I was one of the poorer students at a rich
school. Some of you will know how that feels. It was an art school, and students were expected
to give huge chunks of cash at the drop of a hat. I was always the one who had to borrow materials
from other students or buy them secondhand or beg to be allowed to use cheap knockoff brands. I
felt so privileged to have gotten access to such a rich sphere, but at the same time i was always
aware that I was an outsider. I remember the day a professor straight up told our class,
"Poor people don't go here." At one point I called my friend Mel to vent, and he passed on
some wisdom from a guest speaker. He told me, "Rab? These places aren't made for people like us. Our job is to get in, steal what we
can, and get out. We're scavengers." Pixar's Ratatouille is about...a lot of things.
Inspiration; talent; art; memory, and capitalism. Or class mobility within a capitalist system. It's
a story of extremes, with the poorest of the poor (those who have to dumpster-dive for their food)
on one end of the spectrum, and the wealthy (those who can afford to dine on haute cuisine, a symbol
of the elite) on the other. Ratatouille tells the rags to riches tale of an artist from here...who
attempts to get to there. Once you look at the rats as the poor—or, how the rich see the poor—a
whole new layer of the story opens up. So let's start back at the cottage and work our way through
the film. If you have money you can afford to put aside work and chores and the rest of life's
messes long enough to practice your craft The less money you have, the less time you have for
such frivolous activities. Survival comes above all else. Material costs are also a problem.
You can get by for a while on leftovers and substitutes, but at some point you'll hit
a wall, where to progress as a cook you'll need to experiment with more expensive foods
and kitchenware...and then where are you gonna get that money? We see Remy struggle with all of
this when we meet him at the start of the film. To survive he and his family have had to
live off the land and other people's garbage. Remy's dad has learned to focus only on survival,
so as far as he's concerned Remy's gifts are a waste of time. REMY'S DAD: "So you can smell
ingredients! So what?" He only starts to care about Remy's passions when they become applicable
to their survival. Remy of course wants to pursue his passion. He yearns after the humans—the
rich—and their ability to create. REMY: "I know I'm supposed to hate humans, but there's something
about them...they they don't just survive: they discover, they create!" And so Remy makes do with
what he has at his disposal. He repurposes the materials around him to create kitchenware and he
cooks with a combination of other people's trash and whatever food he can forage from the backyard.
And he gets by on that for a while. But here comes the moment where he realizes he's hit a wall. He
can settle for "good," but to really "make this dish" he has to cross a boundary. REMMY: "A little
saffron would make this!" EMILE: "Saffron. Why do I get the feeling it's—" REMY: "In the kitchen!"
And so Remy trespasses onto human territory. Remy says he's been to the kitchen "a million
times," but this time he's reached too far past his station, and the film punishes him for
that transgression. In the chaos of the clan's evacuation, Remy loses both his home and his
family. It's not all bad though. If Remy had never tried to steal the saffron, the clan never
would have left for the sewers and Remy would have never emerged to find— REMY: "Paris?
All this time i've been underneath Paris?" At the time of Ratatouille's release, Paris was
the 15th most expensive place to live on the planet. This year the Economist Intelligence Unit
ranked it the most expensive place period, tied with Zurich and Hong Kong. In either year Remy
shot for the moon and landed amongst the stars, as they say. He finds himself at his favorite
chef's kitchen, where he sees pasta boy ruin a pot of soup. And here's where I want to talk
about Linguini. In some ways he's a lot like Remy. Hmmm...who else has no social status? Who else has
a job that revolves around garbage? SKINNER: "How dare you hire someone without my permission—"
HORST: "We needed a garbage boy." Paris belongs to the wealthy. Like a rat, Linguini is forced to
live in the nooks and crannies of a better world. Rockin' view aside, Spaghetti's apartment is
cramped and musty. A book keeps the fridge upright. Macaroni barely seems to own more than a
couch, his bicycle, a TV, some roller skates and some plants. He goes shopping later—presumably
because he has a paycheck to count on at that point—but the morning after Remy's arrival he
opens the fridge and says, LINGUINI: "Eggs, gone! Stupid! He's stolen food and hit the road!" Remy
only took eggs and maybe a tomato from the fridge. This was how the fridge had looked before then:
some milk, takeout leftovers, a tomato or two, some canned drinks and a bottle of sauce.
The point is, Linguini's not doing so hot. LINGUINI: "I need this job. I've lost so
many." Through the lens of this whole class metaphor, Linguine is much more like a rat
than a human. SKINNER: "They think you might be a cook. But you know what I think, Linguini? I
think you are a sneaky, overreaching little—RAT!" We're gonna talk about empathy and allyship a
little later, but yeah—to survive within the world of the wealthy, these two poor characters
have to work together. LINGUINI: "Neither of us can do this alone so we gotta do it together,
right? You with me?" They are opposed by Skinner, the embodiment of capitalism. GUSTEAU:
"Cooking is not for the faint of heart. You must be imaginative; strong-hearted. You must
try things that may not work." Skinner subverts Gusteau's love for food and creative drive and
uses those things to create a brand that markets cheap knockoff frozen food products. He only
cares about what sells. He's arrogant, dictatorial and elitist. Gusteau was always ready to take bold
risks and try new things; Skinner fights tooth and nail against any sign of non-conformity because
the success of his business hinges on his ability to maintain the status quo and mass produce.
It's scary when linguine starts to gain fame because it turns Linguine into a competitor and
distracts from Skinner's brand. As Skinner says, Gusteau's face sells millions of burritos, not
Linguini's. When Casserole first arrives on the scene Skinner reacts with cold disgust, then
outrage. He tolerates him as a garbage boy because that role holds no power—but the second Linguine
overreaches, Skinner goes right for the throat. Even when he finds out the critic liked Linguine's
soup, he wants to fire him. COLETTE: "You can't fire him." SKINNER: "W H A T?" Skinner only
relents when he looks around the kitchen and realizes everyone has sided against him. Yay
allyship! He backs off to appease Colette and the rest, but you can tell he doesn't expect (or want)
Linguine to last long in his kitchen. SKINNER: "Welcome to hell." SKINNER: "But you will need to
know more than soup if you are to survive in my kitchen, boy." Then skinner discovers Linguine's
lineage. SKINNER: "I can't fire him! He's getting attention! If I fire him now everyone will wonder
why, and the last thing I want is people looking into this..." Skinner can't fire Linguini because
the press might discover Linguini's claim to the restaurant as Gusteau's son. Skinner nods when
his lawyer says this: TALON: "The deadline passes in three days. Then you can fire him whenever
he ceases to be valuable, and no one will ever know." Skinner's agreement here shows that he only
cares about the approval of his workforce—or even the general public—to a certain extent. In the end
he still has the power to fire whoever he wants, and why employ a competitor whose work will
only detract from your business, or who's talented enough to usurp you? Bloodlines are
the only reason our heroes are able to overthrow Skinner and take over the restaurant. Without that
safeguard, what reason did Skinner have to keep them around so long? I'd bet my hat Ratatouille
didn't mean to do this, but I think this situation reflects real life quite well. The success
of wealthy businessmen like Skinner depends on their ability to keep people like Remy out of
power. They slash social programs and cut wages to create systems where the poor can never advance
past a certain rank. They build walls. There are ways to fight your way up through that system as
a poor person, but they're few and far between and require an enormous amount of work, allyship,
and sheer luck. Meanwhile, a rich bloodline can work as a sort of cheat code to shoot you straight
to the top of the ladder. As we've seen though, the film doesn't totally disregard those
other methods. Let's talk about allyship. I feel like Ratatouille says you should always
remember where you came from, because then you'll remember to help others from the same background.
Take Colette: In the climax of the film, Colette turns back to help Remy and Rotini. COLETTE: "Why
do you think that is?" Because she loves Linguini, I'm sure. But I also think Gusteau's book reminds
Colette of where she started from. As a woman, wasn't she also told she couldn't cook? That she
didn't belong? Didn't she also have to struggle to carve out a place for herself in a world that
didn't belong to her? COLETTE: "Haute cuisine is an antiquated hierarchy built upon rules written
by stupid old men; rules designed to make it impossible for women to enter this world." Colette empathizes with Remy and Linguini's situation, she alone comes to their aid. That's how the characters of Ratatouille achieve their dreams: Bloodlines, yes, and also the support of
people who have been through the same struggles. In this antiquated hierarchy, any outsider
needs help to find a foothold. As Ego says, EGO: "The new needs friends." It's hard
to say for sure whether Ego came from poverty, but he did come from rural France, and the
fact that he's so connected to what the film designates as a peasant dish makes me suspect he
wasn't...well off. COLETTE: "Ratatouille? It's a peasant dish." For whatever reason somewhere
along the line Ego shrugged off his history and became an authority on high society. Remy wins
the day because he appeals to Ego's past and thus reignites his empathy. At the end of the film
Remy starts his own restaurant where he's able to provide many other rats like him with
food and shelter, and...huh. I wonder...where he got...the money...to do that. Why would
this film point out that Ego went on to become a small business investor if not
to imply he helped fund Remy's restaurant? Because of Remy's reminder, Ego has reshaped
his whole career to help small creators get off the ground. So we get a story about a
poor person who doesn't topple the system, but with the help of friends from similar
backgrounds manages to dig out a space within that system where they can be themselves
and pursue their passions. When you follow this poverty metaphor through the whole film
though the messages that emerge aren't always... Great. And maybe that's to be expected. I mean,
can you even tell this story without a class mobility metaphor? You make your hero someone
who's resented by society and forced to dumpster dive for food and then make him serve old cuisine
at a fancy restaurant...? No matter how you tackle that premise, there's no way to avoid some kind of
commentary on capitalism. Zootopia, by comparison, was made to be ABOUT prejudice, first and
foremost. Ratatouille could be about capitalism almost as a side effect of its premise. So I
want to cut this film some slack. But as far as I can tell, the creators were aware of this
metaphor. And with that knowledge, I gotta ask: Why did they take this stance right here? REMY:
"I'm hungry! I don't know where I am and I don't know when I'll find food again—" GUSTEAU:
"Remy. You are better than that! You are a cook! A cook makes. A thief takes. You
are not the thief." It makes...more sense for Remy to be punished when he lets the
whole clan steal a f**kton of food from Gusteau's. I can also accept that Remy gets punished when
he tries to steal the saffron because I...I guess he didn't NEED the saffron. But Ratatouille
as a film does not want you to steal food. Ever. Full stop. In this scene Remy hasn't eaten
for days. As he says, he doesn't know when he'll get his next meal. He's only going to take a
little wad of bread which nobody from the party would miss, but ghost Gusteau tells him that would
be morally wrong. So Remy abandons the bread and moves on. The next time Remy gets a chance to eat,
he makes an omelet. Does he get to eat the omelet? No! Because he stole the herbs from a neighbor's
garden and took the eggs without Lasagna's permission. Remy only gets to eat once Manicotti
GIVES him food. And look at how starved Remy was! I get the desire to play with the whole thieving
rat stereotype...A dangerous road to take with this poverty metaphor at play, but okay. But I
don't like that the film frames stealing as a choice when really, due to factors like the cycle
of poverty, so many people are forced to steal to survive. Now, Rab. A family film can't endorse
stealing hehehughguuu— "Taking something that isn't yours just isn't right." "Now I know!" "And
knowing is half the—" [Explosion] Well, let's look at another famous street rat. GUARD: "I'll have
your hands for a trophy, street rat!" ALADDIN: "All this for a loaf of bread?" Aladdin (the
film) doesn't fault street rats for stealing food, because as Aladdin (the character) spells out:
"Gotta eat to live, gotta steal to eat. Otherwise we'd get along!" Gotta eat to live, gotta steal to
eat. Aladdin's GOTTA steal food, because otherwise he'll starve to death. These street children would
have gone hungry without Aladdin's stolen bread. This scene shows that Aladdin is kind and
generous and only resorts to thievery because he has no other option. Compare that grey
stance to Ratatouille's black and white one, where you're either a moral person or a thief,
with no overlap. GUSTEAU: "You are better than that. You are a cook! Cooks make. A thief takes."
It's a wad of bread, ghost Gusteau. Get off your high horse and donate to a food bank or something.
KORG: "Piss off, ghost!" This film's moral priorities are so...odd? Like, lying? Sometimes necessary.
Kidnapping two people? Sometimes necessary. Stealing a bit of bread to stay alive?
"FBI OPEN UP!" [Gunshots and screaming] So that's a moral that grates against the class
mobility metaphor. Sure, Remy's allowed to steal Skinner's paperwork...but does that even count as
thievery when the documents were barely Skinner's to begin with? Every other time Remy steals,
he steals food that strictly belongs to someone else—and the film takes a very firm oppositional
stance on that. LINGUINI: "You're stealing food? How could you? I—I thought you were my friend; I
trusted you!" Yet people don't remember the moral that way. Check out this twitter poll: nearly
86% of the people who responded to this poll believe Ratatouille says stealing is okay
when strictly necessary. When I specified, pollers were still torn. Years later audiences
have come away from Ratatouille with Aladdin's moral. My friend Hazel left a fantastic comment
that I think sums up the situation perfectly: "I think the urgent takeaway here is that however
the film itself portrayed stealing, the cultural aftermath of Ratatouille is very pro-theft [not
left, whoops!], i.e the question is not about ratatouille but the place Ratatouille occupies
in our collective consciousness." I've also put a positive spin on a story that maybe deep down
supports the status quo. Let's rewind for a sec. What did I say a couple minutes ago? "So we get a
story about a poor person who doesn't topple the system, but with the help of friends from similar
backgrounds manages to dig out a space within that system where they can be themselves and pursue
their passions." Is that...really a happy ending? Yes, Remy has taken a step forward with help from
his friends...but he's still forced to play by the rules of a system that hates his little guts.
It's ambiguous as to how much the customers know, rat-wise. But we have no reason to believe Remy
can claim credit for his work when Gusteau's got shut down for health violations. This film
TALKS about change and I dare posit that's what audiences remember most. REMY: "Change is nature,
dad: the part that we can influence. And it starts when we decide." But when all's said and
done, how much of nature do the heroes change? Remy and his family have been lifted out
of poverty, but rats as a whole are still reviled by society. As far as we know, Remy's
still only allowed to cook behind closed doors, and his family are only allowed to share space
with the humans when they're hidden behind a wall of plants. The lines between the classes remain
strong as ever, minus these few key players. So does Ratatouille promote changing the
system, or finding success within its prejudicial constraints? Fans seem to remember
the former message, when the latter feels more applicable to me upon reflection. It's not like
Remy ends the film like, "And we have big plans!" or "We're not done yet!" Remy seems content
to stay separate and hidden, and that lesson contradicts the much more revolutionary tone many
people have come to associate with this film. In all, Ratatouille says some stuff I agree with:
The rich will do whatever they can to keep poor people out of positions of power; remember where
you came from; to escape poverty requires allyship and luck and maybe even some subterfuge.
And the film says stuff I don't agree with: Stealing food makes you a worse person; you should
be content to hide so long as you're allowed to pursue your passion. Whatever. I don't know how
to end this video. Is it not enough, to simply ramble about rat chefs and systemic poverty for
20 minutes? MAXIMUS: "Are you not entertained?" MAXIMUS: "Is this not why you were here?" We
all get to choose what we take from stories. We can still rally around Remy, and relate to
his struggles, and take hope from this film. And bread. Let's take a lot of bread from
this film. I really want to piss off Gusteau. Happy new year, squad. Goodbye, 2020. Love to
all my fellow scavengers, and thank you to the allies who make my videos possible: my friends,
family, and patrons! Shoutout to my top patrons, DAne, Canbekoi, Lunas Aurum, and
Sohastalitha. You guys are wonderful and I'm so grateful for your support. May
2021 be kinder to us all. See you, sinners.
