How does Ratatouille fit in the Pixar Theory?
What is Ratatouille about?Ratatouille is one of Pixar’s most humble of all their movies. It is humble because in previous movies we have experienced high-concept films that showed us the world of toys, superheroes and more. Then Pixar gave us a film about a simple rat who wants to be a cook. However, Pixar proved that a simple movie, can also be a good one. The plot of the movie is about a simple rat who becomes the greatest chef in France and that’s according to France’s most renowned critic. Remy the rat is born with a hyper-accurate sense of taste and smell. The movie opens with Remy working for a large rat colony that lives within the walls of a house in the French countryside. His special senses are so powerful, he begins to crave the experiences of humans who cook. However, Remy has to focus on his job in the colony as poison tester for the colony’s food. Not satisfied with this arrangement, Remy secretly studies the cookbooks and techniques of a renowned (now deceased) five star cook, Gusteau. He had a saying, “anyone can cook”. Sadly, this landed him in deep water when a food critic scoffed at the idea that anyone could cook and gave him four stars. Heartbroken, the chef died some time later. Before we go on there is a big question we must ask. Why would a world renowned chef die of depression because of one critic’s review? If he loves to cook why does get upset about how many stars he received? According to interviews from the animation studio, Gusteau was going to be a main (living) character but rewrites changed the famous chef into Remy’s imaginary cooking guide. |
Why is Remy special?So what’s up with Remy? There are some important things we need to know
about Remy. He is a catalyst to a lot of mayhem because he is different from
all the other animals. Up until now, it wasn’t normal for rats to care about
human affairs but Remy is obsessed with mastering cooking. This is most likely
due to Remy’s different sense of taste and smell. He even has other skills like
reading and as we learned in Finding Nemo, reading is an exclusive skill, which
only a few animals have. Remy’s curiosty eventually turns into a catastrophe,
when the resident of the home discovers that she has many rats in her wall and
goes on a shotgun rampage. When all the rats are escaping through the sewers
Remy gets separated from the others.
Eventually, Remy ends up in Gusteau’s restraint were he observes the new employee messing with a pot of soup. The employee is Linguini, a red-haired boy who was meant to be washing dishes. He ruins the soup, prompting Remy to eat it. Linguini sees him however, and captures Remy but because he discovers the soup is delicious he saves Remy’s life and makes a deal with him. We eventually learn that Linguini is actually the illegitimate son Gusteau, making him the rightful owner of the restaurant. This is according to Gusteau’s will. This is how we know when the movie takes place. During the scenes were Skinner (the evil shop owner) skims over Gusteau’s will, you can see a note on the document, stating that it was signed in 2001. The will stipulates that Linguini has two years to claim the restaurant but Skinner states that the deadline is a month away. Gusteau probably died in 2005, setting the movie in 2007. Towards the end of the movie, Skinner and a health inspector discover Remy’s role in the restaurant. In fact, they walk in on Remy’s entire colony preparing food for a dinner rush. Afterwards, the rats take up residence in a new restaurant called Ratatouille, where the main characters, work, eat and live happily. So, why is Remy special? The source of Remy’s special abilities in never explained outright but there are some clues. One of them is the guiding ghost of Gusteau. For Remy to dream up such a vivid and impactful plot device requires a lot of imagination, which is the source of most magic in Pixar movies. For whatever reason, Remy sampling has an astounding imagination that we see when he smells amazing food for the first time and comes up with amazing recipes. We can assume that there are plenty of animals who are becoming more intelligent like him. Animals are becoming more like humans to the point where they are actually better at some things then humans. |
The Facts/Evidence
- We see that animals are beginning to act more like humans.
- Animals start controlling humans.
- Rats are starting to overtake humans.