Ego Tastes Ratatouille - Anatomy of a Scene

Glad you made this video right when Ratatouille made its way into the top 250 highest-rated films on Letterboxd.

The peasant dish shows he came from humble beginnings. Just like Remy.

It is so fitting that Ego closes the movie with the words "Surprise me" - that is what the artist and critic need from each other: the critic needs to be surprised, and the artist needs to be challenged.

That scene from Ratatouille with Ego is absolutely incredible. One of the greatest things to ever come out animation itself.

The speech Ego gives is pretty spot on too. chef kiss

I can’t get over how well Ego’s character is written! He reminds me of Frollo, but he’s obsessed with food, instead of gypsies. And the scene where he tastes Remy’s ratatouille is handled really well. I love how he doesn’t utter a single world once he tastes it. His expression says it all, going from shocked to ecstatic. I also really like how he handled the truth about a rat cooking his meal. Instead of taking back all his praise, thus destroying his arc, he’s initially a bit surprised, but soon realises what Gusteau truly meant: “No matter who you are or where you come from, you’re capable of achieving your dreams if you work hard enough.” And despite losing his job and credibility, he still maintains a positive persona and respects Remy for changing his perspective on food.

I get tears in my eye every time i see Ego's flashback. Mothers love is something special and with how old Ego is, you know its been awhile since hes seen her. Memories of a blissful past, of mother. Cherish yours while she is still here.

I love this scene. Every time I watch it, I cry. The same thing happened to me once. There's once a simple dish I ate often when my father was around. He wasn't the one who made it but the dish was a 'when he's alive' type of thing. After he's gone, I never ate it (just because nobody makes it anymore around me). The first bite broke me when I came across that dish years later.

The genius in this movie is that they came up with a premise - a rat that cooks - and a title that was a play on that concept - “ratatouille” - and then reverse engineered it into a classic and compelling movie.

Great video! Thought I'd add that the choice of Ratatouille also revisits two themes of the movie in a pretty strong way: 1. It's another angle on the idea that "greatness can come from anywhere" 2. It re-states Remi's now complete character arc, where he's come to accept and even be proud of where he comes from and what he is. He's the humblest of chefs, and chooses to apex his work with a very "humble" meal.

Never before or since have I witnessed a scene that so effectively captures the feeling of nostalgia when reintroduced to a long forgotten memory, particularly in the context of food.

Well… this is ironic. I’ve been obsessed with this movie for the past week.

I'd like to add to this. When we see skinner eating it, he goes through similar emotions like ego did, but more hastily and trying to hold back his joy and disbelief on how good it is. He may of, for a split second, was taken back to his childhood for he also likely grew up poor and was made this dish as a comfort

I think it also reminds of his mother as well as showing us that even through bad times something good can come afterwards, we see this in the shot with him standing at the back door of the house, his bike is broken, he got a nasty scrape on his leg and looks like he ready to cry. That tells us he was riding his bike fast and got into a little accident. Then we see his mom who looks at him a smile, and a face that says" You hurt yourself riding your bike fast didn't you?" giving us that this must happen from time to time, with the scene then cutting her giving him a nice warm meal and a motherly kiss on the head to tell him everything is okay. Plus just from the life he lived in the past to now it shows he, lived in the country side most likely somewhere in the middle or lower class family and had a love for food that his mother made him. I think if you take these into account and how he lives now, at some point he was a good person, but once he got into the life of a critic that love of food and good was sap out of him, the life of a food critic is no joke, the work that goes into it is a lot harder then people give credit. But for once when he finally got to eat something so good that little spark reminded him of home, an even his mother, it that moment you know when food is done right when the taste can take you back to a time when things were much simpler.

Food memory is a very real, very POWERFUL thing. Markiplier showed that in one of his video's. Mark tried food he hadn't had since he was very young, when his father was still alive. He went on to say he could remember how the walls Smelled, the house, the yard. He was taken backto that point, thanks to food memory. Beautiful thing to include :)

this scene just reminded me of how my long dead father has put me on his shoulders and walked to my mother coming simple pilaf. not even the original recipe with all the proper spices, just an adaptation. but it still feels so homely. I'm still cooking it to this day.

Guys, a rat cooked my dinner. A rat was able to coordinate with other rats and humans in order to prepare one of the greatest meals of my life. These things are cognitive! They have intellect like this and we've been killing them en masse!

It is worth noting that Chef Geusto's(sp?) Ratatouille recipe was considered a failure. Remy's recipe, though based on Chef Geusto's, improved on that original recipe. This is probably why it reminded Anton of when he was little. It was based on an older recipe, probably similar to one that his mother used.

One of my favorite moments in any movie, as well as his review monolog afterwards

The scene where ego is writting down every single detail of the dish with his pen the sorce of his ego and power then once he eats the ratatouille Remy made, it brings back nostalgic memories that ego had long forgotten until he rembers after a bike accident his mother cooks him a delicious meal made with love as she also kissed his forehead and he enjoys as a kid his mother's cooking. We zip back to see ego having color in his skin again and his nostalgia for the same dish from his past is so nostalgic he let's go of his criticism, his power and his ego just like his pen fall to the ground and for the first time in decades he actually smiles as he enjoys his meal. If that scene doesn't get ya it ego's review that does. So i guess Remy went with the saying "Just like mother used to make."