The Amateur Gourmet recently posted an essay titled, "Ratatouille" & Jewish Assimilation (an essay, with spoilers). Jason Kottke, possibly influenced by Megnut, had an interesting take on the movie as well. I'm sure there are many others that I haven't come across. While some see the AG's interptretation far fetched and others find it dead on, I'm not terribly concerned with whether he is "right".
Interestingly, I find his take on the movie as further evidence that the story was successfully written. I've been thinking about the story quite a bit lately, how there are many things to see, learn, and hear and that one viewing isn't really enough. He sees it as an allegory for Jewish assimilation, which is to be expected perhaps because being Jewish is at the forefront of his mind. Jason, on the other hand, saw it as a commentary for bloggers and critics, which can be expected as blogging and food criticism is at the forefront of his wife's mind, and so surely has been brought up in their house. And to me, I saw the ending as a brush-off of Collette, a further minimizing of her important leap of faith and prior contributions to both Remy and Linguini's success in favor of a tidy ending for the movie. Why not show Collette as finally in charge of the kitchen, finally getting the respect she deserves? And that's probably because I've been thinking a lot about feminism lately.
The point I'm making is simply that there are many stories to be found in this movie and the fact that people find their own meaning suggests that the story was well written. All the opinions, takes, and lessons people glean from the movie are inevitably drawn from their own personal experiences. What you think about those opinions, however, is another matter entirely.
As an aside, AG asks:
(Is it a coincidence that the scurrying rats in "Ratatouille" look a lot like those in Hitler's propaganda films? And, for that matter, why does Django have a hooked nose?)
I'm guessing that perhaps Hitler's propaganda films looked like rats scurrying, rather than rats scurrying looking like Nazi propaganda. Chicken, egg and all that. Also, the fact that Remy's dad has a big hooked nose doesn't really hit me one way or another because I know lots of people who have big hooked noses who aren't necessarily Jewish, (yours truly included) and because as most people get older their noses get bigger, so to show 'age' between rats, a larger nose and a larger body size would also denote age.
