Classic French Culture in Ratatouille

In the 2007 Disney Pixar film Ratatouille, music is utilized in an exceptional way to emphasize French, more specifically Paris, culture in the early sixties. Although there are different types of sound, such as speech and noise, music is used in Ratatouille to represent classic French culture. According to the MAS 590 Week 11 lecture on sound, music can communicate emotion, space, sound perspective, importance, and pace. Throughout Ratatouille, beautiful orchestra music is used non-diegetically to communicate the character’s emotions, as well as emphasize the importance and pace of some scenes. In addition to its warm and vibrant animation and inclusion of famous Paris motifs, Ratatouille utilizes classical French instruments such as the Violin, Cello, String Bass, Flute, French Horn, and Clarinet, to represent the French sound and aesthetic. 

To begin with, the soundtrack for the film was composed by Michael Giacchino, an Oscar-winning composer who has worked on movies like The Incredibles and Up. He composed arguably the most popular song from the film, ’Le Festin’ meaning ‘The Feast’ which is about Remy and his aspirations to be a chef. According to Pixar and The Animated Soundtrack, Giacchino’s work on the animated action hero movie, The Incredibles, is a smooth amalgam of action-film tropes as interpreted by a jazz orchestra (Goldmark 2013). In Ratatouille, Giacchino utilizes the same approach by including an orchestra, but with a twist to make it sound like typical French music. The dramatic strings, powerful brass fanfares, and smooth melodies tie the film together while highlighting French culture. 

In Pixar and The Animated Soundtrack, Goldmark argues that Pixar films stand out because of their take on music and sound design. For example, during the climax of Ratatouille, restaurant critic Anton Ego travels back to his childhood after trying Remy’s dish while music plays in a moment of nostalgic bliss. The audience see his mother comforting him after getting hurt with a warm bowl of ratatouille (Goldmark 2013). This isn’t the only part of the film where music is utilized to create an emotional landscape. In the beginning, classic French music plays in the background while introducing Paris’ most well-known chef, Auguste Gusteau, on an apparent television news segment. Typical French musical instruments like the Violin, Cello, Harp, Accordion, Fiddle, Piano, and the French Horn can be heard while the segment plays. The beginning scene does an exceptional job of introducing the settings and communicating the importance of food and cooking in this film. In the scenes following, frantic orchestra music plays to convey the fast paced sequence of Remy and his family searching for food in the garbage without trying to be caught. The non-diegetic, suspenseful orchestra music conveys how Remy and the rats feel–on edge–while also representing the classical French sound. 

When the audience first sees Remy’s passion for cooking and how he prefers human food over the garbage that they look through, there is an emotional landscape created by the orchestra. When Remy is calmly searching inside of a  house for food, he finds strawberries and cheese. While experimenting to see what they would taste like together, there is unique music associated with the strawberry and a different sound associated with the flavor of the cheese. When combining the two flavors together, there is an upbeat musical sequence that combines both of the individual sounds, symbolizing how Remy felt when cooking for the first time. 

As mentioned before, there is background music that helps convey certain emotions of the characters, as well as aid in conveying importance and pace of a scene. For example, when Remy and the rat clan are running away from the old lady whose house they were living in, there is high-pace orchestra music playing that conveys the fear and high stakes at that moment. In addition, when Remy is separated from his family, he eventually finds that he was living in Paris the whole time. Exciting Remy even more, he finds out that his chef idol and role model, Auguste Gusteau, lived near him when it pans to his restaurant. In the same scene, the audience can see the Eiffel Tower, an iconic motif for Paris, while there is soft French music playing that matches Remy’s emotions of finding out he lives near his idol’s restaurant. 

According to Toy Stories Through Song: Pixar, Randy Newman and the Sublimated Film Musical, the iconic Randy Newman song, ‘You’ve Got a Friend in Me’ is reverberated throughout Pixar’s Toy Story trilogy, that articulates its evolving treatment of friendship and thematically ties the films together (Smith 2018). Similar to ‘You’ve Got a Friend in Me’, Ratatouille‘s most popular song, ‘Le Festin’ performed by French artist, Camille, portrays the overarching theme of the film. The song performed in French in the movie, talks about Remy’s wish to become a chef, with the final line being: “A life spent in hiding and finally free, the feast is on my way.” During the middle of the movie, when Linguini finds out he is Gusteau’s son and takes over the restaurant, this iconic song plays over a montage of Linguini re-opening the restaurant with success. The non-diegetic overlay of the song adds to the emotions that are felt by Remy and Linguini when they find out Linguini is the son of Auguste Gusteau and as a result, the restaurant is handed down to him. 

At the end of the film, Remy opens his own restaurant called ‘La Ratatouille’ and the ‘Le Festin’ song is repeated while showing how successful the restaurant is. The theme of the movie, repeated throughout the film, is that anyone can cook. Applying this broadly, the film conveys the important message to children that anyone can succeed at what they are passionate about, as long as they keep trying. With the inclusion of beautiful animation and classical music, Ratatouille is an excellent choice for children to learn about Paris culture and even more important, to know that you should never give up on whatever you are passionate about.  

References

Goldmark, D. (2013). Chapter 12: Pixar and the Animated Soundtrack. In J. Richardson, C. Gorbman, & C. Versailles (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of New Audiovisual Aesthetics (pp. 2213-225). Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199733866.013.022

Smith, S. (2018). Chapter 7: Toy Stories Through Song: Pixar, Randy Newman and the Sublimated Film Musical. In S. Smith, N. Brown, & S. Summers (Eds.), Toy Story: How Pixar Reinvented the Animated Feature (pp. 105-121). Bloomsbury. http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781501324949.ch-007 

* MAS 590 Week 11 Music & Sound Lectures referenced