Ratatouille
A rat named Remy dreams of becoming a great French chef despite his family's wishes and the obvious problem of being a rat in a decidedly rodent-phobic profession. When fate places Remy in the sewers of Paris, he finds himself ideally situated beneath a restaurant made famous by his culinary hero, Auguste Gusteau. Despite the apparent dangers of being an unlikely - and certainly unwanted - visitor in the kitchen of a fine French restaurant, Remy's passion for cooking soon sets into motion a hilarious and exciting rat race that turns the culinary world of Paris upside down.
Those rodents caught on video scurrying through the kitchen of a Manhattan Taco Bell may not have been looking for food - they might have been making it. Perhaps they are the brethren of the animated Remy, a simple rat who wants to be an extraordinary chef. As fate would have it, he winds up in the fabled city of lights, beneath the very restaurant run by his hero, chef Auguste Gusteau. Remy pairs up with Gusteau's garbage boy Linguini, and the two form an unlikely alliance that takes the Paris culinary world by storm.
Three Good Reasons
- 1The Incredibles was, well, incredible; and its Oscar-winning writer-director Brad Bird brings his skills, talents, and team with him to this next adventure.
- 2Patton Oswalt is a genius comedian. And given Pixar's history of using actors' ad libs, you can be sure there will be plenty of unexpected jokes coming from the mouth of Remy.
- 3Pixar geeks can try to spot where they've hidden the number "A113" in the film. It's a reference to a classroom number at CalArts, where many of the animators got their start.
Bet You Didn't Know
Chef Auguste Gusteau's first and last names are anagrams for one another. Anagrams for the title include "Tutorial ale," "I alert a lout," "A liar outlet," and the title they almost used, "Aural toilet."http://www.ratatouille.com.sg/
http://movies.yahoo.com/summer-movies/Ratatouille/1808490293
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratatouille_(film)
Plot
Rémy (Patton Oswalt) lives in a rat 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. 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 watches 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. Linguini spills a pot of soup and attempts to cover up his mistake by adding random ingredients. Upset, Rémy falls into the kitchen and attempts to fix the ruined soup rather than trying to escape. Linguini catches Rémy in the act, just as Skinner catches Linguini. In the confusion some of the soup has been served. To everyone's surprise, the soup is a success.
The kitchen's sole woman cook, Colette (Janeane Garofalo), convinces Skinner not to fire Linguini provided he can recreate the soup. Skinner orders him to take Rémy away, but he begins an alliance by which Rémy secretly directs Linguini 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, 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. After a falling out, Linguini decides 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 kick out his whole 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 jaded food critic Anton Ego (Peter O'Toole). 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. Colette helps Rémy prepare ratatouille; Rémy's new recipe produces a dish so good that, in the climax of the film, 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 denouement 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.
Production
Jan Pinkava came up with the concept and directed the film from 2000, creating the original design, sets and characters and core storyline. 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 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.
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 was music, dialogue, and abstract imagery representing the characters' mental sensations while appreciating food. The visual flavor metaphors were created by animator Michel Gagné. 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.
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, the critic Anton Ego was designed to resemble a vulture, according to Pinkava.
During the character-design process sculptor Greg Dykstra created handmade clay sculptures of the film's protagonist, Rémy.[citation needed] Rat expert Debbie Ducommun (aka the "Rat Lady") was consulted on rat habits and characteristics. 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.
Bird chose Patton Oswalt to voice Rémy after hearing his food-related comedy routine. Other cast members strove to make their French accents authentic yet understandable. John Ratzenberger notes he often segued into an Italian accent.
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