Anecdotes for
Ratatouille (2007)

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• At the start of the teaser trailer, the pedestrian bridge in the foreground is the easily recognizable Pont des Arts. Drawing a line from the bridge to the Eiffel Tower places the fictional restaurant right across the river Seine from the Louvre, directly south-west of Pont du Carousel. Paris has been slightly remodeled though since Musée d'Orsay, seen to the east (left) of the restaurant, should be about 500 meters to the west along the river.
  
  
• The animation team worked alongside chef Thomas Keller at his restaurant French Laundry in order to learn the art of cooking. Mr. Keller also appears in a cameo role as the voice of a patron at Gusteau's.
  
  
• Michael Warch, the manager of sets and layout, holds a culinary degree.
  
  

• Several changes to the design of the rats (primarily the nose and ears) were made after Debbie Ducommun, a rat expert, brought down several of her personal pets for the art and animation departments to observe.
  
  
• To create a realistic-looking compost pile, artists photographed and researched the way real produce rots. Fifteen different kinds of produce were left to rot and then photographed, such as apples, berries, bananas, mushrooms, oranges, broccoli, and lettuce.
  
  
• During the character design process, the sculptor created nine handmade clay sculpts of the film's protagonist, Remy. Six of those sculpts were different design explorations. The last three were different poses of the final design.
  
  
• To find out how to animate the scene where the Head Chef is wet, they actually dressed someone in a chef suit, and put him in a swimming pool to see which parts of the suit stuck to his body, and which parts you could see through.
  
  
• During a street scene, there is a mime in the background, who is the character Bomb Voyag" from The Incredibles (2004) also directed by Brad Bird.
  
  
• When deciding where Remy should control Linguini, Linguini pulls open his trousers exposing his underwear, where one can make out an The Incredibles (2004) logo pattern on his boxers.
  
  
• The brand of motorcycle that Colette rides, as evidenced by the logo on the gas tank, is Calahan--a reference to director of photography and lighting director Sharon Calahan.
  
  
• The room that Anton Ego writes his review in is shaped like a coffin; in addition the back of his typewriter resembles a skull face - appropriate, because he writes "killer" reviews.
  
  
• Some of the scenes in the movie were rendered based on the rehearsal demo footage performed by Lou Romano (Linguini) and shot by DP Robert Anderson with Brad Bird supervising. An example from that has Romano taking his bicycle inside his house.
  
  
• Remy has 1.15 million hairs rendered, whereas Colette has 115,000 hairs rendered. An average person has about 110,000 hairs.
  
  
• Storyboard and animator Peter Sohn was cast on the spot for the role of Emile when director Brad Bird accidentally found out that his demeanor and voice were exactly like the character description of Emile.
  
  
• Nearly every Pixar film shows the Pizza Planet Truck from Toy Story (1995). The truck appears on the bridge over the Seine on the scene where Skinner chases Remy.
  
  
• The window shop displaying dead rats actually exists. It is the window of Destruction des Animaux Nuisibles, an exterminator established since 1872, located 8 rue des Halles in the first arrondissement.
  
  
• Colonel Rémy was the nom-de-guerre of Gilbert Renault, a hero of the French Resistance during WWII.
  
  
• In the Spanish version, the famous Catalan chef Ferran Adrià voices a French client.
  
  
• The French waiter in the trailer talking about the cheeses is voiced by the film's director, Brad Bird.
  
  
• Every PIXAR film has had a reference to room A-113 from the California Institute of the Arts. A number of animators began their CalArts career in this room, including John Lasseter and Brad Bird. A-113 appears on a little tag clipped to the ear of a rat named Git.
  
  
• Part of the story was initially supposed to take place in the catacombs below Paris. This idea was dropped when Brad Bird took over the project from Jan Pinkava. Only short sections taking place in the sewers remain from the original project.
  
  
• Remy's father, Django, (voiced by Brian Dennehy), was named in homage to Django Reinhardt, the famous Belgian Romany jazz guitarist (1910-1953). In the Pixar short Your Friend the Rat (2007) (V), an extra on the Ratatouille DVD, a Django Reinhardt stamp is visible in the background.
  
  
• Skinner's car is an early 1960s Facel Vega HK 500. Facel Vega was an extremely obscure French marque built in tiny numbers at extraordinary cost for the very cream of society and glitterati for only 10 years between '54 and '64. Equivalent to somewhere between a Bentley and an Aston Martin, they were looked down upon by some for having a Chrysler V8 engine, but the eventual cost of designing their own engine pretty much destroyed the company. Arguably the most stylish car of all time.
  
  
• Linguini's little apartment is located in the Montmartre section of Paris.
  
  
• To save time and memory when animating the movie, human characters were designed and animated without toes.
  
  
• The ratatouille dish prepared by Remy is the alternate variation called confit byaldi. It was adapted by film consultant Thomas Keller. This variation differs much from the conventional ratatouille in terms of preparation and method. The major difference is that the vegetables used are sliced thinly and baked instead of cooking them in the pot.
  
  
• Hidden Mickey: At the last scene in the film as Ego asks Remy to surprise him for dessert, three pans behind Remy in the kitchen form a hidden Mickey.
  
  

• SPOILER: When the rats are trying to free Remy from Skinner's car, take a close look at the gargoyle they feature. It looks like Victor, from the Disney movie The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996).
  
  
• SPOILER: The bad guy in this movie is the Head Chef, Skinner, voiced by 'Ian Holm (I)' who tries to put Remy in a box. The character was named after behavioral psychologist B.F.Skinner, who was known for the Skinner Box, where rats were placed and trained to push a button for food.
  
  

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