Film Theory: Don't Trust A RAT! (Ratatouille)

now that there's a food theory channel do you go over here on film theory or over there on food theory since you're a rat who cooks food theory that sounds like a great channel i better check it out at the end of the episode oh yeah it is an awesome channel where everyone will immediately want to hit that subscribe button and ring the notification bell but um we're not gonna be friends at the end of this episode remy wait what i'm a lovable cartoon rat in a kid's movie what could i have done wrong oh man you're talking to a guy who's ruined some of the most beloved disney characters of all time the lions from lion king strong female characters like rapunzel like every character from zootopia wait i know those guys remy you don't stand a chance hello internet welcome to film theory where today's episode is with apologies to schaeferless productions because uh no joke this is a pickup line as we were working on this episode i'm like oh no it talks about ratatouille all of a sudden he uploads this hour-long dissertation on why ratatouille is this like masterpiece of filmmaking and how it touches him emotionally and yeah today i am here to rip its main character to shreds so apologies to you now i can already hear you moaning in the comments you think grumpy old matpat's here to ruin an animated family film from your childhood as usual but never fear internet because i'm here to say that ratatouille is everything a great g-rated movie should be it's a fantastic story it has an uplifting message it has a detestable bad guy and an admirable protagonist and in the case of ratatouille that protagonist is chef skinner the guy that everyone seems to think is the antagonist is actually the good guy what is a typical game theory or film theory episode i don't know why everyone thinks remy the rat who's obviously a dangerous narcissist is the good guy but it's high time that the misconceptions about this rat tale went the way of the rat tale if it's been a while since you watched ratatouille here's a quick refresher ratatouille stars remy a rat that the internet will literally barbecue me over if i accidentally call him ratatouille it's the name of the movie not the name of the rat he has a passion for culinary arts but no reality cooking competition show to prove it on he leaves the colony to live his dreams in the one place that he's not allowed a gourmet kitchen linguine a young member of the kitchen staff lets remy hide underneath his hat this allows remy to pull on strands of linguine's hair and control the young man's every move with remy at the helm linguini impresses even paris's most formidable food critics with his inventive cuisine skinner the highly trained chef at the restaurant suspects that something is up and does his best to uncover the truth about linguine's newfound talents in the kitchen now if this sounds like an inspirational story about overcoming obstacles and achieving your destiny i'm sorry to tell you that you've missed the point entirely the theoretical truth is that remy is nobody's master chef he's actually a bold-faced criminal and yeah i know you're not gonna believe me here matpat's taking it too far this theory is gonna be too big of a stretch i've heard it all and yet for all of my admittedly outlandish theories hello finding nemo episode this one is shockingly down to earth just listen remy is an actual dictionary definition criminal he's kind of a narcissist and he's just overall a jerk of a creature and if you look at his on-screen behavior you'll realize that he's not actually the good guy here i smell a rat in this disney classic and it's it's remy the rats you get it the first thing remy did that put a bad taste in my mouth was establish himself as a habitual thief now that alone wouldn't be too big of a problem the real issue is that he lies about it he explicitly states that he's against stealing a cook makes the thief takes you are not the thief and yet we witness remy steal literally the entire time herbs spices cookbooks letters and of course food remy never learns his lesson either look it's delicious but don't steal i'll buy some spices okay [Music] in fact the longer the film goes on the more brazen he becomes first he only steals food for himself but eventually he starts letting his rat buddies into the restaurant to steal food after hours you are stealing you told linguine he could trust me and he can but zaboy could lose his job which means i would too it's under control okay he's not just stealing on small scale he is stealing in massive quantities towards the end of the movie he lets the entire rat colony have at it in any realistic context this is absolutely disgusting not to mention that restaurants operate on razor thin margins for their product so stealing the food here might literally put them out of business either for hygiene concerns or at the very least for them having to throw away literally tons of food that have been touched on and nibbled on by a parade of rats but okay petty thieving still not enough to turn you against him how about a nice healthy serving of fraud look at linguini poor linguine the garbage boy the sap that remy literally controls like a puppet throughout the movie when the two of them meet linguini is destitute i need this job i've lost so many i don't know how to cook and now i'm actually talking to a rat as if you huh so linguine doesn't know how to cook lucky for us remy has a great mantra that he preaches throughout the entirety of this movie anyone can cook what do i always say anyone can cook anyone can cook so obviously with remy's great skill he can teach linguine to cook right uh no he's nobody who takes out the garbage he doesn't cook anyone can cook well yeah anyone can that doesn't mean that anyone should instead remy devises a complex system of hair pulling that allows him to hide underneath linguine's chef hat and operate linguine's body as though he were nothing more than a human forklift and in the process teach linguine no useful culinary skills whatsoever and what's it all for just so remy can cook just for his own benefit so rather than teaching someone a lifelong skill that could put a roof over their head and make sure that they keep their job without fear of being kicked out of the restaurant because they're keeping an unhygienic rat under their hat the entire time he just uses the garbage boy to get ahead cool cool so okay remy's selfish he's a hypocrite he's a thief those are just facts of the movie they're on screen they are in the script we get it but that doesn't mean that he's the antagonist necessarily right like after all all great heroes have their flaws i mean who hasn't forced two unconsenting adults to kiss once or twice am i right oh no oh remy that one's gonna get you canceled on twitter my dude but okay it's not as though remy's selfishness puts others lives at risk or anything right hey remy you think that maybe we shouldn't be so oh oh my he he really is just the absolute worst disney it's almost like i told you that in the thesis of this episode sorry to break it to you folks but remy just doesn't give one rat dropping if anyone around him lives or dies his singular purpose is to be a chef and he is going to achieve it no matter how many innocent rats or humans are left in his wake and spoiler alert both are left dead in his way i've already subtly hinted at the fact that he's you know a rat and rats are banned from parisian kitchens for a very good reason according to the cdc rats and mice are known to spread over 35 different diseases to humans worldwide many of which can be fatal and remy knows this he understands this concept remy without exaggeration kidnaps anyone who threatens to report the hundreds of sewer rats running around in the kitchen oh sure they clean and sanitize themselves for that final scene after they've already walked across all the floors and surfaces but what about when all of them raid the refrigerator i don't see any sanitation happening before or after that scene what about when they first invade the kitchen where are the hair nets people and if you don't think human health codes are important i encourage you to read upton sinclair's the jungle friends spoiler alert rats play a leading role in that one too after the jungle was published in 1906 it helped raise public awareness about the meat packing industry's unsanitary practices leading to a massive decrease in typhoid fever trichinosis and various other potentially lethal diseases stop that health inspector no don't remy that's the point and you know what's worse than all the crimes that he's committed to the human world beyond all the poor workplace conditions the lying the stealing the unconsenting kisses remy's worst offense actually happens before he even steps foot in the kitchen at the beginning of the movie remy's remarkable nose lands him the most important job in his colony rat poison sniffer as the only rat in the entire colony capable of sniffing out rat poison remy is able to ensure the colony's food supply is safe to eat it's an admirable job where remy undoubtedly saves lives but he ultimately abdicates his position in favor of becoming a chef now that wouldn't be a problem except for one thing he is the only rat in the entire colony with the ability to save his friends family and species from a painful poisonous death and yet you just gotta go master that beef bourguignon don't get me wrong here i am all for pursuing your dream my grandmother still asks me when i'm gonna get a real job and move back to ohio but remy's pursuit of cooking is literally killing his friends and family but he's an artist he needs to spread his wings and fly sure remy you can play with that nicoise salad all you want after you train someone else to do your life-saving job nothing's been poisoned thank god but it hasn't been easy tldr here is remy doesn't care about anyone else he only cares about himself he doesn't care about saving their lives he doesn't care about keeping their jobs he doesn't care about their personal physical boundaries and he doesn't care about them keeping healthy off of the food that they eat long story short remy is just the worst but does that mean that this movie is left with no protagonist in a shocking twist no let's shift gears a moment to consider skinner widely considered to be the villain of ratatouille even though we just established that remy fills that role very nicely it is true that skinner is diametrically opposed to remy throughout the story but if remy is selfish heartless and criminally dangerous well what does that say about skinner exactly because no matter how you slice it and dice it chef skinner does nothing wrong if skinner is guilty of anything it's of presenting as a villain the sunken eyes the fits of rage the pencil thin mustache dude's not exactly going to be gracing the cover of a romance novella any time soon but what is it we're told about books and covers again it's a person's actions that truly matter and if we dive into skinner's actions we quickly realize that everything the man does is above board he is a trained capable chef who does know good food when he tastes it chef skinner's game recognizes game even when it appears as though the food was made by someone who's completely untrained he listens to his staff and he can even admit when he's wrong perhaps i have been a bit ash on our new garbage boy he has taken a bold risk and we should reward that skinner even goes so far to give linguine an utterly untrained garbage boy who hasn't worked in a kitchen for one full shift more than a fair shot at proving himself as a real chef recreate the soup take as much time as you need so what then is skinner's crime having a dislikable demeanor gee can't think of any other revered international chef who fits that profile have you got enough in there but that's so good it's really a waste wow and what's more skinner makes good business decisions having inherited a restaurant roiling from the death of gusto skinner shrewdly pivots the brand and diversifies the business into a frozen meal marketplace and frozen meal business is good sure it's not as classy or artsy as being a chef in a fancy french restaurant but guess what by expanding into frozen food it ensures that good quality products are reaching a wider marketplace who might not be able to afford eating at gusto's fancy french revered restaurants and it sells burritos millions and millions of burritos that's not a bad thing that's delivering more food to more people and making sure that your business stays profitable moving forward after losing its headline chef i mean that is a thankless position and yet skinner manages to thread that needle perfectly skinner is also a staunch defender of the health code which in 2020 we can certainly see saves lives remy isn't exactly washing his hands for the cdc recommended 40 seconds out there sure skinner wants remy out of the kitchen not because he seeks to deny remy's destiny as an artist but it's for the pragmatic reason that his restaurant would be closed down should the health inspector discover a rat his staff would be left unemployed every person in his restaurant would be at risk of contracting any of the 35 diseases a sewer rat like remy could carry not only is skinner by the book when it comes to health code violations he is also a hundred percent right about remy even if remy's half-hearted hand-washing were to somehow rinse all the bacteria from his body he's still a threat to spread any of dozens of diseases when he's you know biting people all the time this is not gonna work little chef no amount of hand washing and external sanitation is gonna clean the bacteria out of your mouth and teeth there remy throughout the film chef skinner is an absolute boy scout and what does it get him in the end kidnapped and hog tied by a horde of rats and locked in a walk-in refrigerator alongside a health inspector by the quote-unquote good guys but even in the face of this mafia-esque intimidation skinner and the health inspector fearlessly pursue justice once they're released and ultimately succeed in getting gustoes closed for health code violations skinner had every opportunity to stoop to remy's level poisoning lying cheating destroying the evidence that linguini was actually the rightful heir and owner of the restaurant but he doesn't do any of that he follows the letter of the law every step of the way even when it makes him angry or upset in truth if skinner was truly the antagonist he could have won this movie he could have sat back and sold millions and millions of frozen burritos well into his golden years but instead skinner sacrificed his own career for the all-important cause of public safety if the bad rap that skinner got at the end of this movie doesn't put a bad taste in your mouth i don't know what will but hey that's just a theory a film theory and a huge huge thank you to our sponsor for today's episode epic games and their massive video game hit of fortnite yeah we have a gaming channel but they wanted to sponsor us over here on film theory which might seem weird but actually isn't that big of a surprise considering that they too are currently crossing genres with their big season 4 launch the nexus war which features the ability for you to hop into the shoes of some of marvel's biggest heroes and villains including doctor doom wolverine iron man man i love that guy 3 000. but uh perhaps my favorite appearance of the bunch thor also joining the fortnite phrase so watch out noob master 69 thor is indeed coming for you he's also coming for galactus apparently who's also arriving on the scene i suppose as the big bad of the season i'm not 100 sure actually i'm excited to find out if you haven't checked out fortnite yet it is unlike anything else out there and the constant flow of new content that the epic games 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canon to everything else thanks to fortnite the long and short of it all is this fortnite is free it's an enormously robust game that's constantly updating with really cool new stuff and if you value being pop culture literate in even the slightest way then you owe it to yourself to play a few matches to just see what the hype is all about season four's nexus war is a great time to jump in it's applicable to gamers it's applicable to film fans and it's applicable to you since you know you watched a video about ratatouille and last until the end which implies that you're a fan of disney stuff and since marvel is now disney you know how it goes if you haven't downloaded fortnite already use my link in the description below and download fortnight now for free keep an eye out there for me on the battlefield i'll uh be the groot standing in the corner pretending to be a tree before you go if you do like theories and food and the big screen don't forget to check out the next course on the 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Channel: The Film Theorists

Views: 3,645,378

Rating: 4.7732921 out of 5

Keywords: ratatouille, ratatouille movie, ratatouille full movie, pixar, disney, song from ratatouille, ratatouille song tik tok, ratatouille tiktok, ratatouille theory, ratatouille ending, ratatouille trailer, ratatouille meme, dark disney, dark pixar, film theory, film theorists, matpat, film theory disney, film theory pixar, film theory scary, ratatouille recipe, how to make ratatouille

Id: HB4L4Uin9IA

Length: 17min 52sec (1072 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 03 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/the_wanderer_Pee9ee]

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