Why Ratatouille is Pixar's Magnum Opus

As a kid I tried to recreate that one scene where Remy tasted a strawberry and cheese and colors were spiraling in the background, I did that by shoving a big strawberry and a chunk of cheese down my mouth only to end up choking and vomiting

I would say that Skinner is important to the movie for one reason: he's the antithesis to Remy. Throughout the movie, humans are assosciated with creating, while rats are assosciated with stealing; Remy is a rat that wants to create, Skinner is a human that does nothing but leech off of others' talent and success. Honestly, my biggest problem is that he and Remy didn't have a bigger confrontation when Skinner captured him, but you can't really have that when you've established that rats can't talk to humans in this world. I think it was important for the movie to have Skinner capture Remy to really show the contrast between their characters, and how Skinner is so much of a rat, by the movie's standard, that he is now going to leech off of an actual rat.

fun fact: ratatouille was considered a peasant dish, which makes ego's story alot more sad, he BECAME so egotistical because of his past and only let that egotistical side down after reliving all of the good memories from that time

Something I noticed when Colette waits at the stop light and turn to the shop with Gusteau's book on display "Anyone can cook", she also looks at herself in the reflection of the window and remembers how to talented she is to be cooking in the male dominated kitchen.  This is when she when she truly recognizes Remy for what he is, not a rat but a cook. An artist.

Fun fact about the latin spanish dub version of the movie, Remi's voice and his father are son and father in the real life.

Animation being a genre is like books being a genre. They’re not.

I feel like the scene where all the chefs walk out after Linguini exposes Remi to them isn’t talked about enough. Of course because it’s Disney and all, you expect that the chefs are going to embrace Remi or at least come around eventually, but they don’t. They just look at Linguini like he’s crazy and then walk out never to be seen again because that’s how any normal person would react to finding out that their leader is being controlled by a rat. It’s such a real and organic scene that you don’t see often in animated movies. As a kid it took me a while to understand why they reacted that way.

Another thing I love about ratatouille is that it never got a sequel. It has an amazing conclusion that does not need to be continued. The story closed off and that's it. No continuation, and that's satisfying.

Anyone can cook. Except for Linguini. Linguini sucks.

"Anyone can cook." "Except Linguini"

16:36 To add onto this, even if Remy DID want to break the language barrier, he can't. Because it was shown earlier in the movie, when the old lady was trying to shoot him and Emile, he was clearly yelling to Emile, but to a human like the old lady, his yelling was just a bunch of squeaks

I unironically love the chase scene. It supports my theory that Skinner or whatever his name is is just having a mental deconstruction and doing drugs

I always found Anton Ego’s joke about how chef Gusteau is going down in history alongside Chef Boyardee to be fascinating, because although it is framed like Ego insulting Gusteau, if you look it up this is EXACTLY the case! Chef Hector Boyardee (Ettore Boiardi) was a well known, respected chef from the late 1910’s until around 1940. At one point he served a dinner to the president alongside some 2000 world war 1 veterans, and later catered president Woodrow Wilson’s wedding. I heard somewhere that he did a lot to help his hometown and gave away excess product to the poor, though I cannot find anything that mentions this online. He ended up selling his brand and likeness to International Home Foods to make ends meet, and now all he is remembered for is cheap canned pasta, which is exactly what Skinner was in the process of doing to Gusteau’s legacy when Ego made the joke! edit: Revisiting this 2 years later, I should qualify that while the facts of the story above are not wrong (so far as I am aware), the way I worded and presented them strongly reflects my own feelings on the matter. I don’t disagree with the opinionated elements, they’re my own opinion after all, but I would encourage those who find themselves interested not only in the connection but in the actual history to look for a more fact-based reading before forming their own opinions.

an underrated element is that Linguine knocks the rat in the water and instead of just saying fck it whatever he actually dives into the water to get him showing how much of a good person Linguine actually is

I really like the way linguini became a waiter that skates at the end. His entire character is that he's not good at anything other than being a rat's puppet, but when the scene happened it showed that even him have something that only he can do.

Ego always struck me as a very lonely man. To see him find connection at the end of the film, knowing he’s a regular, seeing him take life in… His arc is so poignant.

Saying animation is a genre is like saying live action is a genre

You forgot mention after Anton Ego eats Remy's dish you see color on his face. Every scene we see him in he's pale and cold. But after eating the ratatouille he looks alive like all the color came back from whence he was a child.

An excellent little detail is how Remy washes his hands in the soup scene and when all rats take over the kitchen there's a scene of rats getting steam cleaned. Being critters in the kitchen the animators chose to still show importance of cleanliness

I really like how Colette softens up on Linguini after he takes uses and validates her advice. She’s probably used to men not taking her advice because she’s a woman in a very male dominated area and it was clearly very meaningful to her that Linguini did.