Ratatouille Score

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Nikky Schreier

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Aug 3, 2024, 12:13:33 PM8/3/24

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Ratatouille (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack album to the 2007 Disney/Pixar film of the same name composed by Michael Giacchino. The film marked Giacchino's second Pixar film after The Incredibles, which was also directed by Bird and also the second Pixar film not to be scored by Randy Newman or Thomas Newman. The album features original score cues, with an original song "Le Festin" written by Giacchino and performed by Camille, and was released by Walt Disney Records on June 26, 2007.[1]

The score featured a diverse collection of influences of music genres: European romanticism, gypsy jazz, folk-pop and traditional elements of Parisian caf sounds.[2] The music received critical acclaim, praising it as one of Giacchino's best scores in his career, and gave his first Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score. However, Giacchino won the Annie Award for Best Music in a Feature Production, and his first Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album. Giacchino returned to Pixar to score their 2009 blockbuster Up. A remastered double LP was released by Mondo, 10 years after the film's release in November 2017.[3][4]

Giacchino had written two themes for Remy, one about him with the rat colony and the other about his hopes and dreams. He also wrote a buddy theme for both Remy and Linguini that plays when they are together. Giacchino stated that Bird wanted him to "express the taste of food with music" and doing the same with visuals.[5] While writing the score, he had to find the elements of Paris in the film and also to create music out of the city as was the story. Hence, several scores were created for the characters and their emotions, as the setting "needed a broader scope". A wide range of instruments (accordion, violin, jazz guitar, clarinet, piano amongst others) were used.[5] The score was produced and recorded at Sony Pictures Studios with Tim Simonec as the orchestrator and conductor.[6]

In October 2015, coinciding with Ratatouille's premiere at the Royal Albert Hall, London, Giacchino conducted a live orchestral performance at the venue, which received widespread acclaim.[8] Giacchino's themes were partly used in the unofficial musical performed by TikTok users through crowdfunding in November 2020, and new songs were performed by the cast.[9][10]

Giacchino's score for Ratatouille was nominated for the Best Original Score category at the 80th Academy Awards, but lost to Dario Marianelli for his work in Atonement.[14] However, he won the Annie Award for Best Music in an Animated Feature Production[15] and Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media.[16] It further received two nominations at the Satellite Award for Best Original Score[17] and at the World Soundtrack Award for Best Original Song Written for Film, for the song "Le Festin".[18]

Ratatouille is the soundtrack album for the 2007 Disney/Pixar animated feature film of the same name. It was released through Walt Disney Records on June 26, 2007, and composed by Michael Giacchino. Brad Bird re-teamed with Giacchino on the score for Ratatouille since they got along well during the scoring of The Incredibles. Giacchino had written two themes for Remy, one about his thief self and the other about his hopes and dreams. He also wrote a buddy theme for both Remy and Linguini that plays when they're together. In addition to the score, Giacchino wrote the main theme song, "Le Festin", about Remy and his wishes to be a chef. Camille was hired to perform "Le Festin" after Giacchino listened to her music and realized she was perfect for the song; as a result, the song is sung in French in all versions of the film.

The music for Ratatouille gave Giacchino his first Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score as well as his first Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album. Giacchino returned to Pixar to score their 2009 blockbuster Up. A complete soundtrack, known as the "Cast And Crew Soundtrack" was given to the casts and crew of the film.

Soundtrack RatatouilleComposer Michael GiacchinoReleased June 26, 2007Label Walt Disney RecordsCatalogue No. D000050102The Ratatouille soundtrack was composed by Michael Giacchino. Brad Bird re-teamed with Giacchino on the score for Ratatouille since they got along well during the scoring of The Incredibles. Giacchino had written two themes for Remy, one about his thief self and the other about his hopes and dreams. He also wrote a buddy theme for both Remy and Linguini that plays when they're together. In addition to the score, Giacchino wrote the main theme song, "Le Festin", about Remy and his wishes to be a chef. Camille was hired to perform "Le Festin" after Giacchino listened to her music and realized she was perfect for the song; as a result, the song is sung in French in all versions of the film.

Oscar-winning composer Michael Giacchino is no stranger to enhancing Pixar films with his incredible musical talent. It was a pleasant surprise today when he tweeted a photo stating that he was working on the score for the new year Ratatouille-themed ride set to open this Summer in Disneyland Paris.

The score was very well done also, going back and forth between appropriate romantic French songs and high-strung and dramatic orchestral pieces that made the tense scenes all the more anxiety-provoking. The acting was also hard to measure, as Ratatouille is an animated film, but the voice work seemed to be above average, and conveyed the emotions that were trying to be expressed sufficiently. The dialogue was mediocre overall. There were quite a few well-timed one-liners, but most of the dialogue between the characters seemed canned, predictable, and full of Disneyesque clichs.

Overall, however, Ratatouille is a great film with wonderful cinematography, voice work, and animation, on top of an enjoyable score. But the film loses a lot of its credibility because its plot and character development lack proper logic and feel like they only go the way they do to make some Disney executive happy. That is not the way a plot or character arc should feel, and I hope that Disney remedies this in future films: just because a film is geared towards children does not mean that it has to insult their intelligence.

When you're writing about games, it can be hard to find enough time in the day to do everything you'd like. Games can take 10+ hours to beat, and then you have to write the review, then have it edited, and...it's tough. One big review can take days of work, which is why it's nice to have the bigger sites and magazines out there with a large staff, dedicated reviewers, and the time to really attack these games. When a game comes out for multiple consoles, you want to know what console is the best fit for you, and if you have the manpower to do so, a review for each one is ideal. Which is why GameSpot's multiplatform reviews have me concerned.

Take the reviews for the new Harry Potter game. Each game, on each system, was scored the same way. In fact, when you go into the review, there is basically one body of text between them. There are two paragraphs talking about the differences between the systems, and apparently nothing changes the score. The motion controls don't add to the Wii version? The PS2 isn't scored lower because of its iffy frame rates? The PS3 isn't worth a slightly higher score because of high definition? Nope. Each game got the same rating, 5.0. This is how they describe the graphical differences:

The PS3, 360, and PC versions look the best. Other than lower quality in-game cutscenes and some nasty aliasing, the PS2 and Wii versions hold their own, though the PS2's frame rate is pretty iffy at times.

There are also some slight control differences to note between versions. The PC version requires a decent gamepad to play properly, and the Wii version dabbles in motion controls. You don't have to do much in the main game besides waggle the remote to attack enemies and steer the camera awkwardly by holding down the C button and pointing with the Wii Remote to drag it around. The minigames also make use of the Wii Remote, specifically the cooking minigames, where you'll peel potatoes and fold crepes by making various motions. With the exception of the camera movement, these controls are basically responsive and implemented well enough.

Each version received the same score, a 6.0. That is, except for the 360 version, which was slapped with a 4.5. The reason for the harsher score? We had to dig a little through the cut and paste review to find the new text, which told us very little.

There is no version of Ratatouille that is worth wholeheartedly recommending, but the Xbox 360 version is most definitely the one to be most actively avoided. It's just as uninspired as its other console counterparts, and it has the added demerit of feeling unfinished in several spots.

When you have six or more versions of a game, I can see how it could be tricky to review each one separately, but this seems like they're barely even trying. Do they actually play each one through from front to back? If so, wouldn't the time it takes to go into more detail between the versions justify that time expenditure? I have no problems really with the body of the text being the same for most versions, but the time spent talking about the differences is criminally short, and gives us very little information.

I understand that these are movie licenses, but still. I expect a little more if you want me to come to your site for help with my buying decisions. If you look at the reviews of other multiplatform games like The Bigs, you'll see the same basic concept, but at least there is a difference in score in most of them, and a little more time spent talking about the differences. Still, the play in the Wii version of some of these games is much different than with a controller, enough that I'm uncomfortable with a cut and paste review that takes half a breath to list the obvious differences with maybe a sentence or two on how they work.