The Walt Disney Company has so much profitable intellectual property that it’s hard to imagine the company endorsing a blatantly bad investment. But when it comes to the lovable Pixar film Ratatouille (2007), some major red flags willingly went overlooked.
Ratatouille may have won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, but the investment proposed by Disney in reference to Chef Remy and his future delighting guests is totally unsound and bound to crumble in only two years’ time.
Disney Parks alone has poured millions into the theme park ride Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure in Walt Disney World’s EPCOT France Pavilion and in Walt Disney Studios Park in Disneyland Paris. The Paris park even offers Bistrot Chez Rémy, a restaurant with a dining experience decorated with oversized props to make Guests feel like they have been shrunk down to the size of a rat, just like Remy in the movie.
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Fans fell in love with Remy the French rat (voiced by Patton Oswalt), who dreams of becoming a chef in the human culinary world. In a secret partnership with the unskilled cook Alfredo Linguini (Lou Romano), Remy is able to help create incredible and successful dishes that even the formidable food critic Anton Ego (Peter O’Toole) praises!
In the end, even after Remy is revealed to be a rat, Anton Ego actually invests in a new bistro opened by Remy and Linguini. Cue the wildly unsound investment in the animated film.
X (formerly Twitter) user Das Skoogeth calls out the issue by noting that rats typically have a life span of 1.8 years, which leaves this new bistro endeavor in a seriously precarious spot. Now, obviously, Remy is not your average rat. Culinary skills aside, he’s no street rat. He’s most likely living a life of French luxury as a celebrated chef and is cared for by his human companions.
However, PetMD by Chewy notes that even rats in captivity “typically only live 2-4 years.” Perhaps the limited nature of Great Chef Remy’s bistro engagement would drive business, and Linguini may have learned to hold down the fort and make good food by then.
While this morbid sentiment may have made you giggle, fans can rest assured that rats in Disney movies almost certainly have longer life spans than in real life. Remy’s ratatouille will outlive us all.
