Ratatouille: Difference between revisions

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For information on the preceding short ''Lifted'' or the follow-up short ''Your Friend the Rat'', see the [[Pixar Shorts]] page.

 

For the infamous [[The Mockbuster|Mockbuster]] equivalent, see ''[[Ratatoing]]''.

 

* [[Abuse Is Okay When It Is Female On Male]]: Colette hits Linguini in the face on several occasions when she is upset with him. He never complains and she is still presented as completely sympathetic throughout the film. See also Slap-Slap-Kiss further down.

* [[Accentuate the Negative]]: Deconstructed in the most pleasant way ever. Ego's review isn't just a [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming]], but it actually changed people's opinions about critics, showing that some can be more than complete assholes who like to [[Caustic Critic|complain just for the fun of it]].

* [[Adorkable]]: A majority of Linguini's scenes is this trope.

* [[Amoral Attorney]]: Skinner's lawyer, after proving that the young Linguini is the rightful heir to Gusteau's restaurant, is perfectly happy to advise his client of how to cheat the boy out of his inheritance.

* [[Awesome but Impractical]]: Using a shotgun to kill rats. You will make it pretty clear that you are a [[Badass Grandma]] and you will completely ruin the rats' day, but you'll be lucky to hit even one of the rats and the collateral damage will be disastrous.

* [[Be Yourself]]: A major theme in the movie, although it is mildly subverted because Linguini and Rémy only reach success in the first place because they are basically each other.

* [[Big Eater]]: Émile. Oh dear God, ''Émile''. Could probably qualify as a [[Fat Bastard]] in some interpretations.

* [[Bound and Gagged]]: Done by the rats to both Skinner and a health inspector near the end of the movie to get them out of the way, if only temporarily.

* [[Brandishment Bluff]]: [[Multiple Choice Past|One of the stories]] Horst tells of why he was in prison is that he once "held up the second biggest bank in France using only a ball-point pen."

** And a mushroom zapped by lightning creates a taste that's "lightningy".

* [[Caustic Critic]]: Anton Ego and he lampshades the hell out of it in his final review.

* [[Chekhov's Skill]]: Linguini uses his rollerskating skill to become an incredibly fast waiter.

* [[Cleopatra Nose]]: Colette.

* [[Crashing Dreams]]

* [[Creative Closing Credits]]: It's a Pixar movie!

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Anton Ego. For a good 3/4 of the movie, he's this trope incarnate:

'''Anton Ego''': "...announced a new line of microwave egg rolls, what? Spit it out!" }}

** Rémy counts when he talks. When he's around Linguini and the other humans, he's more of a [[Silent Snarker]].

* [[Defrosting Ice Queen]]: Colette's initial attitude towards Linguini comes off as rather... hostile, but she becomes much mellower towards him as their relationship develops.

** If you look closely, you can see that this is what caused him to spill the soup in the beginning, setting the whole plot into motion.

** Anton Ego's office, where he has consigned many a chef to infamy, is shaped like a coffin; also, his typewriter resembles a skull. Ego himself was designed after a vulture.

*** The title of his column is given at the very beginning of the film: "The Grim Eater".

* [[Dropping the Bombshell]]: Skinner reveals during a discussion with his lawyer that he is paranoid about the rat, thinking Linguine is trying to psyche him out. Skinner's lawyer notes that he had to take a second sample of Linguine's hair. When Skinner asks why, the lawyer says:

* [[Drop What You Are Doing]]: Ego drops his pen when he first tastes Rémy's ratatouille.

* [[Early-Bird Cameo]]: A few minutes into the film, a shadow of a dog can be seen against a wall while it barks offscreen. [http://pixarblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/up-character-seen-in-ratatouille.html According to the DVD commentary], that dog is Dug from ''[[Up]]''.

* [[Escape Convenient Boat]]: Rémy attempts this twice; it doesn't work the first time, but does the second.

* [[Face Palm]]: Colette while Ego is observing the kitchen in Gusteau's after his meal.

** Lou Romano as Linguini, who is half-French, half-most likely Italian (he's named after a pasta and his mother's name was Renata). Romano is American.

** As pointed out in the [[Technician Versus Performer]] section, Colette is a by-the-book chef while Rémy loves experimenting. Interestingly, they both hold Gusteau in high regard, but take different interpretations of his advice while adhering to his most cherished belief: anyone can cook.

* [[Gay Paree]]: The film takes place in Paris, France.

* [[George Jetson Job Security]]

** "One can get ''too'' familiar with vegetables, you know!" may qualify, depending on your level of guttermindedness while watching the film.

** There's also the little bit after Linguini unbuttons his uniform to reveal [[Not What It Looks Like|Rémy's bite marks]].

** Linguini and Rémy have pretty naughty mouths... As Rémy is biting Linguini you can catch the latter saying "Son of a--". During the car breakout scene you can hear Rémy saying "What the--".

** When Linguini tries to confess to Colette about Rémy (until Rémy forces him to kiss her) he says something along the lines of "I have a little uhhh--". Cue Colette briefly glancing down, as though she thought he was referring to [[Teeny Weenie|a different]] dirty little secret.

** There's the scene where Linguini slowly looks Colette up and down from behind, [[Male Gaze|starting low]], followed by Colette reciprocating.

* [[Goofy Print Underwear]]: In one scene, Linguini is hinted to be wearing boxers with the logo of [[The Incredibles|a certain other film by Pixar]] imprinted on them.

* [[Heroic Bastard]]: Linguini is one.

* [[Hot-Blooded]]: Colette <s>arguably</s> qualifies.

* [[Humans Are Morons]]: Unlike Rémy's father (directly above), Rémy believes the humans are just ignorant, seeing that rats have traditionally been pests, anyway.

** If you were part of that kitchen staff and found your star chef had kept a ''wild rat'' on his head during his entire tenure, wouldn't you quit on the spot?

* [[Humongous Mecha]]: ''Technically'', Rémy has one of these in Linguini.

** Perhaps closer to a [[Mobile Suit Human]].

* [[Impairment Shot]]: We get the blinking eye shot from Linguini's perspective as Rémy tries to wake him.

* [[Impossibly Delicious Food]]: Rémy's ratatouille is so good that Ego freezes with wonder at the first bite.

* [[Jerkass]]: Skinner. Anton Ego [[Character Development|at the beginning]].

* [[Lampshade Hanging]]: When Rémy first experiments on pulling hairs to control Linguini, he comments "That's strangely involuntary!"

* [[Large and In Charge]]: Subverted; Skinner is in charge of a restaurant where all of his employees are about twice his height. Then it's double subverted when you realize that his predecessor was Gusteau, whom we could safely assume to have been the largest person in the room.

** Not to mention when Linguini himself took a testing taste of said soup earlier... and immediately ran to the window to lose his lunch.

** Also, rats are physically incapable of vomiting, so the soup must be ''that bad'' to make Rémy gag.

* [[Male Gaze]]: In a ''PIXAR'' movie, never the less!

** Hey, it ''is'' set in France, so it could have been ''way'' worse.

* [[Marionette Motion]]: Remy's control of Linguini.

* [[Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane]]: While they mention several times that Gusteau is a figment of Remy's imagination, he also tells Remy several things that Remy couldn't possibly know.

** When does it ever say his age? He looks more in his early 20s.

** Given the age some [[Real Life]] chefs started in the business, it is entirely possible that Colette is barely into her twenties.

* [[Missing Mom]]: Along with a general lack of female parts in the movie, Linguini's mother is recently dead and Remy's is never mentioned at all.

* [[Mister Exposition]]: I know what the will stipulates!

* [[Motion Capture]]: Averted. In the credits there's a logo that says: "100% pure animation! No motion capture used!" (A bit of a [[Take That]], perhaps.)

* [[Monumental View]]: Linguini's apartment has a magnificent view of the Eiffel tower.

* [[Multiple Choice Past]]: Horst.

* [[My Car Hates Me]]: Happens to the health inspector.

* [[National Stereotypes]]: Virtually all French stereotypes make cameos here. Almost all are affectionate, however.

** Look carefully, and you'll spot [[Enemy Mime|Bomb Voyage]] from ''[[The Incredibles]]'' on a street corner. Here, he's not so villainous: just a regular old French mime.

*** [[What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?|What do you mean]], [[Enemy Mime|not so villainous]]?

* [[Noodle Incident]]: Horst tells a different version of how he got arrested anytime he's asked.

** [[Your Mileage May Vary|Votre opinion peut varier.]] - Just because the ''name'' is Italian doesn't mean the ''character'' necessarily is; since it's never actually stated where he's from, it's possible that Linguini is American.

** And Anton Ego, voiced by the very British, and very not-trying-to-hide-his-accent, Peter O'Toole. Though Ego could be British himself.

* [[Oh Crap]]: When Linguini is about to reveal Rémy to Colette, Rémy forces Linguini to kiss her. Colette (understandably) pulls a can of mace on him and his half-terrified (the mace), half-ecstatic (the kiss) look is an animation feat.

** Both Skinner and the health inspector get a moment after barging in the kitchen and seeing all the rats.

** Actually, Skinner got ''thrown outside''. [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|That's one strong thumb.]]

* [[On One Condition]]: Had Linguini not claimed the inheritance his father left him within the first two years after Gusteau's death, Skinner would have inherited the restaurant.

*** And in the second [[Discworld]] adventure game, which expanded upon the rodent-name food puns (like vole-au-vents).

* [[Reality Ensues]]: See the trope page.

* [[Reed Richards Is Useless]]: Linguini discovers an unusually intelligent rat who not only knows how to cook delicious gourmet food, but even ''washes his hands'' before doing so. Instead of alerting scientists on this incredible find and possibly become famous for it, he just keeps it secret and lets it make food for him.

** Though Rémy probably wouldn't be too keen on that plan and Linguini isn't a jerk like that. Letting Rémy set him up as a prodigy cook in a high-profile restaurant was probably the most beneficial scenario for the both of them.

*** It's also a taxidermist, thus explaining the trophies in the window.

*** Almost indistinguishable, but in the beginning when Remy ends up on the floor of the restaurant under the counters while hiding, there are tiny bits of food on the floor with him. They went to the trouble of ''detailing the crumbs on the floor that hadn't been completely cleared''.

* [[Shown Their Work]]: The producers got authentic Culinary [[Badass]] [[wikipedia:Thomas Keller|Thomas Keller]], acknowledged by damned near all other professional chefs to be the greatest American chef alive right now, who owns and runs several high quality restaurants (he's the only chef in America to earn a three-star rating for ''two separate restaurants'') and is the author of ''several'' high-caliber cook books, to show how the craft works, and used Colette's [[Truth in Television|mentoring montage]] to show that research off. That sequences serves not only to establish verisimilitude in that story, but also to develop Colette's character and encourage the heroes' and the audience's respect for her.

** They also actually cooked some of the recipes used in the movie themselves, so that they could accurately render how foodstuffs look and react when being prepared via various cooking techniques.

** The Health Inspector looks suspiciously like [[The Pink Panther|Inspector Clouseau]]

** Ego's [[Flash Back]] is very similar to the famous madeleine scene from Proust's ''À la recherche du temps perdu''.

** The scene with the various Gusteau cutouts. One of them sounds like [[Looney Tunes|a certain rooster]].

** Not to mention that [[Code Lyoko|some of the loop group of Paris]] worked on this film. (Cue the end credits)

* [[Significant Anagram]]/[[Repetitive Name]]: Auguste ↔ Gusteau.

* [[Slap Slap Kiss]]: Rémy briefly witnesses a particularly extreme (though plot-irrelevant) one - the woman is pointing a gun at the man and threatening to shoot him. Rémy keeps running, but after a shot is fired into the ceiling near him, he does a [[Double Take]] and runs back - they're now kissing.

* [[Truth in Television]]: The rants Colette gives to Linguini regarding what it takes to be an effective and successful chef could have come, word for word, from any chef in the world who has ever had to take a brand new cook in hand and change him from a kitchen-halting speedbump into a frictionless part of the kitchen machine. And given the participation of Chef Thomas Keller in this movie, they most likely did.

* [[Tsundere]]: Colette.

** Although since the most popularly taught second language in the UK is French (also the country's closest neighbour) as opposed to the USA's Spanish, it kind of makes sense that the creators would presume more UK viewers wouldn't need the text translating for them.

** Also, Gusteau's is called a five-star restaurant, rather than having to explain that for élite restaurants (e.g. Michelin Guide) the highest rating is three stars (almost all restaurants would get zero stars).

* [[Visual Pun]]: Skinner's humiliating ousting from the restaurant and subsequent creepy determination to prove that a rat is involved somehow ends up driving him in Seine.

* [[Vomit Discretion Shot]]: Linguini does this out a window after a brief taste of his own soup... before Remy fixes it.

* [[Welcome to Hell]]: Shown in a nightmare.

* [[What Measure Is a Non-Cute?]]: Lampshaded. Rémy's major struggle is the fact that humans think rats are gross; the movie shows them as just mischievous and self-interested at worst.

* [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?]]: Rémy has to fight for his respect as a chef, through Linguini at least.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Animated Films]]

[[Category:The Millennium Age of Animation]]

[[Category:Cooking Stories]]

[[Category:Animal Title Index]]