Ratatouille (2007)

In director Brad Bird's computer-animated Pixar film (the 8th one) - the winner of the Best Animated Feature Film Oscar:

• the opening sequence (a TV show) with voice-over narration, about Paris' celebrated chef Auguste Gusteau and his restaurant: "Although each of the world's countries would like to dispute this fact, we French know the truth: the best food in the world is made in France. The best food in France is made in Paris. And the best food in Paris, some say, is made by Chef Auguste Gusteau. Gusteau's restaurant is the toast of Paris, booked five months in advance. And his dazzling ascent to the top of fine French cuisine has made his competitors envious. He is the youngest chef ever to achieve a five-star rating. Chef Gusteau's cookbook 'Anyone Can Cook!' climbed to the top of the bestseller list. But not everyone celebrates its success"
• a harsh Parisian food critic Anton Ego (voice of Peter O'Toole) reacted to Gusteau's cookbook: "Amusing title, 'Anyone Can Cook!' What's even more amusing is that Gusteau actually seems to believe it. I, on the other hand, take cooking seriously. And, no, I don't think anyone can do it"
• the introduction of the title character: a French chef country rat named Remy (voice of Patton Oswalt) ("This is me. I think it's apparent that I need to rethink my life a little bit. What's my problem? First of all, I'm a rat. Which means, life is hard. Second, I have a highly developed sense of taste and smell") - he could smell food ingredients while his gluttonous, indiscriminate, red-colored older brother Emile (voice of Peter Sohn) could not; he was given the job in the rat colony of "poison-checker" (of garbage) by his father Django (voice of Brian Dennehy), the leader
• inside the country house where he lived, Remy watched a TV show hosted by Chef Auguste Gusteau (voice of Brad Garrett), the owner of a famed Parisian restaurant, and the author of a best-selling cookbook titled: "Anyone Can Cook"; the chef explained to his audience: "How can I describe it? Good food is like music you can taste, color you can smell. There is excellence all around you. You need only be aware to stop and savor it."
• as Remy bit into various foods, he visualized taste: ("Each flavor was totally unique, BUT combine one flavor with another, and something NEW was created"); Remy spoke about his culinary sensitivity to his brother Emile as they scavenged: ("Did you ever think about how we walk on the same paws that we handle food with?...When I eat, I don't want to taste everywhere my paws have been"; Remy idolized the culinary chef - the late Auguste Gusteau; and secretly through Gusteau's cookbook, reading and TV shows, he was learning how to prepare food
• while raiding the kitchen pantry of the gun-toting granny (whose house was infested with Remy's rat colony), Remy took time out to watch a TV report on Gusteau: "Great cooking is not for the faint of heart. You must be imaginative, strong-hearted. You must try things that may not work, and you must not let anyone define your limits because of where you come from. Your only limit is your soul. What I say is true - anyone can cook, but only the fearless can be great"; however, Remy sadly learned during the broadcast that Gusteau's restaurant was downgraded to 4-stars after a poor and "scathing" review from critic Anton - and then: "It was a severe blow to Gusteau, and the brokenhearted chef died shortly afterwards, which, according to tradition, meant the loss of another star"

Remy: "Gusteau is dead?!"	Gun-Toting Granny	Infested Rat Colony Forced to Evacuate

• the sequence of a gun-toting granny battling against Remy and Emile when she discovered them in her country house that was infested by the rat colony (above her ceiling lived Remy and his family that all collapsed to the ground floor from her gunshots); this caused all of the rats to evacuate; Remy (with Gusteau's cookbook as a flotation device) fled and floated away
• Remy received advice from one of the talking illustrations in Gusteau's cookbook: "If you focus on what you've left behind, you'll never be able to see what lies ahead. Now go up and look around"; as he emerged on the street level, Gusteau provided more counsel to the hungry rat (an aspiring chef): "Food will come, Remy. Food always comes to those who love to cook"; after scrambling around, Remy found himself in Paris; as he surveyed his surroundings, he realized that he was in front of Gusteau's Restaurant now newly owned and managed by short-statured Chef Skinner (voice of Ian Holm)

Chef Skinner	Alfredo Linguini	Remy Doctoring and Testing Pot of Soup

• the scene of non-culinary-skilled, shy Alfredo Linguini (voice of Lou Romano) who was hired (after a letter of recommendation from his deceased mother Renata Linguini, Gusteau's "old flame") to work at Gusteau's as their garbage boy; however, in a failed attempt at cooking, he ruined a spilled pot of soup by adding improper random ingredients
• the sequence of Remy's exciting adventure traversing through the kitchen and avoiding various hazards - gas flames, footsteps, moving carts, stoves, etc., to get to the spoiled pot of soup to doctor it - his motive was to prevent Linguini from being fired by adding just the right ingredients; Linguini was totally amazed that food critic Solene LeClaire loved the soup after being served ("She likes the soup")
• Remy was trapped by Linguini in a glass jar and had to convince him to not drown him in the Seine River, but to have them team up together (Linguini: "I can't cook, can I? But, you-you can, right? Look, don't be so modest, you're a rat for Pete's sake. Whatever you did, they liked it. Yeah. This could work. Hey, they liked the soup!...Do you think you could do it again?") - they would partner together to create culinary dishes in the restaurant
• Remy's new dubbed name was "Little Chef" - and they worked out an arrangement - testing it by trial and error: ("You know how to cook, and I know how to appear human. We just need to work out a system so that I do what you want in a way that doesn't look like I'm being controlled by a tiny rat chef") - Remy hid in the young man's tall toque hat and pulled on Linguini's hair to direct his motions like a puppeteer, in order to recreate the soup (under Skinner's orders) and to teach him how to cook; he was under the supervision of another formidable and bossy chef Colette Tatou (voice of Janeane Garofalo)
• the scene of Chef Skinner's shock that Linguini threatened to inherit the restaurant as its rightful heir, because he was the (illegitimate) son of Auguste Gusteau (according to the letter from his deceased mother)
• the sequence of Remy teaching his brother Emile (who suddenly reappeared and was overjoyed to see that Remy was alive) about the art of taste (with his eyes closed) - combining nuttiness and tang tastes; in conclusion, Remy urged Emile: "Now, imagine every great taste in the world being combined into infinite combinations. Tastes that no one has tried yet! Discoveries to be made!"
• when questioned by the suspicious Skinner about rats, a slightly-drunken Linguini explained his knowledge of a dish strangely named 'ratatouille' - the film's title: "Ratatouille. It's like a stew, right? Why do they call it that? If you're gonna name a food, you should give it a name that sounds delicious. Ratatouille doesn't sound delicious. It sounds like 'rat' and 'patootie.' Rat patootie which does not sound delicious"
• the scene of Linguini's semi-confession to Colette that he had a secret about his cooking: "It's not me...I have a secret. It's sort of disturbing....I have this - this tiny little-little - a tiny chef who tells me what to do" - he pointed to his hat: "He's up here" and Colette responded: "In your brain?"; as he was about to remove his hat: ("You want to know why I'm such a fast learner? You want to know why I'm such a great cook? Don't laugh! I'm gonna show you!"), he fell forward and accidentally kissed her
• the sequence of Remy discovering Gusteau's will, and Renata Linguini's letter about how Alfredo Linguini was Gusteau's son - making Alfredo the rightful heir of the restaurant; Skinner chased after Remy to destroy the proof, but failed and was soon fired

Remy with Gusteau's Will and Renata's Letter	Alfredo the New Owner

• the snobbish, hard-to-please, harsh food critic Anton Ego's announcement to Linguini that he would dine at Gusteau's that was now growing in popularity; when insulted by Alfredo ("And you're thin for someone who likes food"), Ego retorted: ("I don't like food; I LOVE it. If I don't love it, I don't swallow. I will return tomorrow night with high expectations. Pray you don't disappoint me")
• when Anton arrived, he ordered off the menu: ("Tell your Chef Linguini that I want whatever he dares to serve me. Tell him to hit me with his best shot"); to help Linguini, Remy (who escaped from Skinner's clutches at the last moment with the help of his family) returned to the restaurant to help prepare wonderful food for Anton's visit: ("They'll fail without me...because I'm a cook!")
• in the film's major revelation, Linguini admitted to his kitchen staff that he was talentless without Remy's help: "And the truth is, I have no talent at all. But this rat, he's the one behind these recipes. He's the cook. The real cook. He's been hiding under my toque. He's been controlling my actions. He's the reason I can cook the food that's exciting everyone. The reason Ego is outside that door. You've been giving me credit for his gift. I know it's a hard thing to believe"; he urged his staff to come together: "We can be the greatest restaurant in Paris, and this rat, this brilliant Little Chef, can lead us there. What do you say? You with me?", but they all walked out the door (Colette was the only one to return to help)
• Remy mobilized the many rats in his colony in teams to take over in the kitchen at various stations (his father promised: "You tell us what to do, and we'll get it done"), while Linguini waited tables on roller-skates
• after Anton Ego was served a traditional "peasant dish" of ratatouille, it reminded him of eating his mother's cooking as a boy; he met chef Remy (after all the other customers left) to compliment him and called him "nothing less than the finest chef in France" - but did not reveal the secret chef in his review
• Anton wrote and published a glowing, self-actualizing review of the cuisine: (..."Last night, I experienced something new, an extraordinary meal from a singularly unexpected source") - (voice-over) "In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little, yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defense of the new. The world is often unkind to new talent, new creations. The new needs friends. Last night, I experienced something new: an extraordinary meal from a singularly unexpected source. To say that both the meal and its maker have challenged my preconceptions about fine cooking is a gross understatement. They have rocked me to my core. In the past, I have made no secret of my disdain for Chef Gusteau's famous motto, 'Anyone can cook.' But I realize, only now do I truly understand what he meant. Not everyone can become a great artist; but a great artist can come from anywhere. It is difficult to imagine more humble origins than those of the genius now cooking at Gusteau's, who is, in this critic's opinion, nothing less than the finest chef in France. I will be returning to Gusteau's soon, hungry for more"

Food Critic Anton Ego
Announcement of Visit	Ordering	Stunned Reaction to the Ratatouille

• although Gusteau's restaurant was shut down due to the presence of rats (after Skinner and a health inspector ratted on them), the discredited Ego (as a "small business investor") subsidized a new restaurant and became one of its regular customers - the final shot in the film was of Linguini's and Remy's new bistro named "Ratatouille" in the city of Paris