Line #40 WMG/Ratatouille


1	[[WMG:The movie was created in order to defuse a common insult against the Creator/{{Disney}} Corporation.]]
2	A popular slang term for Disney is "the Mouse," after their most successful intellectual property, [[WesternAnimation/ClassicDisneyShorts Mickey Mouse]]. Detractors like to spin that into "the Rat," invoking the animal's reputation for being sneaky and ridden with disease. Hence, Disney commissions Pixar to make a film about a lovable, soulful, artistic genius of a rat in order to improve the species' public image and make "the Rat" into a compliment.
3
4	[[WMG: The movie was created as a wake-up call for Creator/{{Disney}}.]]
5	The folks at Creator/{{Pixar}} have often stated their love for classic Disney films. And just about every other critic noticed there was something familiar about the concept of the film: after a beloved chef's death, a new head chef capitalizes on the reputation of said chef by using it to churn out inferior frozen, prepackaged foods. [[note]] Translation: After a beloved founder's death, a new studio executive capitalizes on the reputation of said animator by using it to churn out inferior direct-to-video sequels and teenybopper sitcoms.[[/note]]
6
7	[[WMG: Furthermore, a follow-up series/sequel will have a HappyEndingOverride based on modern criticism of the Disney company]]
8	Which is to say that La Ratatouille has been buying out other restaurants to expand its menu and chain, and the inferior prepackaged items are back, this time resembling altered “deluxe” versions of classic menu items. [[note]] Disney has begun buying out large chunks of the film industry, and making inferior live-action remakes in lieu of the direct to video sequels[[/note]]
9	** For a better analogy, perhaps La Ratatouille, after re-acquiring the Gusteau’s name, has begun opening fast food joints, which would be a better comparison to how the remakes are released in theaters?
10
11	[[WMG: The movie was intended as a TakeThat at Disney.]]
12	''Ratatouille'' was developed while Pixar and Disney were trying (and failing) to reach a new profit-sharing and distribution deal. If Disney and Pixar had not reached a new agreement, ''Ratatouille'' would've been Pixar's first non-Disney movie. Puts the scenes of everyone repulsed at rats in a new light.
13
14	[[WMG: That's no hallucination; that's Gusteau's ghost.]]
15	Think about it -- who is the real winner here? Gusteau's son attains his birthright and Gusteau's restaurant regains its reputation. The greedy little twerp who had pimped out Gusteau's image is ruined. All because Remy, the world's greatest chef, had a "hallucination" which guided him to the restaurant and encouraged him to help Linguini out. Maybe it was a more active form of guidance than Remy thought; Gusteau just went along with the "figment of your imagination" idea because he figured Remy would be more likely to accept a vision brought on by intense hunger than a departed spirit.
16	* But Gusteau's restaurant is forcibly shut down at the end!
17	** There was no choice. Gusteau wanted to restore his restaurant's reputation and punish the fella who wrecked it at the same time, but that fella was the only person who could undo the damage. ''Something'' had to give. Besides, the restaurant's spirit lives on in a new, lower-profile form.
18	** This is canon. Gusteau leads Remy to his restaurant. Remy can't have hallucinated that, since there's no way he could have known where Gusteau's restaurant was.
19	*** Not necessarily. He found Gusteau's restaurant, he didn't look for it.
20	* Gusteau didn't know he had a son even when he was alive -- the mother told no one -- so that could be the real Gusteau just claiming to be a hallucination in that scene.
21	* Near the end of the movie, the last words of Gusteau to Remy indicate he was real. So does his touching Remy -- hallucinations normally can't do that.
22	** Similarly, in one scene, Gusteau drags Remy by the ear. It's ''far'' more likely that a ghost could do that than a hallucination.
23	** Hallucinations have a lot of power over people, or hats, [[YourMindMakesItReal whose minds make them real]].
24
25	[[WMG: Gusteau is real, but doesn't guide Remy to his restaurant with the hope to save it.]]
26	He wants to help Remy discover himself.
27
28	[[WMG: Gusteau actually cooks as bad as Linguini: he also had a rat in his head]]
29	Eventually Gusteau became independent and took the popularity to himself after learning on how to cook from a rat.
30	* Alternatively he continued to do business with the rat until he and the rat had a falling out at one point. Unfortunately this would be the very night that Anton Ego would show up and unlike Linguini and Remy, the two did not make up so Ego tasted Gusteau’s terrible cooking and gave a scouring review leading to the death of Gusteau.
31
32	[[WMG: Remy ''is'' Gusteau.]]
33	Think about it. Rats don't live long. Remy is young for a rat, and so he is only a few months old at the most. He certainly wouldn't have been born until after Gusteau died. By simple irony, Gusteau was reincarnated as a rat; but his previous life was so vivid that he was still a food-lover. The ghost-Gusteau that Remy keeps seeing is his subconscious broken memories of his old life. This is why he is so attracted to Linguini. He wants to [[spoiler:be near his son]].
34	* [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments This WMG makes the movie 10 times better.]]
35	** Or it could be a type of FridgeHorror especially if Linguini were to figure it out.
36
37	[[WMG: ''Ego'' is Gusteau.]]
38	Suffering from a continual inferiority complex, the man created an entirely alternate personality to be his exact opposite and criticise his every move. He's stereotypically French? His opposite, stereotypically English. He's grossly overweight? His opposite, vampirically thin. He even goes so far as to give the man a name implying an origin in the recesses of the unconscious mind. Ultimately, he grew bored of cooking; using some money from an old nest egg, he underwent dramatic surgery to bring 'Ego' - previously played by an actor - to life, until the time came to test his beloved long-lost son. This adds credence to Remy's cooking - it's so good that it inspires memories in a fake personality who logically shouldn't have them.
39	* Minor comment about the name: the ego is the only conscious part of the mind. On the other hand, criticizing the ego is what the ''super''ego does.
40
41	[[WMG: Colette lies about the kitchen crew to inspire or spook Linguini.]]
42	So does the sous chef. Surely he didn't single-handedly create the hole in the ozone layer.
43	* Doesn't work; one of Horst's stories is that he killed a man with his right thumb alone, and he later threatens Skinner with that thumb after the restaurant changes to Linguini's ownership ''and even uses it to throw Skinner out of the restaurant when Skinner tries to sneak back in''. The threat would be meaningless if Colette was lying about his past.
44	** It leaves the stories of everyone else open, though.
45
46	[[WMG: The movie is part of the ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' continuity.]]
47	Remy is one of the smarter-than-human mice projection of the alien race that created Deep Thought. He just lost interest in the research of the ultimate question to Life, the Universe and Everything, in favor of cooking. The ability to control Linguini by pulling his hairs is not an anomaly; it's a feature of all humans.
48	* Man, that program's been running so long that some of the original mice have evolved into rats!
49
50	[[WMG:Remy's colony is descended from the Rats of NIMH.]]
51	In an effort to escape NIMH for good, the colony left their valley and traveled to France, eventually giving rise to a colony of rats that were smart enough to build boats, develop language, read, cook, etc.
52	* No, wrong branch. Remember Jenner? He moved to the city for easier access to human resources. He and his followers were much more successful than Nicodemus and co. thought, and now their descendants have spread as far as Paris...
53	** That's based on book Rats. If working from the movie, then include WesternAnimation/TheSecretOfNimh 2 in continuity; that puts Thorn Valley in commuting distance to one city and not insanely far from a second. It would be a simple matter for ''part'' of the colony to leave the valley for the sewers with relatively few repercussions. (Or leave NIMH itself if there are Rats there.) The generations after can spread as above.
54
55	[[WMG: Ego is a vampire.]]
56	Normal food holds no pleasure for him; eventually Linguini's dish is the only thing capable of inspiring enjoyment in him outside of blood.
57	* It explains why his office is shaped like a coffin -- it's the place where he spends most of his time, writing reviews. He doesn't need to have an ''actual'' coffin because of it.
58	* And it covers the fact why we see him only during evening/night.
59
60	[[WMG: Ego had an [[FreudianExcuse unhappy childhood]].]]
61	The reason why he looks cold and dark-hearted and his criticism is direct and sharp is because he wants to impose his childhood misery upon others. It is also the reason why the ratatouille inspired enjoyment in him: he was reminded of his mother, who could possibly be the only person who cared for him.
62	* Not only was Ego's mother the only one who loved him, but she also probably died when he was very young. Also, since the flashback begins with young Ego standing in the doorway trying not to cry, it seems that he was bullied a lot; that could explain his sharp criticism as displaced revenge on his childhood tormentors.
63	* ''Something'' very traumatic happened to him at some point.
64	* He was crying because he was hurt. Notice the crumpled bicycle in the background, and how Ego's knees are bloody. That is consistent with bullying.
65	** I got the impression he was crying with a scraped knee because he just fell off his bike and hurt himself.
66	** From the script:
67	-->FLASHBACK: FRENCH COUNTRYSIDE - A LIFETIME AGO
68	-->We are inside a cozy cottage on a golden summer day. The
69	-->front door is open, a newly crashed BICYCLE lays on the
70	-->ground outside. Next to it stands a five year old ANTON EGO
71	-->with a skinned knee, valiantly holding back tears.
72
73	[[WMG: Linguini is the hapless farmer from "Lifted."]]
74	That farmer was slammed around his farmhouse like a pinball by that goofy alien. Repeated head trauma would explain why Linguini was so bad on his feet and unable to hold down a job. Living in the US would explain his American accented French, and why Gusteau did not know of him before his death.
75
76	[[WMG: Ego is immortal.]]
77	He became so bored with immortality that he became a CausticCritic, taking out his ennui on the food that he became bored with. The ratatouille brought him back to his childhood, when everything was still full of wonder, and he decides to be more constructive with his eternal life.
78
79	[[WMG: Horst suffers from SplitPersonality Disorder]]
80	That's why he always gives a [[MultipleChoicePast different explanation]] when asked why he spent time in prison. Every single personality remembers it differently.
81
82	That would also explain why most of the answers are so wacky. Many of those personalities don't have a full grasp of reality. They imagine something unbelievable because they don't understand that it is possible... '''Robbing a bank with a ballpoint pen?!'''
83
84	Horst hasn't gone on medication because he has no need for it. The personalities are only a little different, and they share information and common memories. He can cook efficiently no matter which personality is in control. Why waste a lot of money and time on unreliable pills and therapy when he can get by just fine? It's not like anyone would dare hurt him.
85
86	His coworkers dismiss his quirk as a sign that he doesn't want to reveal the 'actual reason'.
87	* 'Robbing a bank with only a ballpoint pen' could be a reference to large-scale embezzlement, fraud, and fiddling with expenses.
88
89	[[WMG: Horst is really Creator/ChuckNorris.]]
90	'Nuff said.
91	* "I killed a man with this thumb." He just flexed that thumb's biceps.
92
93	[[WMG: ''Ratatouille'' is an obscure sequel to ''South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut''.]]
94	No no no, just hear me out; remember the chef who was in 'La Resistance', but never talks about it? That's really Mole; 'La Resistance' refers to the group of kids devoted to saving Terrence and Phillip, and the reason he never talks about it was because a) it's not exactly a noble resistance to talk about, and b) he was supposed to have died.
95
96	[[WMG: Renata Linguine was a MafiaPrincess]]
97	She had to go back to her father after a long enough stint in Paris to fall in love with Gusteau and conceive Alfredo. Since Alfredo is half-French, he wouldn't qualify for membership in TheMafia and thus was left without the help of The Family when Renata died.
98
99	[[WMG: Ego's mom is the old lady from the beginning.]]
100	You know, the owner of the house infested by Remy's family. Hear me out: Ego's childhood home used to be in the country, this lady lives in the country. Plus, this lady must have been the same age as the critic's mother, since he's no rosebud either. Maybe Remy watched the old lady cooking, and got some of her style. Also, Ego might had been in a fight with his mother and cut the contact, making the scene where he tries the Ratatouille a lot more meaningful.
101	* When you consider that the woman just watched cooking shows all day, it makes a weird sort of sense.
102	** When the old woman awakens and discovers Remy, if you pay attention, it happens right after Anton Ego speaks on the TV. She may watch cooking shows all day for a chance to see her busy son on TV, and woke up at that moment because she heard Ego's voice.
103	* That lady was too short to have been Ego's mom. Maybe it was an aunt.
104	** Still possible, though. She might just be one of the many MiniatureSeniorCitizens out there.
105	** Height is genetically recessive; short parents can easily have a tall child, even if both parents are short, as long as they are both carriers.
106	** Although often exaggerated in animation, sometimes people who are taller as adults will become shorter with age as their bone density decreases. So even if she ''is'' shorter now, she may have been taller in her youth.
107
108	[[WMG: Skinner sabotaged Gusteau.]]
109	Skinner wanted to launch a line of frozen foods under Gusteau's name. When he refused, he purposely botched Anton Ego's dish in order to lose a star. Skinner did not intend to kill Gusteau, only to dishearten him enough to let Skinner make the frozen dinners. Gusteau's death was a fortunate coincidence considering Skinner got all rights to his name and restaurant.
110
111	[[WMG: Ego's Childhood Flashback was just a metaphor.]]
112	Ratatouille wasn't Ego's favorite childhood food. It was a metaphor that Ego locked away his childhood along with his happiness and after eating Ratatouille released it.
113
114	[[WMG: The black and white report on Gusteau was a VHS]]
115	There are DNA tests and stuff.
116	* ...what?
117	** I think what the original troper meant was, since technology has advanced to the point of DNA tests, colour TV also exists, so the black and white footage was an old video tape, not a TV program.
118
119	[[WMG: Colette is based, in appearance at least, partially off Motoko Kusenagi]]
120	* They don't even look alike.
121
122	[[WMG: Horst is ComicBook/TheJoker.]]
123	Let's see, he has a MultipleChoicePast to be sure, but perhaps his "normal" appearance is just some good makeup. But wait you say, he's not a walking wasteland of ComedicSociopathy right? Given how much of TheUnfunny Horst happens to be, maybe he's trying to parody what he ''thinks'' normal people act like while on downtime. Even the Ace of Knaves needs a breather, after all.
124
125	[[WMG: Horst did time for public nudity and/or public urination.]]
126	And he's so embarrassed by it that he makes up crazy stories to cover it up and keep people too scared of him to really look into it.
127
128	[[WMG: The movie takes place in the same universe as ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles''.]]
129	And the hair-acting-as-marionette-strings is his [[WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway lame super power.]]
130	* Bomb Voyage makes a cameo as a street mime. I thought Pixar was just being cute, but this actually makes sense now :D
131	* Linguini wears underwear with their logo. Either they share a universe or Pixar exists in Ratatouille's universe.
132	* Also "UP" Seeing as Dug was chasing Remy at the start. The only way this makes sense is if the villain bought Dug after the events in the movie and brought him to Paradise Falls.
133	** Perhaps Muntz visited Paris on the sly to buy champagne, and took the opportunity to collect Dug on the street.
134
135	[[WMG: The movie takes place in the same universe as ''Film/TopSecret'']]
136	Colette tells Linguini that Larrouse would have provided weapons for a resistance movement whose identity no one knows, so she assumes that they would have been defeated. In fact, Larousse provided weapons for the french resistance in East Germany. That is why many of the members of this movement had nicknames associated with the culinary world (Croissant, Soufflé, Escargot, Chocolate Mousse). Larousse is so reticent about his activities because he suspects that the restaurant's sous-chef, Horst, is an East German spy sent by General Streck to eliminate him.
137
138	[[WMG: Skinner bought Gusteau's.]]
139	After the place was shut down, Skinner bought it for a pittance along with the rights to Gusteau's name and resumed his plans to sell frozen foods. He also rehired the employees who left when Linguini told them about the rat.
140	** How well the new version would do is anybody's guess, but it probably backfired.
141	** For a pittance? Rats or no rats, real estate in Paris is expensive, and Gusteau's looked like it was on a beautiful intersection, complete with a gorgeous fountain, and near the Seine -- I'd guess the East Bank. There would be very rich people vying to turn it into anything other than a grocery store.
142	** But otoh, France does have entire grocery stores dedicated to selling frozen food. Maybe Skinner founded one of those?
143	** The restaurant may be shut down, but wouldn't Skinner have to buy the rights to Gusteau's name and image ''from Linguini?'' He may have been able to use the cash when opening La Ratatouille, but considering his and the other chef's earlier burning of the frozen foods, wouldn't he hesitate to sell to Skinner, knowing that it's likely to result in corn puppies?
144	** Maybe Gusteau's merely paid rent to use the building and Skinner became the new tenant.
145
146	[[WMG: Skinner killed Gusteau.]]
147	He poisoned Gusteau and only made it look like a trauma caused by Ego's negative review.
148
149	[[WMG: Remy is the start of a Evolutionary Branch from other Rats / is a mutant]]
150	* Since Evolution happens randomly, and is often by small changes to already exciting biological features, Remy could be a naturally-mutated rat, with heighted senses of smell and taste, and gained a gag reflex and increased intelligence (particularly in creativeness), along with other Artistic License changes to help tell the story.
151
152	[[WMG: Colette was or came close to being sexually harassed once]]
153	Recognizing that you're the only women in what is portrayed as being very much a "boy's club" career would make anyone angry, having that career be culinary arts even moreso and having to train some idiot savant in something that she had to fight tooth and nail for sends her into a passive-aggressive rage. And then there's that line about her hoping Linguini was "different." Could it be that, in addition to her rigorous career and training, she's also had to fend off the advances or catcalls from her sexist peers? It'd explain the mace (though not the ShutUpKiss).
154
155	[[WMG: Alternatively, at one point, Colette was or came close to being sexually assaulted once.]]
156
157	[[WMG: Gusteau suspected that Linguini existed]]
158	Why else would his will have a part stating that ownership of the restaurant would transfer if an heir showed up?
159	* Gusteau ReallyGetsAround.
160
161	[[WMG: Horst is somehow related to [[Anime/OnePunchMan Saitama]].]]
162	Considering how he killed a man with just a thumb, maybe he followed his training regimen.
163
164	[[WMG: Renata and Gusteau didn't leave on friendly terms.]]
165	The reason she didn't want Gusteau to know about his son is pure spite. She only sent Linguini to the restaurant because she was afraid nobody else would hire the boy.
166
167	[[WMG: Horst's stories are all true, and they all relate to a single (incredibly bizarre) bank heist.]]
168	It would explain where he's getting them all. And it would make a fantastic heist movie.
169	** Regardless of relating to a same heist or not, he never stays imprisoned for a long (or any) time thanks to RefugeInAudacity. No prosecutor can convince a jury that any of those stories could have really happened and any confessions by Horst are dismissed as [[SarcasticConfession sarcasm]] on his part.
170
171	[[WMG: Alternatively, Horst's crimes are all separate events, with Horst working for expies of Bond Villains.]]
172
173	[[WMG: Horst told the story about killing someone with his thumb to Skinner.]]
174	It would explain why Horst just shows him the thumb when he catches him trying to sneak into the restaurant.
175
176	[[WMG: Alternatively, Horst really did kill a man with his thumb, but not as dramatic as he makes it up to be.]]
177	He simply applied pressure to the victim's neck using his thumb, not some weird borderline supernatural thing with his thumb like how he makes it up to be.
178	[[WMG:Remy is a ridiculously small human in a rat costume.]]
179	If he wasn't one, then how can he cook so well? It MakesSenseInContext.
180	** And also why he almost gagged in one scene.
181
182	[[WMG:Gusteau committed suicide.]]
183	The most likely explanation for how he “died of a heartbreak”.
184
185	[[WMG: One of the rat bodies Django showed Remy in the shop window was Remy and Emile's mother]]
186	Django's mate and Remy and Emile's mother also got friendly with humans, until they turned on her and tried to poison her and her family. Mama Remy protected her family and was killed in the process, leaving Django with two young pups to take care of by himself.
187
188	[[WMG: [[WesternAnimation/TheGreatMouseDetective Professor Ratigan]] is an ancestor of Remy's]]
189	Both are incredibly intelligent and refined rats ([[InsistentTerminology BIG MICE!]]). Somewhere between 1897 and 2007, Ratigan's descendants left London after their patriarch died trying to kill the Mouse Queen and resettled in Paris...and over time, the rodents decided that clothes were uncomfortable, so now they all go naked.
190
191	[[WMG:Connected with the ''Pixar Theory'', it's likely that the events of ''WesternAnimation/{{Up}}'' is why Remy's Restaurant is possible.]]
192	Probably when word got out that there are intelligent dogs, people start to wonder how many animals are smart and self-aware. This revelation spread quickly that by the time the restaurant opened, people already accepted that rats are smart and can cook.
193
194	[[WMG:By the end of the movie, society at large has accepted that rats are sentient and intelligent enough to be actual gourmet chefs.]]
195	A common criticism/joke about the film's ending is that the new restaurant Remy created will quickly get shut down like Gusteau's, due to the fact that a rat is the head chef and his colony lives there (or at least visits frequently). However, that seems unlikely, as the film heavily implies that the people of France don't view rats as unsanitary vermin anymore:
196	* Remy has tiny scaffolding and a pulley to help him maneuver around the kitchen. Any health inspector would see them and suspect that it's for small animals, and shut the place down. Yet, the restaurant is thriving.
197	** The presence of a tiny structure in these places to aid his movement suggest there's many all around the kitchen and restaurant. If not a health inspector, then any customer would've definitely noticed.
198	* Remy puts himself within view of humans twice during the ending. Both times, he makes no effort to escape their line of sight, as if he has no reason to hide anymore.
199	* By this point, Remy is friends with and understood by a former chef of Gusteau's, a retired but renowned food critic, and Gusteau's actual son. With them on his side, it wouldn't be impossible to convince people that rats are smart enough to be chefs and sanitary enough to use soap.
200	** Remy's talk with his dad in front of the poison shop suggested this was an eventual goal of his.
201	* The sign outside of his restaurant shows an actual rat. Again, business is booming despite this.
202	A major flaw with this theory is that the humans would have stood in solidarity with the rats and tried to protest the closure of Gusteau's or the loss of Ego's job, which they never did. Although it's also possible that, since time has passed since that day, society may have changed their mind about rats when it was already too late for the previous one but still enough to allow the current one to open.
203
204	[[WMG: If the above is true, the Health Inspector changed his policy to exclude "rat infestation" or alter its meaning.]]
205	Vermin infestations are not the only things health inspectors deal with and he only closed Gusteau's down because it's his job and was unaware that Skinner's true motive behind calling him was pure spite for being kicked out (sure he still had it shut down after the rats set him free, which would make him seem ungrateful if not for the fact they were the ones who locked him in the room in the first place). It's possible that after he learns the whole truth, he did whatever he could to ensure that the new restaurant didn't face the same problem over a mistake.
206
207	[[WMG: At least some of the cooks DID learn how wrong they were about Remy and how they missed the point of Gusteau's motto]]
208	The reason only Colette came back was because unlike her, they didn't have this realization until the next day when Ego's positive review appeared. Plus, since Gusteau's got shut down shortly afterwards, the cooks couldn't go back the work even if they wanted to.

Context WMG / Ratatouille