Physics
of Ratatouille
In the
movie Ratatouille, the creators, Pixar Animation Studio,
create an amazing animated world that pushes the boundaries of
reality while still abiding by most of the normal laws that our world
applies. In the story Our hero Remy is trying to find himself as a
chef and escape the norms of being a rat. When he is separated from
his family he finds Linguine and the chance that Remy had been
looking for to become a chef has appeared. Throughout the film we
find things that would not be realistic in our world that could only
be explained by this film being animated. Some of these exaggerated
things are the fact that, Remy is able to control Linguine with his
hair, the way Linguine moves while he is being controlled is quite
not normal to how a normal human being would move and also, the
extraordinary rat capabilities that Remy has are pushed beyond the
spectrum of how a normal rat would be able to achieve. Pixar has bent
the rules of reality in order to create a convincing animated world
of Ratatouille.
One of
the reasons this movie defies the normal laws of how our world
functions is how Remy is able to control Linguine's Body. Remy has
unusually more control over how Linguine moves than he should have
control over through Linguine's hair. With a simple pull of a tuft of
hair Remy is able to command even the subtlest movements of
Linguini’s hands and fingers. An example of this can be seen in the
scene where Remy and Linguine are beginning to learn how to maneuver
in duel-pilot state. The scene starts with a bit of trial and error
and Remy only being able to control the broad actions that Linguine
does. The trial and error begins with Remy trying to move Linguine
around the room, lifting ingredients up to Remy only to squeeze too
hard and squish the tomato, flipping pancakes out the window,
whisking batter messily and then spilling spaghetti over a pot. He
also fails to pour wine into a glass and then pours it to the brim
with accuracy and then succeeds to mess it up once more by pouring
the glass on himself as Remy tried to take a drink. The next action
is the turning point where the duo begin to do things more
skillfully. It begins with Linguine raising the knife he is about to
cut onions with. In that moment the music stops. The knife is the
focal point and the stakes are raised much higher than before. Then
he cuts the onions carefully at first and then with ease, he splits
and egg without making a mess, and then, they show them being amazing
and finishing off with the successful quick and steady cutting and
making of the soup that he needed to recreate. There was a learning
curve, but with practice they began to build that skill and light
touch and control that Remy has over Linguine's body. Beyond this
point Remy becomes even better at controlling Linguine and even is
able to control Linguine when he is unconscious. This control Remy
has over Linguine is extremely unnatural and in our world it is
impossible. Hair pulling does not have that effect in our world. It
is painful, and often would shock us that someone is pulling our
hair. It could also prevent movement with the shock, but having the
control of moving a persons body parts is impossible when we get our
hair pulled.
There is
also an interesting way that Linguine moves when Remy is controlling
him that differs from how Linguine or any character normally moves
when they themselves have full control over themselves. In normal
character animation, specifically when a character grabs something,
it starts with eye line to the object, then movement of cog and
shoulders into the grab, and then the hand proceeds into the grab.
However, the way the Linguine moves when under Remy's control is that
it is more directed to the body part that Remy wants to use and then
everything follows afterward, without eye contact. The reason behind
the lack of eye contact is because Linguine isn't the one controlling
his motions. Linguine doesn't know he is doing it before it happens
to him. Therefore he doesn't prep his actions by looking at the
objective. The duo's movements are more direct. When the duo reach
over and grab something, the hand moves and then the rest of the body
overlaps to follow the momentum of the hand. This is another example
of how the control Remy has over Linguine is very objective oriented.
If he needs something, he thinks about shortest way to move Linguine
in order to get the job done and then moves that part in particular
closest to the object he wants. It is important to remember that he
is still traveling in arcs with his movements, however, there is a
lot more overlapping action whilst remy is controlling Linguine.
because the rest of Linguine's body needs to keep up with Remy and
his moment to moment actions. A perfect example of how Remy controls
linguine's body parts in order of objective is during the scene where
Linguine is unconscious and Remy is trying to lift him up. His first
attempt was using the shoulders and lifting them in order to lift the
body. However that would definitely not be able to do it. In the
second attempt he realizes he needs the legs, and through the legs he
body rolls up into position. He raised Linguine one part at a time,
as apposed to things moving simultaneously in normal character
animation.
Beyond
the fact that Remy as well as all the other rats are being portrayed
as anthropomorphic, the movie pushes the nimbleness and weight of
rats as they react to the environment showing great exaggeration of
their real life capabilities. Rats in reality are nimble and can move
about quickly but, in the movie, there are scenes where Remy's
movements in particular feel unrealistic for what a rat could
actually do. They pushed the physics of how Remy is affected by
gravity. A lot of examples come from the varying scenes when Skinner
is chasing Remy. The simple way that Remy can effectively run away
from the scooter means that he is running at a comparable speed to
the scooter skinner is riding on for a prolonged period of time.
Another example of extraordinary rat capabilities in the chase is
when Remy is jumping from boat to boat. In the final boat jump, the
length of the other boat in comparison to the boat Remy is on is
extremely far from each other. Which is why they used the paper as a
way for him to jump even farther. However, rats are on the heavier
side of the rodent family, so if I was able to question where they
made it so Remy wasn't as heavy as a normal rat, that would be the
point. A rat's normal weight would not be able to be supported by the
paper and be able to glide. In most scenes we feel Remy is a capable
rat that can do normal rat like movements. These minor exaggerations
are a good way to push into the level of animated film.
Ratatouille
wouldn't have been as wonderful as a film if Pixar had not created a
world that slightly bent the laws of reality. Remy was given more
power over the environment around him in order to fulfill the goals
and tasks he wanted to achieve. The first example was that Remy's
control over Linguine was definitely unnatural due to the fact that
hair could never control a human being the way it was portrayed in
the film. Also, the way Linguine was controlled felt awkward to how
normal human motion would be. Finally, Remy was capable of
extraordinary jumps and run movements as a rat that would probably
not be possible for a realistic rat to achieve. These are the sort of
things we as an audience expect from animated films. We expect things
to be unrealistic. However, what Pixar does really well with how they
ground the viewer in reality, and bend reality within reason in order
to give the audience a believable but magical experience. Without
that this movie and other animated movies by Pixar would not be as
successful.
