Pixar's 'Ratatouille' Charms the French (June 29)

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Pixar’s Ratatouille film, about a Parisian rat who wanted to become a chef, was unconventional but clever. However, the animation studio was concerned that the film wouldn’t resonate with those who actually lived in France. Wouldn’t it be insulting to feature rats in a French kitchen? Turns out, they shouldn’t have worried.

2007 – ‘Ratatouille’ Open is Theaters

A rat and chef look at each other and smile in front of a Paris backdrop in "Ratatouille" — *Ratatouille (TVDB)*

Co-written and directed by Brad Bird, Ratatouille tells the story of a rat whose love for food is greater than the average vermin. Remy (the rat) goes to great lengths to become a French chef with the help of a young “garbage boy”, Alfredo Linguini. Based on a true story! (It’s not.)

Production on Ratatouille began in 2000 and the animators wanted to be as authentic as they could. It helped a lot that Michael Warch (who managed the sets and layout department) was a culinary professional chef in another life. Not only did he consult but he even made the fancy dishes featured in the movie for the animators to use as a guide. Chef Thomas Kellar from The French Laundry in Yountville, CA gave Brad Bird an opportunity to intern at his restaurant. Other animators took cooking classes in San Francisco. Finally, Bird and some of the film’s crew visited Paris for a week for inspiration.

Patton Oswalt is the voice of Remy and animator Lou Romano voiced Linguini. The rest of the voice cast includes Brian Dennehy, Peter O’Toole, Brad Garrett, Janeane Garofalo, Will Arnett and John Ratzenberger.

Ratatouille is Hit

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. Even chef Anthony Bourdain was impressed with the movie.

In 2011, Bourdain told Entertainment Weekly, “It’s a measure of how deficient Hollywood has been in making an accurate restaurant-food based film that far and away the best was about an animated rat. They got the food, the reactions to food, and tiny details to food really right – down to the barely noticeable pink burns on one of the character’s forearms.”

Since then, Ratatouille has become the sixth highest grossing Pixar film. The animated movie won an Oscar for Best Animated Feature and was later developed into a theme park ride for Disneyland Paris and Epcot in Orlando, Florida.

Despite Ratatouille’s success, Bird has said that he has no desire to make a sequel like the recent Toy Story 5 and the upcoming The Incredibles 3.

1975 – Steve Wozniak Tests the Apple 1

Mockup of the Apple 1 computer — Prototype of the Apple I computer *(Wikipedia)*

Steve Wozniak is credited for single-handedly creating both the Apple I and Apple II computers. On this day in 1975, he tested the first working prototype. What makes this significant is that this was the first time that a character displayed on a TV screen was generated by a home computer.

In 1976, Wozniak and Steve Jobs formed Apple Computer and the Apple I sold for $666.66. It is said that Wozniak had no idea about the relation between the number and the mark of the beast and said “I came up with [it] because I like repeating digits.”

2020 – Goofy Gameshow: ‘Cannonball’

Art for the TV show, "Cannonball" — *Cannonball (TVDB)*

Hosted by Rocsi Diaz and Simon Gibson, Cannonball was similar but weaker version of Wipeout, based on the British game show of the same name. It first previewed on NBC on this day before airing on USA Network in 2020.

Each week, 16 contestants performed water-based stunts in hopes of getting the highest score and moving on to the next round eventually winning $10,000.

The show was filmed at the Hansen Dam Recreation Park in Los Angeles, California.