The Ratatouille Movie Introduces
Remy the Rat Who has a Gift
For Smelling and Tasting

The Ratatouille movie begins with a documentary film about Auguste Gusteau, a famous five-star chef of his restaurant Gusteau's in Paris. Monsieur Gusteau has the belief and motto that "Anyone Can Cook" and he's built his career of late on a cookbook and cooking show for every day folks to try.

However, a famous food and restaurant critic named Anton Ego disagrees with Gusteau, saying that no, not everyone can cook. Ego looks disdainfully down at Gusteau's book, clearly doubtful of the idea that anybody can go into a kitchen and make a fine meal.

Then we get to meet Remy and his older brother Emile, rats who live in a cottage in the French countryside. Remy can sniff at a piece of discarded cake in the compost pile, then in one taste he detects all the different ingredients in it.

Emile pops out of the middle of the cake, covered in it and munching it all down; he doesn't know the difference. Food exists to Emile to fill his big belly - a different perspective from Remy.

Their father, Django, is a big old rat who feels about food the way Emile does. He picks up a withering apple core to chew on when Remy stops him - Remy smells rat poison. It's only then that Django appreciates Remy's talents and assigns him to be the food sniffer, to make sure it's OK for the rats in the colony to eat. Remy is bored with this job and feels he doesn't fit in with the rest of the rats. He wants something more.

Although Emile doesn't understand Remy's appreciation for good food, Remy feels a closeness with his brother and takes him to the cottage kitchen to seek out some saffron for a succulent mushroom and cheese creation he's come up with. Emile is terrified at going in, but does anyway.

After finding the saffron, Remy pauses on the counter top to watch the TV show in the other room, a cooking show that highlights Auguste Gusteau's restaurant and the fact that the harsh food critic, Anton Ego, gave a bad review of Gusteau's restaurant, taking away one of the coveted stars. This terrible news caused Auguste's death, dropping the star rating down even further to a three-star restaurant.

Remy is stunned by the news that his chef hero is no more, but at that moment, the old lady who lives in the cottage spots Remy and she quickly gets her shot gun and fires at him and Emile both.

They barely escape back into the attic after the lady fires at them many times. She eventually blows so many holes into her ceiling that her lighting fixture falls and with it, the entire colony of rats living there.

This is a bit of a creepy scene in the Ratatouille movie - the rats all look so REAL as they scatter about, running out of the cottage, making their escape.

A Helpful Apparition in Paris

Remy is separated from his family as he winds through the rough-and-tumble sewer waters, eventually coming to rest at a cement ledge with lots of various pipes. He looks through Gusteau's book, turning the pages with great effort, his stomach rumbling in hunger.

Suddenly, Gusteau's illustration comes to life, and encourages Remy to go take a look around, so he does. He discovers that he is in PARIS! Not only is he in such a beautiful and exciting city, but Remy ended up next to the restaurant of his dreams: Gusteau's.

Remy watches as a timid, awkward young man applies for a job and hands the head chef, Skinner, a letter. The young man is Alfredo Linguine, the son of Gusteau's former mistress. Skinner, the chef, used to be Gusteau's sous-chef, or second-in-command, but now leads the crew at Gusteau's restaurant.

Reluctantly, Skinner hires Linguine as a garbage boy, who mops up messes and keeps the kitchen tidy as the cooks work. While mopping up a spill, Linguine accidentally knocks a pot of bubbling soup off a stove and he attempts to recreate the soup by throwing in random ingredients.

In the Ratatouille movie, Remy is horrified at seeing this from above and wants to save the soup. He falls through the skylight window and through a series of near disasters and close-calls, Remy makes it to the work station where the soup is cooking.

Linguine throws a colander over Remy so he doesn't escape just as Skinner comes by, furious to see Linguine cooking in his kitchen. Linguine stammers that he wasn't and as the two argue, another cook comes by to ladle some of the soup into a tureen.

The soup goes out to a customer, much to Skinner's panic, thinking the soup must be awful, and the waiter returns stating that the customer wishes to see the chef.

Skinner braces himself and sees the customer, who turns out to be a food critic, and she raves about the delicious soup. Skinner challenges Linguine to be a cook at the restaurant then, but also sees Remy trying to escape and instructs him to take out the rat and kill it.

Linguine has Remy in a jar and is ready to throw it into the canal when Linguine discovers that the rat understands him. He also knows that it was the rat who saved the soup. He slips, though, and the jar with Remy fall into the canal, but Linguine jumps in and saves Remy. Linguine lets the rat go, and Remy makes a run for it, but returns to Linguine, hoping they can work together.

Linguine takes Remy home with him to his tiny studio apartment that has a great view of the Eiffel Tower. Linguine awakes the following morning to a lovely breakfast Remy made for the two of them: omelets. But Linguine is running late and he gobbles down his eggs without even tasting it.

The Training Begins

But the "little chef," as he calls Remy, screeches and nips at Linguine, in an effort to direct him in putting in the right ingredients. It doesn't work well and they have to come up with a different plan if they want work together in the kitchen.

It is while they were together in the walk-in fridge that they discovered by accident the way they can work together in the Ratatouille movie. Skinner barges in when he hears Linguine speaking and Linguine quickly hides Remy in his chef's hat. Remy pulls on Linguine's hair and he responds the way a puppet does with strings, and so the solution is found. They go home to practice.

The next day at the restaurant, Linguine prepares the soup as he had previously and Skinner is pleased. Skinner agrees that Linguine can stay on as a cook, but that another cook in the kitchen, the only woman on the crew named Colette, would be responsible for him. In the Ratatouille movie, Colette quickly shows him who's boss and how much work it took for her to get to where she was in this man's domain.

In the meantime, Skinner goes into his office where a line of Gusteau's microwaveable meals is in the works. Skinner sits at his desk and goes through his mail, coming at last to the envelope Linguine gave to him at the start of his employment.

It turns out to be proof that Linguine is Gusteau's son and legal heir to the restaurant. This would jeopardize Skinner's plan for the microwaveable meals and so he calls his lawyer who pulls a hair out of Gusteau's original chef's hat for a DNA test. It is later confirmed that Linguine is Gusteau's son, no doubt about it.

Customers coming to Gusteau's want something new from the chef, and they've heard about Linguine's soup. Skinner challenges Linguine to prepare something new and off-menu for the customers to try. He suggests a recipe that Gusteau himself had said was a disaster, but Skinner wants Linguine to fail.

Fail he did not. Remy and Linguine improvise the old recipe in the Ratatouille movie, and it becomes a hit at the restaurant. Order after order of the special comes in. What a great success! The crew celebrate at closing that night, and Skinner happened to notice Remy's shadow through the hat on top of Linguine's head.

Family Reunion

After letting Remy outside for a break, Linguine walks back into the restaurant where Skinner awaits and snatches Linguine's hat from his head. Seeing no rat, Skinner invites Linguine into his office and plies him with more wine, getting him tipsy so he would admit he has a rat. It doesn't work.

Meanwhile, Remy has just finished his meal outside and he discovers his brother Emile! Remy chastises Emile's garbage food and tries to get him to appreciate fine food. Remy gives him a nice piece of cheese to taste, but Emile just horks it down (this scene is just SOOO FUNNY!) and despite the exercise, he just doesn't get it.

Emile reminds Remy that he should come back to the colony, if only for a visit, and Remy agrees with hesitation. Back at the colony, Django, Remy's father, makes the grand announcement of Remy's return and everyone cheers and parties with the good news. The rat band in this scene is really good in the Ratatouille movie.

In the Ratatouille movie, Django takes Remy to a shop that sells rat traps and rat poison to make his point about how humans feel toward them. Remy still disagrees and they get into a philosophical debate about the nature of change.

Back at Gusteau's, at the end of their meeting, Skinner tells Linguine to clean the entire kitchen and it's a disastrous mess.

Remy Helps a Romance Begin

The next morning, Remy comes to Gusteau's to find Linguine asleep on the floor with the mop bucket. Remy climbs onto

Linguine's head and animates his movements, but Linguine remains asleep. This continues as Colette comes in and greets him and asks about the meeting with Skinner the night before.

Colette thinks Linguine is being very rude and she slaps his face, which certainly wakes him up. Colette storms off and is about to speed away on her cool motorcycle, but Linguine stops her and tries to tell her the truth about Remy.

He starts sounding like a crazy person because he can't quite spit it out and Colette begins to worry as she takes a hold of her pepper spray. In the Ratatouille movie, Remy refuses to let Linguine tell and so pulls Linguine's hair toward Colette and they end up in a big kiss.

Exciting Chase with Skinner

As the new romance between Alfredo Linguine and Colette blossom in the Ratatouille movie, Remy begins to feel left out. One night, he blew off Linguine's head when his hat came off as they sped off on Colette's motorcycle. He makes his way back to Gusteau's after dodging cars and narrowly escaping people who are disgusted by the sight of him.

Once Remy arrives back to Gusteau's restaurant, Emile shows up with some of his friends so they can get some food. Remy reluctantly consents to get them some goodies out of the fridge, but once he gets inside, he sees that the door is padlocked.

In the Ratatouille movie, Remy is not deterred, and so goes into the office where he discovers Skinner's microwave meal business plan. Horrified, he speaks with Gusteau's portrait, lamenting the fate of Gusteau's name. While searching for the key inside the desk, Remy also sees Gusteau's will and discovers Alfredo Linguine's rightful ownership of the restaurant.

He takes the documents into his mouth to take back to Linguine's place and show him, but Skinner sees Remy. He takes off on a scooter, chasing Remy through heavy traffic, along the river and jumping off several boats. It's an exciting chase scene reminiscent of the Bourne Identity movie.

Remy gets away with the will and the next day Skinner is kicked out and Gusteau's restaurant is handed over to Alfredo Linguine with Colette by his side to lead the restaurant to greatness.

The following months are a huge success for Gusteau's as Remy helps Linguine make mouth watering dishes for the ever-increasing numbers of new customers. Skinner stays in the background, reading with bitterness the rave reviews in the newspapers. He also calls the health inspector to report a rat infestation at Gusteau's restaurant.

Anton Ego's Perspective Challenge

As Colette and Linguine revel in their success, Anton Ego pays a visit to the once-again popular Gusteau's restaurant. Ego snobbily tells Alfredo he is slow for being in the fast lane, and Linguine feebly says to Ego that he's thin for someone who likes food.

This is a great part in the Ratatouille movie. Ego responds that he doesn't like food, he loves it, but if it doesn't taste good, he doesn't swallow. Ego shall return the following evening to write another review of Gusteau's.

Remy is frustrated at hearing all this and keeps pulling Linguine's hair. Linguine's already stressed at Ego's upcoming visit and takes him outside and tells him to go away for awhile. Skinner is hiding, and sees this exchange.

In the Ratatouille movie, Emile shows up then with even more rats from the colony and Remy, angry at how he's been treated lately, is more than happy to let the rats invade the refrigerator.

But then Linguine returns and finds Remy then rambles on and on about the situation and that he's sorry how he treated his little chef. Linguine then finds the entire rat colony inside the fridge and feels betrayed by Remy as they all scurry out the door. Linguine is angry with Remy and tells him to go.

As Remy leaves by himself, he walks straight into a trap set by Skinner. Emile sticks by Remy, trying to get him out, but runs off when Skinner arrives. Skinner puts the trap into the trunk of his car and takes off.

It is at this time that Linguine is finally honest with the rest of the crew at Gusteau's. When they see Remy revealed, they all walk out, except for Colette, who is terribly upset, and she then leaves, too. As she waits at a red light, she notices a book in a shop window. Gusteau's book, Anyone Can Cook. That sets off the light in her head and she returns to the restaurant to help Linguine with Ego and the rest of the customers.

In the meantime, Emile gets the help of the rest of the rats and they find Skinner's car and drop a heavy piece of cement on the trunk, opening it a crack and Django lifts the trap and Remy escapes.

Django has decided to accept Remy the way he is and to help him out. The colony of rats return to Gusteau's and Remy takes charge as chef, shouting out orders and overseeing the cooking operation as Linguine roller skates through the dining room, taking orders and filling drinks.

The health inspector arrives and sees the kitchen filled with rats, so the rats gang up on him and tie him up and put him in the fridge until after Anton Ego has had his meal.

Colette arrives as well, and it takes her a few moments to compose herself when she sees the kitchen overrun by rats as they cook.

Ratatouille

Colette asks Remy what they should make for Anton Ego. Remy shows her a Ratatouille recipe. But they make it a special variation of the peasant vegetable stew and it is beautifully presented. Ego takes his first bite and is instantly transported back to his childhood when his mother made the dish for him. He can't get enough and is ecstatic about the ratatouille. Ego asks to see the chef, but is told he must wait until all the customers leave before he can meet the chef.

After hours, Alfredo Linguine and Colette introduce Anton Ego to Remy the rat. They explain the whole story to Ego as he listens silently. He thanks them and leaves.

The next day, a glowing review appears in the papers and calling Remy the finest chef in France.

But the fame is short lived because Gusteau's is then shut down due to health hazards from the rats and Anton Ego was ditched from working as a critic in the Ratatouille movie.

New Beginnings

But Anton Ego did not fade away in the Ratatouille movie. He invests in a small bistro that is gaining in popularity. Lines go out the door for this small restaurant. Inside, out of sight from customers, is a special place for the rats to sit and have a nice meal together. And now Remy can cook in the kitchen without hindrance.

The new bistro is called La Ratatouille, and Ego is a customer always present and always wanting to try something new from Remy. It is a wonderful and happy ending to the Ratatouille movie.