What’s Queer about Remy, Ratatouille, and French Cuisine? (2024)

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What's queer about Remy Ratatouille and French cuisine? ›

"What's Queer about Remy, Ratatouille, and French Cuisine?" focuses on Ratatouille (2007), the story of Remy, a rat who becomes a chef. This spectacular animated movie could be read as a coming-out story, where the rat embodies the symbolic lonely gay, refined as an object of disgust, excluded and successful.

Like all superheroes, though, Remy has a special skill that sets him apart from the others: he has a highly developed sense of smell. This ability brings with it an appreciation for the taste of good food, rather than the garbage that the rats commonly eat.

Remy represents the classic case of imposter syndrome. He does not believe in himself or his skills, and feels as if he comes from the “wrong” background, even doubting himself while cooking in a professional French kitchen.

Remy and Linguini form a bond that is like no other, with Remy being a rat that cooks and Linguini being the human that comes to understand and accept Remy as a brilliant chef. In the film, Linguini comes to apologize to Remy when he realizes that his newfound popularity has turned him into someone he's not.

Remy (also known as Little Chef) is the protagonist of Disney•Pixar's 2007 animated feature film Ratatouille. He is a bluish-gray rat from Paris with a passion for food, and dreams of becoming a professional chef.

A rat named Remy dreams of becoming a great chef despite his family's wishes, and the obvious problem of being a rat in a decidedly rodent-phobic profession. When fate places Remy in the sewers of Paris, he finds himself ideally situated beneath a restaurant made famous by his culinary hero, Auguste Gusteau.

Linguini finds out and throws all the rats out, including Remy, warning him not to come back or else he'll be "treated the way restaurants are supposed to treat pests".

While working as a garbage boy at his father's restaurant, Linguini is mistaken for a world-class chef. The real talent, however, was that of a rat named Remy, whom Linguini rescued and befriended, and who actually controlled him by tugging on his hair.

Remy's age is never mentioned and the movie takes place two years after Gusteau died.

Remy struggles with the deep feeling that we do not deserve our success, that our family will leave us for being who we are, and that we are better off isolating and segregating from our challenges. The movie concludes that through talent and hard work, our critics will accept us.

What is Remy Ratatouille nickname? ›

In "Ratatouille," the rat named Remy is affectionately called "Little Chef," signifying his culinary prowess despite his small size. This nickname encapsulates his journey of defying odds and pursuing his passion for cooking.

In Ratatouille, the title characters have long tails and mostly walk on all fours. Remy, whose heightened sense of smell and sophisticated palate initially lead him to become not a chef but his colony's poison detector, is an exception. He walks on his hind legs to keep his paws clean.

After Remy bites Linguini's hand, the mark can be seen healing over the next few days. Before Remy and Linguini figure out how to communicate with each other, the rat bites the chef to get his attention. The bite mark on Linguini's right hand is visible and shown slowly healing in later scenes over the next few days.

Janeane Garofalo as Colette Tatou, Gusteau's rôtisseur, the restaurant's only female cook, and Linguini's love interest, inspired by French chef Hélène Darroze.

Remy desperately makes Linguini fall onto Colette to prevent him from talking further and the two kiss. Colette is equally surprised as Linguini, but quickly falls in love, dropping the mace. A romantic relationship quickly blossoms after this incident.

French food culture is the focus of the movie, as the two protagonists, Remy the rat and Linguini, work together to rise up as cooks in the kitchen of a fine dining restaurant. While Remy is a rat, he is a French rat and thus is portrayed as a food enthusiast and gourmand, both enjoying and creating his own food.

Ratatouille, a vibrant and hearty vegetable medley, is more than just a dish—it's a celebration of Provençal culture, a testament to the sun-kissed fields of southern France, and a symbol of rustic, home-cooked goodness.

Other stereotypes include an unrealistic portrayal of accents, heroes as handsome male characters and villains as ugly characters with heavy accents, a humorous fat rat that happens to be dumb as well, and a Disney girl with the small waist.

The word ratatouille derives from the Occitan ratatolha and is related to the French ratouiller and tatouiller, expressive forms of the verb touiller, meaning "to stir up". From the late 18th century, in French, it merely indicated a coarse stew.