2007: ‘Ratatouille’ Open is Theaters

The eighth Disney/Pixar film, Ratatouille opened in movie theaters on this day in 2007. Co-written and directed by Brad Bird, this animated film tells the story of a rat, Remy whose love for food was greater than the average rat, goes to great lengths to become a French chef with the help of a young garbage boy, Linguini. Production on this movie began in 2000 where the creators wanted to be as authentic as they could in regards to French cooking and the Paris backdrop. Bird had actually interned at Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry restaurant and some of the film’s crew visited Paris for inspiration. The movie crew also consulted with real chefs. During the movie’s opening weekend, it debuted at the #1 spot with $47 million which sound very impressive at first, but at the time, it was the lowest Pixar opening since A Bug’s Life. Ironically, in France, the film broke the record for the biggest debut of an animated film. Since then, Ratatouille has become the sixth highest grossing Pixar film. The animated movie won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature that year and was later developed into a theme park ride for Disneyland Paris. News has also been released that Disney is planning for a second theme park ride to be built in the Paris pavilion at Disney’s EPCOT in Orlando, Florida.