Ratatouille (film)

Ratatouille
Remy, a cartoon rat, smiles nervously as he clings onto a piece of cheese while he is pinned to a door by sharp knives and forks. The film's tagline, "He's dying to become a chef", is displayed along the top. A logo with the film's title and pronunciation is shown at the bottom, with the dot on the 'i' in "Ratatouille" doubling as a rat's nose with whiskers and a chef's toque.
Theatrical release poster
Directed byBrad Bird
Screenplay byBrad Bird
Story by
Produced byBrad Lewis
Starring
Cinematography
Edited byDarren T. Holmes
Music byMichael Giacchino
Production
company
Distributed byBuena Vista Pictures Distribution[a]
Release dates
  • June 22, 2007 (2007-06-22) (Kodak Theatre)
  • June 29, 2007 (2007-06-29) (United States)
Running time
111 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$150 million[1]
Box office$623.7 million[2]

Ratatouille (/ˌrætəˈtuːi/ RAT-ə-TOO-ee) is a 2007 American animated comedy-drama film[3] produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. The eighth film produced by Pixar, it was written and directed by Brad Bird and produced by Brad Lewis, from an original idea by Jan Pinkava,[4] who was credited for conceiving the film's story with Bird and Jim Capobianco. The film stars the voices of Patton Oswalt, Lou Romano, Ian Holm, Janeane Garofalo, Peter O'Toole, Brian Dennehy, Peter Sohn and Brad Garrett. The title refers to the French dish ratatouille, and also references the species of the main character, a rat. Set mostly in Paris, the plot follows a young rat Remy (Oswalt) who dreams of becoming a chef at Auguste Gusteau's (Garrett) restaurant and tries to achieve his goal by forming an unlikely alliance with the restaurant's garbage boy Alfredo Linguini (Romano).

Development for Ratatouille began in 2000 when Pinkava wrote the original concepts of the film, although he was never formally named the director of the film. In 2005, following Pinkava's departure from Pixar for lacking confidence in the story development, Bird was approached to direct the film and revise the story. Bird and some of the film's crew members also visited Paris for inspiration. To create the food animation used in the film, the crew consulted chefs from both France and the United States. Lewis interned at Thomas Keller's The French Laundry restaurant, where Keller developed the confit byaldi, a dish used in the film. Michael Giacchino composed the Paris-inspired music for the film.

Ratatouille premiered on June 22, 2007, at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, California, with its general release on June 29, in the United States. The film became a critical and commercial success, grossing $623.7 million worldwide. It finished its theatrical run as the sixth highest-grossing film of 2007 and the year's second highest-grossing animated film (behind Shrek the Third). The film received widespread acclaim for its screenplay, animation, humor, voice acting, and Giacchino's score. It also won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and was nominated for several more, including Best Original Screenplay. Ratatouille was later voted one of the 100 greatest motion pictures of the 21st century by a 2016 poll of international critics conducted by the BBC.[5]


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  1. ^ Cieply, Michael (April 24, 2007). "It's Not a Sequel, but It Might Seem Like One After the Ads". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 9, 2019. Retrieved April 11, 2021.
  2. ^ "Ratatouille (2007)". Box Office Mojo. Amazon.com. Archived from the original on August 16, 2012. Retrieved August 4, 2010.
  3. ^ "Ratatouille (2007)". American Film Institute. Archived from the original on July 27, 2022. Retrieved July 27, 2022.
  4. ^ Chang, Justin (June 18, 2007). "Film Review: Ratatouille". Variety. Archived from the original on September 20, 2022. Retrieved September 20, 2022.
  5. ^ "The 21st Century's 100 greatest films". BBC. August 23, 2016. Archived from the original on November 24, 2016. Retrieved December 16, 2016.