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Ratatouille

FILM · 2007 · USA

Ratatouille

Directed by
Brad Bird
Runtime
111 min
Studio
Pixar

63 archived facts 3 topics 1 source Last reviewed Nov 2026

In one of Paris's finest restaurants, Remy, a determined young rat, dreams of becoming a renowned French chef. Torn between his family's wishes and his true calling, Remy and his pal Linguini set in motion a hilarious chain of events that turns the City of Lights upside down.

  • Ratatouille — production image

63 Interesting Facts About Ratatouille

Interesting Facts (29)

  1. #001

    To study how fur, noses, ears, paws and tails move, live domestic rats were kept in a studio in the corridor for more than a year so the animators could observe them.

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  2. #002

    In France, where the film is set, Ratatouille broke the record for the biggest animated film.

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  3. #003

    Because no food company wanted to be associated with a rat, marketing tie-ins proved problematic for the film.

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  4. #004

    To learn how to stage the scene in which Linguini gets soaked after falling into the Seine, the animators dressed someone in a chef's outfit and put him in a swimming pool to see which parts of the clothing stuck to his body and which parts turned transparent.

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  5. #005

    Brad Bird cast Patton Oswalt in the lead role after hearing his stand-up routine about the menu at Black Angus Steakhouse.

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  6. #006

    The ratatouille dish Remy prepares is an alternative variation called confit byaldi, adapted by the film's consultant Thomas Keller. This variation differs greatly from traditional ratatouille in preparation and method; the key difference is that the vegetables are sliced thinly and baked in the oven rather than cooked in a pot.

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  7. #007

    This is chef and television star Anthony Bourdain's favorite food-centered film. Bourdain said: "They got the food, the reactions to the food, and the tiny details right, down to the barely noticeable pink burns on the character's forearms. I thought it reflected a passionate love of food in a way few other films have."

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  8. #008

    1.15 million hairs were rendered on Remy (Patton Oswalt), while 115,000 hairs were rendered on Colette (Janeane Garofalo). The average human has about 110,000 hairs.

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  9. #009

    PIXAR TRADEMARK: (At about one hour and fourteen minutes) Nearly every Pixar film shows the Pizza Planet truck from the Toy Story series. The truck appears on the bridge over the Seine in the scene where Skinner (Sir Ian Holm) chases Remy (Patton Oswalt).

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  10. #010

    (At about one hour and twenty-six minutes) The wine Anton Ego orders, Chateau Cheval Blanc 1947, is a real wine, a Grand Cru Bordeaux blend from the St. Emilion region and an excellent vintage. Properly stored bottles should be in their first drinking window as late as 2050. A bottle ordered in a restaurant would probably cost more than $4,000 (in 2012 US dollars).

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  11. #011

    The changes Brad Bird brought to Jan Pinkava's original story were killing off Gusteau, giving Skinner and Colette more significant roles, and redesigning the rats to look a bit more like actual rats.

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  12. #012

    To learn the art of cooking, the animation team worked alongside chef Thomas Keller at his restaurant The French Laundry. Mr. Keller also has a small role as the voice of a patron at Gusteau's.

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  13. #013

    After rat expert Debbie Ducommun brought several of her personal pets in for the art and animation departments to observe, several changes were made to the design of the rats, particularly their noses and ears.

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  14. #014

    Linguini is the first Pixar character to get drunk.

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  15. #015

    (At about one hour and six minutes) The room where Anton Ego (Peter O'Toole) writes his review is shaped like a coffin, and the back of his typewriter accordingly resembles a skull, since he writes "killer" reviews.

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  16. #016

    To create a realistic-looking compost heap, the artists photographed and researched how real rot forms. Fifteen different types of produce, including apples, strawberries, bananas, mushrooms, oranges, broccoli and lettuce, were left to rot and then photographed.

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  17. #017

    (At about fifty-nine minutes) The display window showing dead rats actually exists. It is the window of Destruction des Animaux Nuisibles, a pest-control company established in 1872, located at 8 rue des Halles in the 1st arrondissement.

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  18. #018

    PIXAR TRADEMARK: John Ratzenberger (Mustafa) once again provides a voice in a Pixar film, the only actor to do so in every Pixar film. It is also the second time Ratzenberger voices a human, after The Underminer in The Incredibles (2004). He had previously voiced a piggy bank in the Toy Story series, a flea in A Bug's Life (1998), the Abominable Snowman in Monsters, Inc. (2001), a school of fish in Finding Nemo (2003) and a Mack truck in Cars (2006). It is also the first Pixar film in which Ratzenberger's character has a different accent from the actor's own.

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  19. #019

    Gusteau's (Brad Garrett) first and last names ("Auguste Gusteau") are anagrams of each other.

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  20. #020

    Linguini and (his ghost) Gusteau learn that Linguini is Gusteau's illegitimate son. This makes the film the first full-length Disney animated film to feature a main character of illegitimate descent. All previous main characters were either orphans, had both parents married and living, or had a living widowed parent.

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  21. #021

    (At about one hour and sixteen minutes in) As Linguini and Colette roller-skate along the sidewalk, a mime performs for some people. The CGI model for the mime is the same model used for the character Bomb Voyage in The Incredibles (2004).

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  22. #022

    Brad Bird became interested in the project because he liked the unconventionality of the concept, namely a rat that wants to work in a kitchen.

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  23. #023

    Worried that the public would not know how to pronounce the title, Disney/Pixar had the title written phonetically on all posters and trailers.

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  24. #024

    Walt Disney Pictures was reluctant to push this film as a Best Picture nominee at the Oscars, fearing that members might overlook it in the Best Animated category, which they saw as a lock. Instead, they focused on winning in the animation category.

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  25. #025

    The villain of this film, Head Chef Skinner, voiced by Sir Ian Holm, tries to put Remy in a box. The character is named after the behavioral psychologist B. F. Skinner, known for the Skinner Box, in which rats were placed and trained to press a button for food.

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  26. #026

    After the film's release, sales of pet rats increased significantly.

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  27. #027

    Brad Bird, producer Bradford Lewis and part of the team went to Paris for a week to get to know the city. They took motorcycle tours around the capital and ate at its five best restaurants.

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  28. #028

    Disney and Pixar planned to bring a French-made Ratatouille-branded wine to Costco stores. That was until the California Wine Institute filed a complaint arguing that cartoon characters promoting wine would only encourage underage drinking.

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  29. #029

    To save time and money while animating the film, the human characters were designed and animated without toes.

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Production Story (1)

  1. #030

    At about 00:16:36, when Remy (Patton Oswalt) first comes out of the sewer, a dog barks at him from one of the houses. You only see the dog's silhouette, but it is Dug from Pixar's Up (2009), which was still in production at the time.

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Characters & Cast (33)

  1. #031

    Actor and animator Peter Sohn was cast as Emile after Brad Bird noticed that his manner and voice accidentally matched Emile's character description exactly.

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  2. #032

    Two years after the untimely death of his first wife, Michelle McNamara, her non-fiction true crime book "I'll Be Gone in the Dark" debuted at number 1 on the New York Times Best Seller list (2018). The introduction and afterword were contributed by author Gillian Flynn and Oswalt, respectively.

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  3. #033

    He is a great film buff, especially of classics and film noir. From the mid to late 1990s he became addicted to watching films and went to the theater almost every day. This is recounted in his book "Silver Screen Fiend".

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  4. #034

    He has a daughter with Michelle McNamara: Alice Rigney Oswalt (born April 15, 2009).

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  5. #035

    He attended and graduated from Broad Run High School in Ashburn, Virginia.

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  6. #036

    He has been an outspoken critic of US President Donald Trump. In January 2019, after an intense Twitter feud with one of Trump's supporters, Trump donated $2,000 to a GoFundMe fund set up to help cover the man's medical expenses.

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  7. #037

    He was named after World War II hero General George S. Patton.

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  8. #038

    He recently discovered that he has a gluten allergy. He has been diagnosed with clinical depression, which he has dealt with throughout his adult life. He has incorporated these experiences into his comedy routines.

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  9. #039

    Patton Oswalt: Annihilation (2017) was nominated for the 2018 Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series, but lost to John Mulaney for John Mulaney: Kid Gorgeous (2018) at Radio City.

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  10. #040

    His comedy special Patton Oswalt: Talking for Clapping (2016) premiered on Netflix.

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  11. #041

    He is the older brother of Matt Oswalt, creator of the Puddin' web series.

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  12. #042

    His father's ancestry is English, German, Scottish and Irish. His maternal grandfather, Peter Nicholas Runfola, was of Italian/Sicilian origin, and his maternal grandmother, Mary Cecilia Brennan, was of Irish origin.

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  13. #043

    He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia (1991). He later received an honorary degree (Doctor of Arts) from the College of William & Mary (May 2023). He is a member of the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity.

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  14. #044

    He confirmed his engagement to actress Meredith Salenger.

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  15. #045

    He admitted to being a huge Star Trek fan and referenced the series as Spencer Olchin on the hit sitcom The King of Queens (1998). He did voice work on Star Trek: Picard (2020) and appeared in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2022).

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  16. #046

    He is a staunch Democrat. He supported Barack Obama for re-election (2012) and Joe Biden for his presidential campaign (2020).

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  17. #047

    Oswalt's comedy influences include Jonathan Winters, Richard Pryor, Steve Martin, Sam Kinison, Emo Philips, Bobcat Goldthwait, Blaine Capatch, Jim Goad, Bill Hicks and Louis C. K.

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  18. #048

    His favorite film is the comedy-drama Six Pack (1982).

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  19. #049

    He is the son of Edith Alexandra (Palk) and Emerson James Arnett, who was president and CEO of Molson Breweries from 1997 to 2000. His family is from Manitoba.

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  20. #050

    He speaks fluent French.

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  21. #051

    He likes stealing his Xbox. His player tag is Roncore.

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  22. #052

    His then-wife Amy Poehler also played his wife in various episodes of Arrested Development (2003).

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  23. #053

    In Blades of Glory (2007), he played the brother of his then-wife Amy Poehler.

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  24. #054

    He does voice work for GMC trucks and Lamasil tablets.

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  25. #055

    He attended French-language schools in Toronto.

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  26. #056

    On August 6, 2010, Will and Amy Poehler became the parents of their second child, Abel James Arnett. Abel weighed 7 lb, 13 oz.

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  27. #057

    On October 25, 2008, Will and his then-wife Amy Poehler became the parents of a son named Archibald William Emerson "Archie" Arnett, 8 lb, 1 oz, at 6:00 p.m. in New York City.

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  28. #058

    He is a good friend of screenwriter/playwright Dave McLaughlin. One of Will's first film roles was in McLaughlin's Southie (1998).

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  29. #059

    He is a friend of Jerry O'Connell.

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  30. #060

    His ancestry includes English, some Scottish, and smaller amounts of Irish, Dutch and French.

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  31. #061

    He is the former brother-in-law of Marisa Miller and Savannah Miller.

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  32. #062

    He is the former son-in-law of Mark Miller and Beatrice Miller.

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  33. #063

    He worked as a baggage handler and ramp agent at the now-defunct Skywalker Air, a small regional airline serving routes between Toronto, Buffalo and Rochester.

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Sources & editorial notes

Reference databases

  • Wikipedia English Wikipedia article
  • IMDb IMDb title page (trivia)

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