skinner makes his decision, he sees Rémy trying to escape out the window and pandemonium breaks out in the kitchen. Linguini traps Rèmy in a jar, whereupon Skinner orders him to take Rémy away and dispose of him. Knowing Rèmy was the one who fixed the soup, Linguini cannot bring himself to kill him and begins to talk to him. As he tells Rémy about his problems, he notices that Rémy seems to understand him and responds with a series of nods and other gestures. The unlikely pair begin an alliance by which Rémy (now referred to by Linguini as "Little Chef") secretly controls Linguini's cooking in return for his protection. The two perfect a marionette-like arrangement by which Rémy tugs at Linguini's hair to direct his movements while hidden under Linguini's toque blanche.

Skinner, suspicious of Linguini's success, plies Linguini with vintage Château Latour in an unsuccessful attempt to discover the secret of his unexpected talents and of his knowledge of rats, and decides to have him spend the night cleaning up the kitchen. The next morning, hung over and disheveled, Linguini nearly confides his secret to Colette. Desperately trying to stop Linguini, Rèmy pulls his hair, making him fall on Colette and leading the two to kiss. They begin dating, leaving Rémy to feel abandoned. Meanwhile, Skinner learns from the letter of introduction that, unknown to everyone but his mother, Linguini is in fact Gusteau's son and stands to inherit the restaurant and imperil Skinner's ambition to exploit Gusteau's image to market prepared frozen foods. Then, one night, Rèmy and his colony are reunited. At the ensuing party, he surprises his father by saying that he is not going to stay with the colony, but instead continue to live near the humans. In response, Django shows Rèmy the storefront of a rodent control business, which is filled with dead rats in traps. Rèmy, though horrified, refuses to believe that enmity between the two species is incontrovertible, and leaves.

While scrounging for food, Rèmy discovers Gusteau's will, which, after a chase by Skinner, he presents to Linguini. Linguini assumes ownership of the restaurant, fires Skinner, and becomes a rising star in the culinary world. Later, Rèmy and Linguini have a quarrel, wherein Linguini decides that he no longer needs Rèmy's help. Rèmy retaliates by leading a kitchen raid for his rat colony. Linguini attempts to apologize to Rémy, only to discover and expel his colony. Rèmy 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, whose contemptuous earlier review of Gusteau's cooking reduced his five-star restaurant to four stars and eventually led to Gusteau's untimely death (which dropped his restaurant's rating down to three stars). When asked what he would like for the evening, Ego challenges them by telling the staff to have Linguini prepare whatever He dares serve him. Rèmy returns to help Linguini impress Ego; Linguini, unable to cook without the rat's guidance, admits the truth to the staff, leading them all to walk out. Colette returns after thinking of Gusteau's motto, "Anyone can cook!" Django, inspired by his son's courage in continuing his dream, brings the entire rat colony to cook under Rèmy's direction, while Linguini, discovering his true talent, waits tables at lightning speed on roller skates. Rèmy decides to prepare ratatouille, a traditional dish that would not usually be considered haute cuisine, but does it so well that the first bite of it leads Ego to relive a childhood memory of his mother. Ego assumes that Linguini is the chef, but Linguini is only his waiter, which prompts Ego to ask to meet the chef. After a frantic consultation with Colette, Linguini and Colette insist he must wait until the rest of the diners have left. At the end of the service, Rèmy is revealed as well as all the other rats and Rèmy's marionette technique. 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, and Ego loses his job and his credibility 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 Rèmy open a successful new bistro called "La Ratatouille," which includes a kitchen modified to accommodate Rèmy as Chef and hidden dining facilities for rats in its attic. The film ends with the image of a huge line of people standing outside of the restaurant, which bears a sign with a rat wielding a toque and a cooking spoon.

Production

Jan Pinkava came up with the concept and directed the film from 2001, creating the original design, sets and characters and core storyline. Lacking confidence in Pinkava's story development, Pixar management replaced him with Bird in 2005. 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. Bird was also delighted that the film could be made a highly physical comedy, with the character of Linguini providing endless fun for the animators. Bird rewrote the story, with a change in emphasis. He killed off Gusteau, gave larger roles to Skinner and Colette, and also changed the appearance of the rats to be less anthropomorphic.

Because Ratatouille is intended to be a romantic, lush vision of Paris, giving it an identity distinct from previous Pixar 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 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.

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, and animators attended cooking classes at San Francisco-area culinary schools, 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. 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. The same sub-surface light scattering technique that was used on 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 Oscar 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.

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. For example, according to Pinkava, the critic Anton Ego was designed to resemble a vulture. Rat expert Debbie Ducommun (a.k.a. the "Rat Lady") was consulted on rat habits and characteristics. A vivarium containing 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. The cast members strove to make their French accents authentic yet understandable. John Ratzenberger notes that he often segued into an Italian accent.

Voice Cast

Main characters

  • Patton Oswalt as Rémy, a country rat who winds up in Paris where he abandons his poison-checking occupation to fulfill his lifelong dream of cooking in a formerly great French restaurant. Director Brad Bird chose Patton Oswalt to voice Rémy after hearing his food-related comedy routine.

  • Lou Romano as Alfredo Linguini, a timid and clumsy garbage boy who becomes a famous chef when Rémy takes the helm of his arm control nerve, and reveals to him that he is chef Gusteau's son. However, he lets the success go to his head and strikes up a relationship with Colette (despite her initially curt behavior towards him) after an unexpected kiss caused by Rémy.

  • Janeane Garofalo as Colette Tatou, the only female chef in the kitchen. Linguini is charged to her care after claiming to have made a delicious soup, to be trained under her mentorship. She initially displays a curt and almost hostile front to him, due to her reluctance to jeopardize her career in the kitchen should Linguini fail as a chef under her. However, after an unexpected kiss caused by Rémy, she and Linguini start dating, leaving Rémy to feel left out. In the end, however, she is the only one of the Gusteau kitchen staff to appreciate both Rémy's nature as a rat and his extraordinary talent as a Chef.

  • Ian Holm as Skinner, the Napoleon-esque, Facel Vega driving, owner of "Gusteau's" (after Gusteau's demise) and the main antagonist of the film. He sells out Gusteau's image to market TV dinners and tries to undermine Linguini's abnormal success. Skinner's behaviour, diminutive size, and body language are loosely based on Louis de Funès.

  • Peter O'Toole as Anton Ego, a feared and loathed, yet powerful food critic whose harsh criticism drove Gusteau to depression and eventually death. He claims to love food and refuses to swallow any that does not match up to his lofty expectations. Anton Ego's appearance was modelled after Louis Jouvet.

  • Brad Garrett as Auguste Gusteau, a deceased chef who inhabits Rémy's mind as a figment of the latter's imagination and tells him what to do in his time of need, as well as acting as a conscience against Rémy's initial inclination to steal food. Many reviewers drew upon similarities between Gusteau and the real-life chef Bernard Loiseau, who committed suicide after media speculation that his flagship restaurant La Côte d'Or was going to be downgraded from 3 Michelin stars to 2. La Côte d'Or was one of the restaurants visited by Brad Bird and others in France .

  • Brian Dennehy as Django, the father of Rémy and Emile. He wants nothing more than for his son to be just like the rest of the colony, and has a bias against humans. He leads Rémy to a store selling mousetraps to persuade him to leave the human world and rejoin the colony.

  • Peter Sohn as Emile, Rémy's older brother. He is loyal and good-hearted, though unimaginative, and is Rémy's confidante. He also indiscriminately wolfs down anything that seems remotely edible, much to Rémy's dismay.

Other characters

Release

Ratatouille's world premiere was on June 22, 2007 at Los Angeles' Kodak Theater. The commercial release was one week later, with the Academy Award nominated short film Lifted preceding Ratatouille in theaters.

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. The Ratatouille Big Cheese Tour began on May 11 2007, with cooking demonstrations and a film preview. Voice actor Lou Romano attended the San Francisco leg of the tour for autograph signings.

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.

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. Also in the United Kingdom, the main characters were used for a theatrical commercial for the Nissan Note, with Rémy and Émile watching an original commercial for it made for the "Surprisingly Spacious" ad campaign and also parodying it respectively.

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.

Blu-ray Disc & DVD release

Ratatouille was released on high-definition Blu-ray Disc and standard DVD in North America on November 6, 2007. One of the special features on the disc is a new animated short film featuring Rémy and Emile entitled Your Friend the Rat, in which the two rats attempt to entreat the (human) viewer to welcome rats as their friends, demonstrating the benefits and misconceptions of rats towards humanity through several historical examples. The eleven minute short uses 3D animation, 2D animation, live action and even stop motion animation, a first for Pixar.

The disc also includes a CG short entitled Lifted. It depicts an adolescent extra-terrestrial attempting to abduct a sleeping human. Throughout the sequence, he is graded by an adult extraterrestrial in a manner reminiscent of a driver's licensing exam road test. The entire short contains no dialog.

Also included among the special features deleted scenes, a featurette featuring Brad Bird discussing filmmaking and Chef Thomas Keller discussing culinary creativity entitled "Fine Food and Film", and four easter eggs.

Reception

Box office

In its domestic opening weekend, Ratatouille opened in 3,940 theaters and debuted at #1 with $47 million, 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. In the UK, the film debuted at #1 with sales over £4million. As of January 13, 2008 the film has grossed $206,445,654 in North America and a total of $617,245,654 worldwide, making it the 3rd highest grossing Pixar film of all time just behind Finding Nemo and The Incredibles .

Critical reaction

Critical reaction to the film was almost unanimously positive. On film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Ratatouille has a 96% rating from 196 reviews, while it has a Metacritic score of 96% based on 37 reviews, the sixth-highest score of all on the website as of January 2008.

It was nominated for five Oscars including Best Animated Feature Film. A. O. Scott of the New York Times called Ratatouille "a nearly flawless piece of popular art, as well as one of the most persuasive portraits of an artist ever committed to film. Both Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times and Jeffrey Lyons from NBC's "Reel Talk" said in their reviews that they loved the film so much, they are hoping for a sequel. Several reviews noted that Anton Ego's critique at the end of the movie could be taken, and at least in one case was taken, as "a slap on the wrist" for professional critics.

Top ten lists

The film appeared on many critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2007.

Awards & Nominations

Award Category Winner/Nominee Result
Academy Awards Animated Feature Film Brad Bird Won
Original Score Michael Giacchino Nominated
Original Screenplay Screenplay by Brad Bird. Story by Jan Pinkava, Jim Capobianco, Brad Bird Nominated
Sound Editing Randy Thom and Michael Silvers Nominated
Sound Mixing Randy Thom, Michael Semanick and Doc Kane Nominated
Annie Awards Best Animated Feature Pixar Animation Studios Won
Best Animated Video Game THQ, Inc. Won
Individual Achievement in Animated Effects Gary Bruins Nominated
Individual Achievement in Animated Effects Jon Reisch Nominated
Character Animation in a Feature Production Michal Makarewicz Won
Character Design in an Animated Feature Production Carter Goodrich Won
Directing in an Animated Feature Production Brad Bird Won
Music in an Animated Feature Production Michael Giacchino Won
Production Design in an Animated Feature Production Harley Jessup Won
Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production Ted Mathot Won
Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production Janeane Garofalo as Colette Nominated
Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production Ian Holm as Skinner Won
Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production Patton Oswalt as Rémy Nominated
Writing in an Animated Feature Production Brad Bird Won
Austin Film Critics Best Animated Feature Pixar Animation Studios Won
BAFTA Awards Best Animated Film Brad Bird Won
Boston Film Critics Best Screenplay Brad Bird Won
Broadcast Film Critics Best Animated Feature Pixar Animation Studios Won
Chicago Film Critics Best Animated Feature Pixar Animation Studios Won
Best Screenplay - Original Brad Bird Nominated
Critics' Choice Awards Best Animated Feature Pixar Animation Studios Won
Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Best Animated Feature Pixar Animation Studios Won
Golden Globe Awards Best Animated Feature Film Pixar Animation Studios Won
Grammy Awards Best Score Soundtrack Album Michael Giacchino Won
Hollywood Film Festival Movie of the Year Pixar Animation Studios Nominated
Special Honor for Animation Pixar Animation Studios Won
Las Vegas Film Critics Best Animated Feature Pixar Animation Studios Won
Best Family Film Pixar Animation Studios Won
Los Angeles Film Critics Best Animated Feature Pixar Animation Studios Won
National Board of Review Best Animated Feature Pixar Animation Studios Won
Oklahoma Film Critics Best Animated Feature Pixar Animation Studios Won
Online Film Critics Best Animated Feature Pixar Animation Studios Won
People's Choice Awards Favorite Family Movie Pixar Animation Studios Nominated
Phoenix Film Critics Best Animated Feature Pixar Animation Studios Won
San Diego Film Critics Best Animated Feature Pixar Animation Studios Won
Satellite Awards Best Animated or Mixed Media Feature Pixar Animation Studios Won
Best Youth DVD Pixar Animation Studios Won
Best Original Score Michael Giacchino Nominated
St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Best Animated Feature or Children's Film Pixar Animation Studios Won
Toronto Film Critics Best Animated Feature Pixar Animation Studios Won
Visual Effects Society Best Supporting Visual Effects in a Motion Picture Pixar Animation Studios Won
Animated Character in an Animated Motion Picture Pixar Animation Studios (Colette) Won
Effects in an Animated Motion Picture Pixar Animation Studios (Food) Won
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Best Animated Feature Pixar Animation Studios Won
World Soundtrack Academy Best Original Song Written for Film Michael Giacchino for "Le Festin" Nominated

Ratatouille currently holds the record for the greatest number of Oscar nominations for a computer animated feature film, breaking the previous record held by Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles at four nominations. However, Beauty and the Beast still holds the record for most Oscar nominations for any animated film with six.

Similar films

IF Magazine described Ratatoing, a 2007 Brazilian computer graphics cartoon, as a "ripoff" of Ratatouille. Marcus Aurelius Canônico of Folha de S. Paulo described Ratatoing as a derivative of Ratatouille. Canônico discussed whether lawsuits from Pixar would appear. The Brazilian Ministry of Culture posted Marcus Aurelius Canônico's article on its website.

References

External links



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