To most people, the rat is vile and villainous. But not to everyone! We hear from a scientist who befriended rats and another who worked with them in the lab — and from the animator who made one the hero of a Pixar blockbuster. (Part three of a three-part series, “Sympathy for the Rat.”) SOURCES:Bethany Brookshire, author of Pests: How Humans Create Animal VillainsJan Pinkava, creator and co-writer of "Ratatouille," and director of the Animation Institute at the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg.Julia Zichello, evolutionary biologist at Hunter College. RESOURCES:"Weekend Column: Rat’s End, or, How a Rat Dies," by Julia Zichello (West Side Rag, 2024).Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains by Bethany Brookshire (2022)."Rats: the history of an incendiary cartoon trope," by Archie Bland (The Guardian, 2015)."Catching the Rat: Understanding Multiple and Contradictory Human-Rat Relations as Situated Practices," by Koen Beumer (Society & Animals, 2014)."Effects of Chronic Methylphenidate on Dopamine/Serotonin Interactions in the Mesolimbic DA System of the Mouse," by Bethany Brookshire (Wake Forest University, 2010)."A New Deal For Mice," by C.C. Little (Scientific American, 1935).
Full Episode
Are you a chef? Are you a home cook? I can cook. He says reluctantly. I sometimes cook well.
Not always. Do you happen to make a nice ratatouille? Yeah, I've made ratatouille before, but I don't have the skill, taste and feeling to make a great ratatouille. The thing is, it's just a bunch of vegetables, right? Well, yes, but no. Yes, but no, exactly. And that's the thing. Ratatouille as a theme and a title for the film, that was there from the beginning for a number of reasons.
First of all, it's about rats and ratatouille. It tells you it's a comedy because it's a silly word. And ratatouille as the quintessential peasant dish, it's just vegetables, it's stuff that you can find easily. If you know how to cook it well, it's beautiful. I'm speaking here with Jan Pinkover. I worked on a couple of the early feature films of Pixar, including A Bug's Life and Monsters, Inc.
and Toy Story 2. And I got a break to develop my own feature film.
That feature film was Ratatouille. It's about a rat named Remy who lives in a farmhouse in the French countryside and dreams of becoming a chef.
You found cheese? And not just any cheese. Tom de chevre de paix! That would go beautifully with my mushroom!
But then Remy, his family, and his entire rat tribe are chased into exile, and he winds up in the sewers of Paris. As he explores the city above ground, Remy comes across the legendary Gusteau's restaurant. The late chef Auguste Gusteau was Remy's hero. His famous book is called Anyone Can Cook. But Remy sees that Gusteau's restaurant is now run by a corrupt, tyrannical chef named
And there's a new garbage boy in the kitchen named Linguini. Linguini does want to cook, but he doesn't have much talent. Remy has talent, but he's a rat. So the two of them become secret collaborators.
One look and I knew we had the same crazy idea.
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