According to Answers.com. “Ratatouille” is a French stew that’s made with vegetables such as eggplant, onions, peppers, tomatoes and zucchini. The vegetables are cooked in olive oil. Garlic and herbs give the stew it’s spicy flavor. But according to Pixar the movie producing giant, Ratatouille (which is pronounced rat-a-too-ee) is their 2007 animated movie about a Parisian rat named Remy who dreams of becoming a chef. Here are some little known facts about Pixar’s Ratatouille movie that are sure to make you exclaim, “Interessante!”
You probably know that Remy was the voice of comedian Patton Oswalt, and that comedian/actor Brad Garrett from the hit TV comedy Everybody Loves Raymond was the voice of chef Auguste Gusteau. But, a little known fact about Pixar’s Ratatouille movie is that Mustafa, the head waiter, is voiced by actor John Ratzenberger. The ‘Cheers’ actor has had a voice in every one of Pixar’s animated movies!
Speaking of the chef, Auguste Gusteau, who is Remy’s hero in the movie, his name is actually made up of anagrams. That means, his last name was formed by simply rearranging the letters in his first name.
Part of Walt Disney’s charm was the fact that he loved to hide things in his movies and in his theme parks. He seemed to enjoy planting little “Easter eggs” for his viewers and visitors to find. For example, “Hidden Mickeys” have longed been used by the Disney company. These are images- usually silhouettes- of the famous mouse you can find hidden in Disney works. “Hidden Mickeys” are still used today, as well as hiding bits of one animated movie in another.
A little known fact about Pixar’s Ratatouille movie is, if you watch closely at the part where Remy’s trying to figure out where he should command Linguini, he opens his pants to reveal the logo from Pixar’s award-winning movie, The Incredibles, which was released in 2004. You can also spot Bomb Voyage, the mime from the same movie in a scene on the street.
Pixar is an animation giant. One “secret” of their success, is probably the fact they strive for realistic looks in their movies. In the movie that had the working title of Untitled Rodent Project (until it became Ratatouille) the artists and animators had ideas on how Remy the rat should look. However, in order to make him and his friends appear realistic, Debbie Ducommun, who is a reknown expert on rats, and has the nickname, “The Rat Lady,” was brought in with some of her pets so the artists and animators could study the rodents.
There’s also a scene in Ratatouille where Linguini the janitor is dripping wet because he had jumped into the Seine River to get Remy. Linguini’s drenched looks appeared real because Pixar employee Kesten Migdal donned a chef’s uniform, hopped into a swimming pool, then crawled back out. This showed the artists and animators which parts of the uniform stuck to his body, and which parts were translucent after they became wet.
A little known fact about Pixar’s Ratatouille movie is that Linguini’s full name is Alfredo Linguini. It’s a play on words since Linguini Alfredo is a famous pasta dish.
And finally, Ratatouille is the first product of the Disney/Pixar merger. This animated family comedy runs 111 minutes, and it had a production budget of $92,000,000 dollars.
