Patton Oswalt provides the voice of a rat named Remy who dreams of being a chef in the animated family adventure, Ratatouille. Despite the fact rats aren’t exactly held in high esteem by most people, the film manages to somehow make the idea of rats in the kitchen into something palatable. The Pixar film might not have inspired audiences to go out and adopt rats during its theatrical release, but the subject matter didn’t keep kids or adults away from theaters and probably won’t stop anyone from picking up the film on DVD.
In support of Ratatouille’s November 6th DVD release, the film’s lead voice actor reflected back on working on Pixar’s rat-based comedy. Unlike some voice actors, Oswalt was able to just use his normal speaking voice for Remy in Ratatouille. And Oswalt says the animators really got his moves down – including some moves he didn’t know he had. “It was weird to see because they got moves down that I wasn't that conscious of myself. When I get excited, my hands will go up in the air and I'll gesture like this. They got that in him because they videotaped me. It felt great. It felt surreal and it felt great. I'm not that aware of myself so it's weird when you go, ‘Oh, I have characteristics that I'm not aware of that other people must associate with me.’ That's cool. I have an identity. That's nice."
Even though it’s his voice and Remy’s movements mimic Oswalt’s, kids have yet to catch on to the fact he’s the man responsible for voicing the adorable rat. “I have a lot of adults bringing their kids up to me, but so far kids haven't quite recognized the voice yet because I think…it's the Pixar animation so [it] trumps the voice. And also, for the whole second act, he's pretty much mute so it's all through gestures and the way he's looking that it's so much more memorable, I think,” said Oswalt.
One of the bonus features on the Ratatouille DVD features Remy and his rat brother, Emile. The voice recording for the extra DVD material was done after the movie was complete. “It's me and Pete Sohn doing Emile,” explained Oswalt. “Working with him was great. He was one of the few people I got to actually work with in the studio. I don't even think he's trained as a voiceover guy. He's perfect.”
Oswalt didn’t mind putting in the extra work just for the DVD. “It just felt like, ‘Oh good, I get to see Brad and everyone I like again. I just get to hang out with these people.’ That's about as far as I took it in my thinking.”
Although Oswalt loved providing the voice of a rat for the feature film, he’s not at all sure there will be an opportunity to revisit Remy in future movies. Ratatouille did really well at the box office, and received mostly favorable reviews, however Oswalt doesn’t believe that necessarily equates to a sequel. “See, I don't know because Pixar is not a sequel-oriented company. Of course there could be a sequel if real solid inspiration hits them, but it's not like some place where they're going, ‘We're doing a sequel even before this comes out. We have the sequel planned, the contract is signed.’”
Oswalt continued. “There was no sequel plan for the Toy Story movies. It happens. Look how far apart they came out. They wait for the perfect story to come. So maybe there will be a sequel. It could be years down the road but they're not saying, ‘All right, two summers from now there's got to be a sequel.’ Of course I would love to do a sequel to this movie but I would love to do it the way Pixar does it which is, ‘Oh, we just got the right story.’ and they'll do it at their own pace.”
