"Cartooned Theory"WHY I AM OBSESSED WITH DISNEY'S RATATOUILLE

By Ahona

Let me just begin by saying this: there is absolutely no chance of me being able to unpack Ratatouille in one essay. A full length research thesis might fall short of the meanings embedded in the story of this rat chef. I had to ferociously edit the one paper I wrote on one angle of it in the final year of post-graduation, and even then, I could only cut down to about 3000 words. So, this is just a tiny peep into one particular angle of the story. Let's begin with identifying the genre of the film. Ratatouille is a rat's künstlerroman. This is a slightly lesser known term. You may have heard of a bildungsroman a story that traces the protagonist from childhood to adulthood. A künstlerroman is pretty much the same, except in a künstlerroman, the protagonist is an artist. So basically, a künstlerroman traces an artist from childhood to thei. artistic expression as an adult.The film positions Remi (or Remy, depending on how you spell it), as a young, misunderstood and largely underestimated artist who expresses his artistry through food. His biggest problem is, as you can imagine, that he is a rat. In culture, rats are considered pestilence they get into spaces that they do not belong to, they nibble at food and tear down clothes, they send you rushing to the doctor in case you are what they have nibbled at. Disney has redeemed rats twice first through Stuart Little and then through Remi. But Remi's "ratness" is underscored in this story, whereas Stuart both spoke to humans and was adopted by a human family. Remi's association with the humans in the film is more professional, he does not speak to humans although he does speak in human language to his rat friends, and unlike Stuart - Remi is not dressed like a human. Remi is more definite in his rat identity. The fact that he is more defined in his difference from humans, certainly more rat than Stuart, is crucial to understanding the political stance of the film. Despite not being anything that you would expect an artist to be - Remi is infinitely, undeniably skilled at his art. So much so that he is trusted, by more than one person, to deliver when it comes to offering food to the formidable critic, Anton Ego. He is certainly far more gifted than Chef Gusteau's son. That is the film's way of restating that a good artist need not always come from a lineage of excellence. They may come from humble origins (Remi literally comes from under the Earth, that is how down to Earth he is). And despite coming from impoverished, underprivileged backgrounds, that artist may go on to be great. Art, creativity - these are not the monopoly of the privileged.In his capacity as a humble, but confident young artist, Remi cooks for the very intimidating, and the pathologically unimpressed food critic, Anton Ego. His surname is a fairly appropriate window to his character, his unapologetic megalomania stemming from the fact that a single bad review from him could shut down restaurants, ruin careers in the culinary arts, and shake the very foundations of haute cuisine. In short, he is Gordon Ramsay a French, meaner and certainly more powerful version of him. He decides to visit Gusteau's restaurant, and to put it to the test and taste. Obviously, those working at Gusteau's are shaken. Who will impress the unimpressed? This is the end of Remi's künstlerroman, so obviously he will rise up to the task.Now, I am not entirely sure if you are aware of what its like in the world of haute cuisine and food critics, so let me initiate you. It is snooty. There is a lot of condescendence towards restaurants rated lower than the generic five stars, or if you are that into haute cuisine the three Michelin stars. Let me put things into perspective about the Michelin rating for restaurants. Every year they publish a guide that restaurants have to comply with in order to even participate in the race for three stars, and when it is released there is a media frenzy in the world of haute cuisine that is comparable only to the frenzy of the Oscars.

There is more Michelin vehemently protects the identity of their food inspectors (those who actually go out to restaurants and taste their food and rate them). Not even high officials at Michelin know who their inspectors are. It is like espionage, but for food. Common people like us, happy to get our pizzas home delivered and our cold coffees iced appropriately, have no idea whatsoever of how fancy, elaborate and convoluted the world of haute cuisine is. So yes, the real life counterparts of Anton Ego hold a lot of power. They practically dictate what is considered good, elite food. Their taste is the high taste (haute literally translates to high). This is why what happens to him after he eats Remi's food is so striking. Immediately he is transformed. The visual metaphors here are stunning. First, his eyes widen from their unimpressed narrow state. Ego expresses wonder at the food he has been offered. Then, his pen falls from his hand, as if to indicate that the critic inside him is slipping away. Ego becomes himself - suddenly he remembers himself as a child, comforted by a similar dish, a dish offered to comfort him. Remi reminds the critic that he was once a child, that once, food was home, food was comfort, food was peace, It wasn't art in the sense that it was haute cuisine, or that it was garnished impeccably, or that it was elaborate and complicated. But it was art in the sense that it was a memory, it was morsel in which Ego himself was embedded. It was art in the truest sense of art - it was personal.When we complicate food into these elaborate social structures of being elite, of qualifying tortuously complicated standards of cooking, we forget why food is art in the first place. Food is sustenance, food is nourishment, food is care and connection, in the thousands of years of human evolution, where words have fallen short of all that our heart holds food has spoken in gentleness and love. I offer you a dish because I want you to be well fed, because I am concerned about you. Feeding is loving, perhaps the barest form of it. Animals journey across incomprehensible distances to bring food to their young. My grandfather, who worked through a strained economy, pushed through Sisyphean labour each day to his full capacity so that he could feed his family. Food is sacred. Food is love. And that is why food is art - because it is a deeply personal language of connection.In his review, Ego recognises Remi's artistry not just in his capacity as a critic, but in his capacity as the child he was reminded of. It is necessary to look at his phrasing of the review - he says that he had an "extraordinary meal". Not a delicacy. Not a dish. A meal. A meal is food that sustains you, that fulfils you. A meal is food at its humblest, but also food at its most powerful. Thus Remi's künstlerroman goes both ways, Remi goes from a young rat to chef extraordinaire. Ego goes from critic to child. Art as a journey is transformative and food is art in the most understated ways.