Ratatouille

Ratatouille is a 2007 American computer-animated comedy film produced by Pixar and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It was the eighth film produced by Pixar, and was co-written and directed by Brad Bird, who took over from Jan Pinkava in 2005, and produced by Brad Lewis, from a original idea from Pinkava. The title refers to the French dish Ratatouille, which is served at the end of the film and also references the species of the main character, a rat. The plot follows a rat named Remy, who dreams of becoming a chef and tries to achieve his goal by forming an alliance with a Parisian restaurant's garbage boy.

The film stars the voices of Patton Oswalt as Remy, an anthropomorphic rat who is interested in cooking; Lou Romano as Alfredo Linguini, a young garbage boy who befriends Remy; Ian Holm as Skinner, the head chef of Auguste Gusteau's restaurant; Janeane Garofalo as Colette, a rôtisseur at Gusteau's restaurant; Peter O'Toole as Anton Ego, a restaurant critic; Brian Dennehy as Django, Remy's father and leader of his clan; Peter Sohn as Emile, Remy's older brother; and Brad Garrett as Auguste Gusteau, a recently deceased chef.

The development of Ratatouille began in 2000 when Pinkava wrote the original concepts of the film. In 2005, Bird was approached to direct the film and revise the story. Bird and some of the film's crew members also visited Paris for inspiration. To create the food animation used in the film, the crew consulted chefs from both France and the United States. Bird also interned at Thomas Keller's The French Laundry restaurant, where Keller developed the confit byaldi, a dish used in the film. Michael Giacchino composed the Paris-inspired music for the film.

Ratatouille premiered on June 22, 2007, at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, California, with its general release June 29, 2007, in the United States. The film grossed $620.7 million at the box office and received critical acclaim. The film won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and was later voted one of the 100 greatest motion pictures of the 21st century by a 2016 poll of international critics conducted by the BBC.

Release
Ratatouille was originally going to be released in 2006; however, on December 7, 2004, the date was changed to 2007. This happened because Disney/Pixar changed the release date of Cars, from November 2005 to June 2006, thus pushing Ratatouille to 2007.

Ratatouille 's world premiere was on June 22, 2007, at Los Angeles' Kodak Theater. The commercial release was one week later, with the short film Lifted preceding Ratatouille in theaters. Earlier in the year, it had received an Academy Award nomination. A test screening of the film was shown at the Harkins Cine Capri Theater in Scottsdale, Arizona on June 16, 2007, at which a Pixar representative was present to collect viewer feedback. Disney CEO Bob Iger announced an upcoming theatrical re-release of the film in 3D at the Disney shareholders meeting in March 2014.

This was originally going to be the first Pixar film released after ending their previous co-production deal with Disney. Some distributor choices named were Warner Bros, Sony, Universal Pictures, and 20th Century Fox. But on January 24, 2006, Pixar was purchased by Disney in a $7.1 billion (US) deal that will merge two two companies.

Marketing

 * The teaser trailer was released on June 9, 2006 and was shown in front of Cars, Puppet Pals, BJ and Wally, Monster House, The Ant Bully, Barnyard, Logan & Luke, Open Season, The Nightmare Before Christmas 3-D, Flushed Away, Happy Feet, Jimmy & Sam 3000, Charlotte's Web, and Night at the Museum.
 * The official trailer was released on March 23, 2007 and was shown in front of TMNT, Meet the Robinsons, Shrek the Third, Surf's Up, and Tony 2: Across the Nation.