2007年VOA标准英语-Animated film 'Ratatouille' Brings Cooking Fad

By Alan Silverman
Hollywood
04 July 2007

A rat in the kitchen: to most people, that would be awful, but in the animated¹ world of the new film from Disney's Pixar Studios and director Brad Bird, it can be a wonderful thing for the whole family. Alan Silverman has a look at Ratatouille.

Just as "Ratatouille" can be more than just a hearty² French vegetable stew³, Remy is no ordinary rat. While his family and the rest of the colony scramble⁴ for scraps⁵, Remy savors⁶ every bite.

Remy holds spice jar in scene from Ratatouille

Sneaking⁷ into a kitchen at night, Remy heads right for the spice rack, fascinated by the subtleties⁸ of aroma⁹ and flavor.

A sudden turn of events and a madcap ride downriver (actually, through the fabled¹⁰ sewers¹¹ of Paris) and Remy is deposited at the kitchen door of the once great Gusteau's restaurant where he finds himself guided (or, perhaps, haunted) by the spirit of the late chef as he sees the lowly clean-up boy, named Linguini, starting to tinker with a boiling pot.

Remy and Linguini in scene from Ratatouille

Unable to stop himself, Remy secretly adds just the right herbs and spices, turning what could have been gastronomic¹² disaster into a culinary triumph. When Linguini discovers what happened ...and, to his amazement¹³, that the rat can understand him ...he comes up with a plan.

With Remy hidden under his toque tall chef's hat, Linguini becomes the new master chef; but, of course, it has to be their secret.

"Initially¹⁴ everybody says 'oh, that's funny ...' and then they go 'ugh,' " says writer and director Brad Bird, who created the Oscar-winning Pixar hit The Incredibles.  Bird says he loved the Ratatouille story originally written by his colleague Jan Pinkava; but Bird also knew that, even in animation¹⁵, a rat in the kitchen could be a tough sell.

Remy, Linguini and chef in  scene from Ratatouille

"When the the film was being developed before I got involved they had dealt with that by making the rats like little humans," he says. "They had shortened the tails and gotten them up on two legs. They were as 'un-ratty' as possible. I thought that was a mistake and I wanted them to go back in the other direction. We put them on four legs and lengthened¹⁶ the tails and tried to study rat-like behavior because I thought if you can push past that it becomes a deeper film. Like "Hunchback of Notre Dame¹⁷" or "Frankenstein," we have aversion to the character at the beginning and then we see past it.

Comic actor Patton Oswalt worked with the animators to create the voice and personality of Remy and he jokes that studying 'rat-like' behavior was no help at all.

"I remember I was in a pet store buying food for my dog and I saw some rats in cages. I thought 'I should go over and look at them.' Then I thought 'what, am I (Robert) DeNiro? I'm not going to learn anything from looking at these rats.' It has nothing to do with being a rat, so I just avoided that altogether," he says.

Scene from Ratatouille

"He is just non-judgmentally enthusiastic about what he loves," Oswalt says. " I think a lot of people tend to hedge their bets: 'what am I going to be enthusiastic about? Is this cool? Is this the thing now?' he just loves what he loves. In spite of his parents' indifference¹⁸ and the human world's violence against it, that's what he loves and that's what he's going to do. I really like that.

In what has become a Pixar tradition, "Ratatouille" sparkles with visual excitement and the latest innovations in computer animation; but director Bird says the philosophy is that the technology must be just a tool to help tell the story.

Scene from Ratatouille

"Our goal is not reality. It is believability. The goal is to get the feeling of something," says Bird. "Our goal not the exact reproduction of Paris, although you probably could do that; it is to get the feeling of being in Paris. That said, the tools are always developing and we 'push the envelope' on them and I'm very happy that people are remarking about the feeling of this film because our goal was to make something lush and have the food look good. The computer really doesn't want to do any of that stuff. It wants to do gleaming plastic cubes in perfect voids. All that imperfection and patina¹⁹ that you see on everything has to be put in there and thought about. It's a lot of work.

"Ratatouille" also features the voices of Lou Romano, Ian Holm, Janeane Garofalo and Peter O'Toole (as a bitter restaurant critic named 'Ego'). The exuberant²⁰, French-tinged musical score is by Michael Giacchino.

1 animated   

adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的

参考例句：

• His observations gave rise to an animated and lively discussion.他的言论引起了一场气氛热烈而活跃的讨论。
• We had an animated discussion over current events last evening.昨天晚上我们热烈地讨论时事。

2 hearty   

adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的

参考例句：

• After work they made a hearty meal in the worker's canteen.工作完了，他们在工人食堂饱餐了一顿。
• We accorded him a hearty welcome.我们给他热忱的欢迎。

3 stew   

n.炖汤，焖，烦恼；v.炖汤，焖，忧虑

参考例句：

• The stew must be boiled up before serving.炖肉必须煮熟才能上桌。
• There's no need to get in a stew.没有必要烦恼。

4 scramble   

v.爬行，攀爬，杂乱蔓延，碎片，片段，废料

参考例句：

• He broke his leg in his scramble down the wall.他爬墙摔断了腿。
• It was a long scramble to the top of the hill.到山顶须要爬登一段长路。

5 scraps   

油渣

参考例句：

• Don't litter up the floor with scraps of paper. 不要在地板上乱扔纸屑。
• A patchwork quilt is a good way of using up scraps of material. 做杂拼花布棉被是利用零碎布料的好办法。

6 savors   

v.意味，带有…的性质( savor的第三人称单数 )；给…加调味品；使有风味；品尝

参考例句：

• His talk savors, of self-conceit. 他的谈话给人以自负的感觉。 来自辞典例句
• This sauce savors, of lemon. 这个调味酱有柠檬味。 来自辞典例句

7 sneaking   

a.秘密的，不公开的

参考例句：

• She had always had a sneaking affection for him. 以前她一直暗暗倾心于他。
• She ducked the interviewers by sneaking out the back door. 她从后门偷偷溜走，躲开采访者。

8 subtleties   

细微( subtlety的名词复数 )； 精细； 巧妙； 细微的差别等

参考例句：

• I think the translator missed some of the subtleties of the original. 我认为译者漏掉了原著中一些微妙之处。
• They are uneducated in the financial subtleties of credit transfer. 他们缺乏有关信用转让在金融方面微妙作用的知识。

9 aroma   

n.香气，芬芳，芳香

参考例句：

• The whole house was filled with the aroma of coffee.满屋子都是咖啡的香味。
• The air was heavy with the aroma of the paddy fields.稻花飘香。

10 fabled   

adj.寓言中的，虚构的

参考例句：

• For the first week he never actually saw the fabled Jack. 第一周他实际上从没见到传说中的杰克。
• Aphrodite, the Greek goddness of love, is fabled to have been born of the foam of the sea. 希腊爱神阿美罗狄蒂据说是诞生于海浪泡沫之中。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

11 sewers   

n.阴沟，污水管，下水道( sewer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sewers discharge out at sea. 下水道的污水排入海里。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Another municipal waste problem is street runoff into storm sewers. 有关都市废水的另外一个问题是进入雨水沟的街道雨水。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

12 gastronomic   

adj.美食（烹饪）法的，烹任学的

参考例句：

• The gastronomic restaurant is a feature of the hotel. 美食餐厅是这家饭店的一个特色。 来自互联网
• The restaurant offers a special gastronomic menu. 这家餐馆备有一份特别的美食菜单。 来自互联网

13 amazement   

n.惊奇，惊讶

参考例句：

• All those around him looked at him with amazement.周围的人都对他投射出惊异的眼光。
• He looked at me in blank amazement.他带着迷茫惊诧的神情望着我。

14 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

15 animation   

n.活泼，兴奋，卡通片／动画片的制作

参考例句：

• They are full of animation as they talked about their childhood.当他们谈及童年的往事时都非常兴奋。
• The animation of China made a great progress.中国的卡通片制作取得很大发展。

16 lengthened   

（时间或空间）延长，伸长( lengthen的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The afternoon shadows lengthened. 下午影子渐渐变长了。
• He wanted to have his coat lengthened a bit. 他要把上衣放长一些。

17 dame   

n.女士

参考例句：

• The dame tell of her experience as a wife and mother.这位年长妇女讲了她作妻子和母亲的经验。
• If you stick around,you'll have to marry that dame.如果再逗留多一会，你就要跟那个夫人结婚。

18 indifference   

n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎

参考例句：

• I was disappointed by his indifference more than somewhat.他的漠不关心使我很失望。
• He feigned indifference to criticism of his work.他假装毫不在意别人批评他的作品。

19 patina   

n.铜器上的绿锈，年久而产生的光泽

参考例句：

• The trophy has a beautiful green patina.这个奖杯表面有一层漂亮的绿锈。
• Ancient bronze animal are covered in vivid green patina.古代青铜器动物被绿色彩铜绿笼罩。

20 exuberant   

adj.充满活力的；（植物）繁茂的

参考例句：

• Hothouse plants do not possess exuberant vitality.在温室里培养出来的东西，不会有强大的生命力。
• All those mother trees in the garden are exuberant.果园里的那些母树都长得十分茂盛。