Deep Dive Pixar: Wes Looks at Ratatouille

You know, as much as I love the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, they tend to be quite long and difficult to write a detailed analytical review of so I am glad to be covering something a little bit more simple this time around. Welcome to Deep Dive Pixar, Deep Dive Disney’s more experimental younger brother where today we’ll be looking at an odd little film called Ratatouille. Today’s film centers around Remy, a rat living in France with more refined senses of smell and taste than your average rodent. Inspired by late world-renowned human chef Auguste Gusteau and his philosophy of “Anyone Can Cook” Remy dreams of one day becoming a Chef himself. Unfortunately, as a rat, his options are a bit limited. When Remy’s family are forced out of the attic they’ve been living in, Remy is separated from the group and finds himself at Gusteau’s restaurant. When Remy takes his opportunity to improve upon the soup, the public believes that the amazing new dish was the work of Linguini, a recent hire of the restaurant. Linguini, being the only one who knows that Remy tampered with the soup strikes a bargain with Remy. Linguini can’t cook, but he’s now in a position where everyone expects him too and Remy can cook very well but cannot get hired as a chef because… he’s a rat. So, Remy will do the cooking and Linguini will pass it off as his own until the world becomes open minded enough to willingly eat food prepared by disgusting vermin that lives in the sewer. To this end, Remy somehow finds a way to operate Linguini by pulling his hair like some sort of fleshy marionette. Despite suspicions from Chef Skinner, the current head chef at Gusteau’s, and the looming threat of a sadistic food critic giving their restaurant a scathing review, the arrangement between Remy and Linguini actually works out for the most part but, as they so often do, egos eventually get in the way. Truth be told, I’m not entirely sure what to make of this one. There are parts of it that I find to be truly great, exceptional even. But there are other parts that I find tedious, boring and even infuriating. Let’s try and separate the good from the bad as we chow down on some Rataouille.

Main Character:

While it’s definitely more in the favor of Remy, I’d say Linguini has a claim to the title of main character as well. Linguini is not a chef and initially, does not appear to have any skills whatsoever. However, much like Remy, he is nonetheless eager to prove himself. Even before it’s revealed that Gusteau was his father (a fact that neither were aware of), his mother still stuck her neck out to get him a job at Gusteau’s restaurant so the boy feels he owes it to her to excel in that role. Through Remy, Linguini gains the notoriety that he feels is worthy of his family name, something that gets in the way of the friendships he’s formed with both Remy and Collette. Still, I do appreciate that after he comes clean, he finds that he has some skills as a waiter and ends up being pretty good at it.

That out of the way, we can talk about Remy. Voiced by the hilarious Patton Oswalt, Remy’s main goal is similar to many other Disney protagonists, that being to rise above his station in life and use his unique skills for the betterment of others. See, in Remy’s mind, rats are thieves by nature, stealing what they need to survive. Remy wants more out of life than that and wants to create his own food rather than just surviving on crumbs. Like I said, he takes Gusteau’s philosophy of “Anyone Can Cook” to heart. Actually, Remy very much idolizes Gusteau, to the point where he regularly takes to a hallucination of Gusteau in his head. Yeah, think about that for a moment, we have a movie where a rat pilots a human like a fleshy Gundam all while taking advice from a voice in his head that manifests itself as a celebrity chef who just so happens to be the father of the person he’s controlling. I guess the secret ingredient is LSD. In any case, I do appreciate that Remy is talented at what he does but can also be arrogant, believing his way of doing things is superior. Something the film emphasizes is that there are multiple ways to cook and all are valid, a lesson Remy has to learn.

Villain:

Chef Skinner isn’t exactly the most interesting villain. He’s the head chef at Gusteau’s restaurant and looks to use Gusteau’s image to sell frozen food dishes. That’s greedy and underhanded but not necessarily villainous. His constant suspicion and paranoia over Linguini and the rat makes Skinner come across more as a Looney Tunes antagonist than an actual threat. The only outright villainous thing he does is try to keep Linguini from discovering that Gusteau is his father so he can continue to control the restaurant, and even then, he’s busted well before the climax. I do wonder how a guy who’s too short to reach the stove became head chef of a gourmet restaurant, but then again, he is played by Ian Holm of Lord of the Rings Fame, so maybe he’s just a Hobbit, and Hobbits know a thing or two about good cooking. Still, Skinner serves his purpose in the film even if he’s not one of Pixar’s better villains.

The other antagonist in the film is far more interesting and I’ll be speaking a lot more about him over the course of various sections. I’m of course referring to the food critic, Anton Ego, played by the great Peter O’Toole. We’ll get to more about what makes him an interesting character later, but for now, it’s important to know that he’s a sadistic food critic who takes an almost perverse pleasure in ruining someone’s business with one of his negative reviews. It’s even implied that when he destroyed Gusteau’s restaurant in his column, it caused Gusteau to die of pure grief. Jesus! There’s this excellent intimidating aura around Anton that even though all he’s doing is writing bad reviews, nonetheless makes him feel like a sinister threat, which makes it all the more satisfying when he changes his ways in the end.

Side Characters:

I’m going to be honest. I really didn’t care for Remy’s rat family nor aspects of the plot pertaining to them, something I’ll elaborate upon once we get to the story section. That only leaves us with Collette, another character I don’t have a ton to say about. As the only woman in the kitchen at Gusteau’s, Colette is someone who feels she has a lot to prove and doesn’t like the fact that some nobody like Linguini is seemingly better than her without even trying. I do like the clash of ideology between her and Remy where she prefers to follow the recipe and Remy likes to experiment. Both are valid forms of cooking and both learn that by the end.

Memorable Scenes:

Easily my favorite scene in the film comes at the end when they serve the Ratatouille to Anton Ego. Up to this point, ego has been chomping at the bit to taste the food just so he can once again write Gusteau’s a negative review. However, one bite of the Ratatouille seems to completely blow Anton’s mind. Suddenly, he’s brought back to his less cynical days of childhood when his mother would prepare the very same dish for him. Suddenly, Anton’s entire world view is shattered and that bitter, cynical sadist melts away. Anton demands to meet the chef, and even waits patiently until after close as Linguini instructs him. When he learns that the chef is a rat, sure, first he feels that they’re pulling his leg, but once he realizes that this is for real, he’s not disgusted or annoyed or anything like that. He just sits there, silently, only asking the occasional question and then leaving without a word. How he reacts to this occurrence we’ll be discussing in the next section but the scene itself is really interesting and one of the most memorable moments in the film.

Story:

I actually have a lot to say here so buckle up. As I said at the top, this was a film that I had mixed feelings about. Well, let’s start with the good. Besides the general charm of the characters, I actually appreciated the general realism and self-awareness this film has. Yes, I am aware that this is a film about a sewer rat that dreams of being a gourmet chef and controls a human being by pulling his hair all while taking the advice from the ghost of said human’s long dead father. Actually, when I put it like that, the whole thing sounds almost Freudian. Anywho, let me explain. Obviously, the film is filled with fantastical elements, but it’s in the small details where that realism I discussed comes through. For example, Remy and Linguini cannot communicate verbally. why would they be, Remy is a rat. Linguini never even learns Remy’s name, he just calls him Little Chef. This may seem like nothing, but it does effectively dodge the question of how the animals can talk that we had in something like The Rescuers. I also just like simple things like the characters seemingly being aware of how ridiculous this all is and acting accordingly. There’s this especially interesting scene at the end where Linguini gives this rousing speech to the kitchen staff after his secret has been exposed and, instead of being inspired, they all leave because this is insane! Furthering that, even though they end up winning over Anton, the Health Inspector still shuts down the restaurant for having a rat-infested kitchen and Anton’s reputation is destroyed when he writes a positive review of food prepared by vermin. And yet, the film still manages a happy ending. Small touches like that just give this movie a more unique feel than some of its contemporaries. We talked about the good stuff, now let’s get into some of the stuff I didn’t like, namely, the stuff with Remy’s rat family. Truth be told, no aspect of this subplot was interesting to be. Remy’s dad is a dime a dozen Disney father figure who believes that humans are evil and are to be avoided at all costs, acting like a jerk at first but eventually showing that he’s not such a bad guy. That’s not a bad thing in and of itself but I bet it sounds familiar, almost as if you’ve seen something similar to this before in The Little Mermaid, The Fox & The Hound, Finding Nemo, Tarzan and many others. This plotline has been done to death and its use in this film brings absolutely nothing new to the table. Combine that with one of the most pointless third act breakups I’ve ever seen and it’s easy to see why my thoughts on this film are so mixed.

As for the overall message of the film, frankly, I think it can be best summed up in Anton Ego’s review, which I will now present to you in it’s entirety.

"In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and theirselves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defense of the new. The world is often unkind to new talent, new creations, the new needs friends. Last night, I experienced something new, an extraordinary meal from a singularly unexpected source. To say that both the meal and its maker have challenged my preconceptions about fine cooking is a gross understatement. They have rocked me to my core. In the past, I have made no secret of my disdain for Chef Gusteau’s famous motto: Anyone can cook. But I realize, only now do I truly understand what he meant. Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere. It is difficult to imagine more humble origins than those of the genius now cooking at Gusteau’s, who is, in this critic’s opinion, nothing less than the finest chef in France. I will be returning to Gusteau’s soon, hungry for more."

I honestly don’t know what more I can add to that. That speech, delivered brilliantly by Peter O’Toole, might be one of the most incredible monologues in any of these movies thus far.

The Dark Disney Factor:

There’s a surprising amount of casual gunplay in this movie, like, more than you would think a kids movie about an adorable rat becoming a chef in Paris would have. The old lady whose house Remy’s family is staying in tries to murder them with a shotgun, Remy crawls past an arguing couple where the wife is threatening the husband with a revolver just to name a select few of those moments. Also, it’s heavily implied that Gusteau filled his kitchen with ex-cons, including a sous chef who probably killed a man with his thumb.

Final Thoughts: Overall, I enjoyed this film but it's not without its problems. It's a fun movie and it puts forth some interesting ideas. To put it in culinary terms, I enjoyed the meal and may even come back for seconds, but I don't see myself becoming a regular patron of the restaurant. In any case, join me next time when Deep Dive Disney covers WALL-E.