Ratatouille–the Movie
Ratatouille the Movie
Ratatouille is probably one of my all-time favorite films, animated or otherwise, and it is on the Disney channel as I write this during commercial breaks. It is probably the most consummate food-lover’s movie ever made, expressing the sheer joy and synaesthetic qualities of cooking at its most intuitive:
Remy, the gifted rat who is the hero of the film is one of the most appealingly-drawn animated characters I’ve ever seen, simple like a stuffed toy, but with movements that achieve a balance of the believable and the anthropomorphic. Every time he sniffs a special scent you can sense his creativity working and it is easy to find yourself on his side.
The rest of the characters, including the hapless orphan Linguini, the young lone female chef Colette, the ghost of the great chef Gusteau, and all the other players in the fine restaurant kitchen have such distinct personalities and roles, you quickly get a sense of the variety, the pace, and the drama inherent in such a working environment. Most outstanding of all, though, is the food critic named Anton Ego–a dark, sardonic, completely humorless snob who can make or break a chef with a single, less than stellar review.
Remy and Linguini form an imaginative partnership to enable the rat to achieve his dream of being a chef and the human to achieve having any kind of job at all. Remy’s conflict is his rat family who happily eat garbage and cannot understand his talents other than to sniff out poison in their food. Linguini is the unwitting victim of a jealous chef, who thinks he is the love child of the great chef Gusteau and therefore the potentially rightful owner of the restaurant. It’s a good story and irresistably done.
5 Responses to “Ratatouille–the Movie”
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[...] finally had a chance to make ratatouille in the manner of the one Remy makes in the Pixar film “Ratatouille,” which I wrote about a few weeks ago. A little research revealed that the real-life version was a creation by Chef Thomas Keller of the [...]
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I love this movie also. And Ratatouille is so good to make, especially in late summer when you can easily get some lovely fresh tomatoes and zucchini! It freezes well.
Hullo, Erin–always glad to meet another “Ratatouille” fan
I should probably post a followup recipe–something like the simplest ratatouille evah!
I also love this movie and am compelled to watch it through when I discover it on television. The movie mixes many of my favorite things in one; Paris, food, passion, being true to yourself… My children remarked that the Ratatouille recipe depicted in the movie is different than the one I have prepared, which is more of a soup or stew. I got a copy of Julia Child’s The Way to Cook and Mastering the Art of French Cooking and her version it seems to be more like a casserole. Please, if you have the mind to post your recipe for this dish, especially if you have your own take on it, I would love to see it. As Erin wrote in her post, it freezes well and is a wonderful way to have this delicious meal on hand as a meal or a side dish. Cook once, eat many times!
Cate, that is exactly what I ought to do and I should have my recipe posted later this week. I want to see if I can make it more like the one in the film, and yet keep it as simple to prepare as possible. There are look-alike recipes out there, including the one from the chef at French Laundry (who designed the one used in the film), but its technical complexity goes against the grain of my blog’s intent. More later….thanks for commenting!