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Sunday, January 23, 2011

Ratatouille (film)

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Ratatouille (French pronunciation: [ʁatatuj], English: /rætəˈtuːiː/) is a 2007 computer-animated film produced by Pixar and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. The film was the eighth film produced by Pixar, and was directed by Brad Bird, who took over from Jan Pinkava in 2005. The title refers to a French dish which is served in the film, and is also a play on words about the species of the main character.
The plot follows Remy, a rat who dreams of becoming a chef and tries to achieve his goal by forming an alliance with a Parisian restaurant's garbage boy. Ratatouille was released on June 29, 2007 in the United States, to both critical acclaim and box office success, and later won theAcademy Award for Best Animated Feature, among other honors.

Plot

Remy is a rat gifted with a sense of smell; though he aspires to be a gourmet chef, he is tasked to sniff out rat poison for his pack. When the pack is forced to abandon its home in the French countryside, Remy is split off from the pack, ending up in the sewers of Paris. In his hunger, Remy has hallucinations of his idol, the recently deceased chef Auguste Gusteau. Following Gusteau's advice, Remy finds himself at the skylight overlooking the kitchen of Gusteau's restaurant.
As Remy watches, Alfredo Linguini, a son of Gusteau's "old flame," is hired as an escuelerie by Skinner, the restaurant's current owner and Gusteau's former sous-chef. While cleaning, Linguini spills a pot of soup and attempts to recreate it with random ingredients. Shocked at Linguini's actions, Remy accidentally falls through the skylight. Remy makes to escape but cannot help to stop and correct the soup. He is caught by Linguini at the same time Skinner catches Linguini near the soup. As they argue, the soup is served and found to be a success, mis-attributed to Linguini. Colette Tatou, the staff's only female chef, convinces Skinner to retain Linguini. Ordered to destroy Remy, Linguini instead takes Remy home, realizing he is the "little chef" behind the soup.
Remy discovers that he can control Linguini's movements by pulling on his hair.
After several misfires, Remy and Linguini find a means to overcome the inability to verbally communicate, as Remy can control Linguini like amarionette by pulling on his hair. Safely hidden under a toque blanche, Remy helps Linguini demonstrate his cooking skills to Skinner. Suspicious of Linguini's newfound talents, Skinner learns that the boy is truly Gusteau's son and proper heir to the restaurant; this would foil Skinner's plan to use Gusteau's name for marketing microwave dinners. Remy discovers Skinner's evidence and, after eluding Skinner, brings them to Linguini, who takes control of the restaurant and fires Skinner, much to the rest of the staff's delight. The restaurant continues to thrive, and Linguini and Colette develop a budding romance, leaving Remy feeling left out. One night, Remy finds his brother Emile searching for food behind the restaurant, and is brought back to the pack to be reunited. His father, Django, warns Remy that he cannot trust humans, but Remy denies this and returns to help Linguini.
Restaurant critic Anton Ego, who previous review cost Gusteau's one of its star ratings, announces he will be re-reviewing the restaurant the following evening. Panicked, Linguini and Remy have a falling out, and in revenge, Remy leads a raid on the restaurant's pantries. Linguini catches them and throws the rats, including Remy, out. Depressed, Remy reacts too late to avoid capture by Skinner, who is now aware of Remy's gourmet skills. Remy is freed the next day by Django and Emile, and he returns to the restaurant where Linguini apologizes to him, and shows the rat to the rest of the staff. They all walk out, but Colette returns after recalling Gusteau's motto, "Anyone can cook". As the restaurant fills up with anxious diners, Django arrives with the rest of the pack, offering to help after seeing his son's determination. Remy directs the rats to cook for the patrons while Linguini runs the front of the house; the rats are only briefly distracted by the appearance of a health inspector and Skinner, who are both bound and tossed in the pantry. For Anton, Remy and Colette create a variation of ratatouille, which brings back to Anton memories of his mother's cooking. After dining, Anton requests to see the chef; Linguini and Colette wait until the rest of the diners have left to introduce Remy and the rats to Anton. Anton leaves without comment, but writes a self-castigating and glowing review for the newspaper the next day, stating that Gusteau's chef is "nothing less than the finest chef in France".
Despite the review, Gusteau's is closed down due to the rodent infestation, and Anton is fired as a critic. However, Anton eagerly helps fund a popular new bistro, "La Ratatouille", created by Linguini and Colette, featuring a kitchen designed for Remy to work in, and dining areas for both humans and rats alike.

[edit]Cast

[edit]Main characters

  • Patton Oswalt as Remy, the film's protagonist. Although he is a rat, he strives to serve a grander purpose in life. Director Brad Bird chose Oswalt to voice narrate after hearing his food-related comedy routine. Remy was named after director Brad Bird's dog, an American Hairless Terrier.[3]
  • Lou Romano as Alfredo Linguini, Gusteau's (possibly illegitimate) son and the deuteragonist of the film. He is at first hired as a kitchen cleaner, but soon becomes the owner of Gusteau's and a well-known chef through his friendship with Remy.
  • Janeane Garofalo as Colette Tatou, Gusteau's rôtisseur. She is assigned to tutor Linguini in cooking, and falls in love with him.
  • Ian Holm as Skinner, a diminutive chef and the main antagonist of the film. He plans to use Gusteau's name to market a line of microwaveable meals, and attempts to hide the fact that Linguini is Gusteau's son so as not to ruin his plans. Skinner's behaviour, diminutive size, and body language are loosely based on Louis de Funès.[4]
  • Peter O'Toole as Anton Ego, a harsh food critic and the secondary antagonist of the film. He openly dislikes Gusteau's methods and opinions, but has a change of heart when he learns that Remy, a rat, can cook (in his opinion) better than Gusteau. Ego's appearance was modeled after Louis Jouvet.[5]
  • Brad Garrett as Auguste Gusteau (whose first name and last name are anagrams of each other). The once greatest chef in France until his death by heartbreak caused by Anton Ego's negative review of his restaurant, though Ego later regrets this in the end. Many reviewers believe that Gusteau is inspired by 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 three Michelin stars to two.[6] La Côte d'Or was one of the restaurants visited by Brad Bird and others in France.[7]
  • Brian Dennehy as Django, the father of Remy and Emile[citation needed]. His name is never mentioned in the film. While he loves his son, he disapproves of Remy's companionship with Linguini, but comes through for Remy in the end.
  • Peter Sohn as Emile, Remy's older brother.

[edit]Other characters

[edit]Production

Jan Pinkava came up with the concept and directed the film from 2001, creating the original design, sets and characters and core storyline.[9]Lacking confidence[10] in Pinkava's story development, Pixar management replaced him with Bird in 2005.[11][12][13] Bird was attracted to the film because of the outlandishness of the concept and the conflict that drove it: that rats feared kitchens, yet a rat wanted to work in one.[3]Bird was also delighted that the film could be made a highly physical comedy,[11] with the character of Linguini providing endless fun for the animators.[14] Bird rewrote the story, with a change in emphasis. He killed off Gusteau, gave larger roles to Skinner and Colette,[15] and also changed the appearance of the rats to be less anthropomorphic.[16]
Because Ratatouille is intended to be a romantic, lush vision of Paris, giving it an identity distinct from previous Pixar films,[11] 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.[7] 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 (Shade/Paint Dept Coordinator Kesten Migdal) 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.[17]

[edit]Food design

The film's take on the traditional ratatouille dish was designed by gourmet Thomas Keller, and later came to be known as confit byaldi.
A challenge for the filmmakers was creating computer-generated food animations that would appear delicious. Gourmet chefs in both the U.S. and France were consulted[16] and animators attended cooking classes at San Francisco-area culinary schools[8] 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.[18][19] Renowned chef Thomas Keller allowed producer Brad Lewis to intern in hisFrench 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.[8] The same sub-surface light scattering technique that was used on skin in The Incredibleswas used on fruits and vegetables,[20] while new programs gave an organic texture and movement to the food.[21] 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.[22] 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.[23]

[edit]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."[24] For example, according to Pinkava, the critic Anton Ego was designed to resemble a vulture.[25] Rat expert Debbie Ducommun (a.k.a. the "Rat Lady") was consulted on rat habits and characteristics.[26] 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.[20] The cast members strove to make their French accents authentic yet understandable. John Ratzenberger notes that he often segued into an Italian accent.[7]
To save time, human characters were designed and animated without toes.[27] Despite this, the movie had such high design values that the human characters were even given burn marks on their forearms, as if they had received them from the kitchen stoves.

[edit]Music

Main article: Ratatouille (soundtrack)
Brad Bird reteamed with Michael Giacchino on the score for Ratatouille since they got along well during the scoring of The Incredibles. Giacchino had written two themes for Remy, one about his thief self and the other about his hopes and dreams. He also wrote a buddy theme for both Remy and Linguini that plays when they're together. In addition to the score, Giacchino wrote the main theme song, "Le Festin", about Remy and his wishes to be a chef. Camille was hired to perform "Le Festin" after Giacchino listened to her music and realized she was perfect for the song; as a result, the song is sung in French in all versions of the film. The music for Ratatouille gave Giacchino his firstAcademy Award nomination for Best Original Score as well as his first Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album.

[edit]Release

Ratatouille's world premiere was on June 22, 2007 at Los Angeles' Kodak Theater.[28] The commercial release was one week later, with theAcademy Award nominated short film Lifted preceding Ratatouille in theaters.[29] A special pre-release of the film was shown at the Harkins Cine Capri Theater in Scottsdale, Arizona on June 16, 2007 at which a Pixar representative was present to collect viewer feedback.

[edit]Marketing

The trailer for Ratatouille debuted with the release of its immediate predecessor, Cars. It depicts an original scene where Remy is caught on the cheese trolley in the restaurant's dining area sampling the cheese and barely escaping the establishment, intercut with separate scenes of the rat explaining directly to the audience 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.[30] The Ratatouille Big Cheese Tour began on May 11, 2007, with cooking demonstrations and a film preview.[31] Voice actor Lou Romano attended the San Francisco leg of the tour for autograph signings.[32]
The front label of the planned Ratatouillewine to have been promoted by Disney, Pixar, and Costco, and subsequently pulled for its use of a cartoon character.
Disney and Pixar were working to bring a French-produced Ratatouille-branded wine to Costcostores 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.[33]
In the United Kingdom, in place of releasing a theatrical trailer, a theatrical commercial featuring Remy and Emile was released in cinemas prior to its release to discourage obtaining pirated films.[34] Also in the United Kingdom, the main characters were used for a theatrical commercial for the Nissan Note, with Remy and Emile watching an original commercial for it made for the "Surprisingly Spacious" ad campaign and also parodying it respectively.[35]
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.[36][37] For similar reasons, in the American release of the film, on-screen text in French was printed in English, such as the title of Gusteau's cookbook and the sign telling kitchen staff to wash their hands, though in the British English release, these are rendered in French. In Canada, the film was released theatrically with text in English, but on DVD, the majority of the text (including Gusteau's will) was in French.

[edit]Home media

Ratatouille was released on high-definition Blu-ray Disc and DVD in North America on November 6, 2007.[38] One of the special features on the disc is a new animated short film featuring Remy 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.[39]
The disc also includes a CG short entitled Lifted. This is the short that aired before the film during its theatrical run. It depicts an adolescentextraterrestrial 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 dialogue (which is typical of Pixar Shorts not based on existing properties). 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. Although the Region 1 Blu-Ray edition has a French audio track, the Region 1 DVD does not, except for some copies marked as for sale only in Canada.
It was released in DVD on November 6, 2007, and earned 4,919,574 units (equivalent to $73,744,414) on its first week (Nov. 6-11, 2007) during which it toppped the DVD charts. In total it sold 12,531,266 units ($189,212,532) becoming the second best-selling animated DVD of 2007, both in terms of units sold and sales revenue, behind Happy Feet.[40]

[edit]Reception

Brad Bird with his secondAcademy Award for Best Animated Feature

[edit]Box office

In its opening weekend in North America, Ratatouille opened in 3,940 theaters and debuted at #1 with $47 million,[41] the lowest Pixar opening since A Bug's Life. However, in France, where the film is set, the film broke the record for the biggest debut for an animated film.[42] In the UK, the film debuted at #1 with sales over £4million.[43] The film has grossed $206,445,654 in the United States and Canada and a total of $623,722,818 worldwide, making it the fifth highest grossing Disney·Pixar film now, just behind Toy Story 3,Finding Nemo, Up and The Incredibles.[44]

[edit]Critical reaction

Critical reaction to the film was almost unanimously positive. On film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes,Ratatouille has a 96% rating from a sample of 205 reviews,[45] while it has a Metacritic score of 96 based on 37 reviews, which in June 2009 was the seventh-highest of all scores on the website.[46]
Ratatouille was nominated for five Oscars including Best Animated Feature Film, which it won. At the time, the film held 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, but tied with Aladdin for any animated film. In 2008, WALL-E surpassed that record with 6 nominations. Now, Ratatouille is tied with Up for animated film with the second greatest number of Oscar nominations. Beauty and the Beast still holds the record for most Oscar nominations (also 6) for a traditional hand-drawn animated 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"; echoing the character Anton Ego in the film, he ended his review with a simple "thank you" to the creators of the film.[47] Richard Roeper gave the film a very positive review saying it's "a very interesting film, it's working on a very different level." BothRoger 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.[48][49] Reaction to the film in France was also extremely positive.[50][51] Thomas Sotinel, film critic at the daily newspaper Le Monde, hailed Ratatouille as "one of the greatest gastronomic films in the history of cinema".[52] 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,[53] as "a slap on the wrist" for professional critics.[54][55]

[edit]Top ten lists

The film appeared on many critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2007.[56]

[edit]Accolades

Main article: List of accolades received by Ratatouille
The film was nominated for five Academy Awards including Original Score, Achievement in Sound Editing, Achievement in Sound Mixing, Original Screenplay and Animated Feature Film, winning only the last one.[60] Furthermore Ratatouille was nominated for 13 Annie Awards including twice in the Best Animated Effects, where it lost to Surf's Up, and three times in the Best Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production for Janeane Garofalo, Ian Holm, and Patton Oswalt, where Ian Holm won the nomination.[61] It won the Best Animated FeatureAward from multiple associations including the Chicago Film Critics,[62] the National Board of Review,[63] the Annie Awards,[61] the Broadcast Film Critics,[64] the British Academy of Film and Television (BAFTA), and the Golden Globes.[65]

[edit]Similar films




If magazine described Ratatoing, a 2007 Brazilian computer graphics cartoon by company Vídeo Brinquedo, as a "ripoff" of Ratatouille.[66]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

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