Faux amis

I never had before the opportunity to watch a computer-animated movie. So, when Ratatouille, the new Disney movie went on French screens I thought it was high time to make up for lost time. Isn’t the action supposed to take place in Paris? And isn’t it about French “Grande Cuisine”? How will our American friends from Pixar manage to mix these ingredients into a family-oriented entertainment?

Of course the quality of the pictures is stunning, that’s what I wanted to see in the first place. The 3D rendition, the setting, the animation of the numerous characters are exceptionally good. And the musical score is great also. American excellence as usual. 

But wait… why do I have a feeling all isn’t that rosy with this picture?

First there are two lines that we may not find totally innocent: 

 At one moment, Colette, the only female character, not particularly sympathetic (she’s a French go-getter) says: “Excuse us for being rude but we’re French.” Hmmm… sounds familiar?

- At another moment, Colette again introduces the different people working in the kitchen. About one of the guys she goes: ”He says he’s been resisting but nobody really understands what he’s referring to. He must have lost something”. Needless to say, this last line is absolutely useless for the understanding of the situation. Just a cheap shot, a mediocre jab for the fun of it to American ears. I knew the majority of the French audience in the theatre didn’t understand at once what was this line supposed to mean. I had to ask the friend I was with what she understood there. Eventually, and after I’ve been insisting, she guessed it must have had something to do with the war. My guess is that the average American audience didn’t need more than one second to get it.

But what is the whole story about after all? The movie goes to tell that “Grande Cuisine”, which is automatically associated with France in the minds of most Americans, is actually made by … rats! And at the end of the movie there’s no Grande Cuisine anymore, the restaurant has closed down and the owner has just opened a run-of-the-mill restaurant in a nondescript Parisian area.

About the characters, the only somewhat positive French one is Auguste Gusteau, the Grand Chef but… he’s dead and we only see his ghost appearing every now and then to the real hero of the movie: Rémy, the little rat (“little chef”). The other French are simply non existent. No, there’s an important French character in Ratatouille: Skinner, the bad guy, who’s the most despicable, treacherous, mean, ugly character you can think of, who can’t talk without making the most atrocious faces. And to top it all he’s very, very short, to the point he always needs a ladder when he wants to look through a window for example. Last but not least it seems Pixar thought an Arab-looking man will perfectly illustrate what a contemporary French cook could look like. Is this another opportunity for a certain American obsession to emerge?

As for the young apprentice whose task it is for the little rat to help out, his name is “Linguini”. You may think it sounds more Italian than French and you’ll be right. Besides, he’s totally incapable to cook, and he’s master-minded by the rat.

How about the very idea on which the plot is based! Why would they choose rats to be the ones responsible for the great cooking??? Because, mind you, none of the French can cook in this cartoon but the rats! You think it’s just a coincidence? Waow, come on… Now, what is the most common expression we know about rats? Those who flee when the ship is sinking! Do you remember the defamation campaign launched by FOX and pretty much the entire American MSM when they used to ponder again and again that the French had let America down when it was under the threat of WMDs? Am I too much of a paranoid when I think this campaign has eventually found a PC and subliminal translation into a family movie?

Now, imagine a French cartoon taking place in, say, New-York, where what is specifically known worldwide as an epitome of American achievement, would actually be run by rats, with not a single positive American figure (they would all be portrayed as inefficient or treacherous), where the only nice character would in fact be Mexican and in the end said American achievement would collapse. 

Behind the smiling appearance of an innocuous nice little cartoon, Ratatouille presents the usual batch of anti-French clichés in artistic disguise. Some are nice ones, others aren’t that nice. It will be seen by millions of American kids who will be offered another confirmation of all the prejudice they’re being regularly exposed to: Paris is a great city but the French are rats.

Now, if you thought Ratatouille was a good-will gesture toward the French, you ought to think twice. “Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes” .

Note 1: There’s nothing new with the use of disgusting animals to portray the French in the American cartoon history. Remember Pepe Le Pew?

Note 2: There’s an English saying about France being a great country, too bad it’s inhabited by the French. This English saying seems to be thriving in America.