Ratatouille: Stop at 1 hour and 11 minutes and take a good look at this rat’s ear

The evil bear from Toy Story 3 hidden in the little girl’s room at the beginning of Up, the comics in The Incredibles colors in Finding Nemo at the dentist, the image of the toy dinosaur Arlo in Monsters Academy, or the famous Pizza Planet van, hidden in all the studio’s films…

From the history of the first toys to their latest feature films, Pixar’s artists imbue their work with small details that only an informed and attentive viewer can find. While some are fairly easy to spot once you know where to look, others can only be found with a real effort of concentration.

Directed by Brad Bird in 2007, Ratatouille, a glorious tribute to the city of Paris and French gastronomy, follows the misadventures of a rat who dreams of becoming a chef. head down.

Let’s focus on one of them today that you might miss if you blink at the wrong time. To be sure, press pause at 1 hour, 11 minutes and 5 seconds into the movie, during the scene where Remy is about to lead his accomplices into the Gusteau restaurant’s pantry.

At this point, pay attention to the largest rat on the top right of the screen, and more specifically to the label that serves as an earring (see above). If you zoom in on the image a bit and close your eyes, you’ll see that it contains a code familiar to all Pixar fans: the famous A113.

This letter and these three numbers, which are present in absolutely all of the studio’s feature films, correspond to the class reference of CalArts University of California, where many legends of animation studied their art. This is especially true of Brad Bird (director of Ratatouille), as well as John Lasseter, Pete Docter and Andrew Stanton, the founders of Pixar, or even Rich Moore and Tim Burton.

But don’t give up because there are thirty minutes left in the movie! Take a close look at the mirror cabinet that serves as Remy’s bodyguard: at 1 hour, 34 minutes and 25 seconds (see above), while all the rats are busy in the restaurant kitchen, you can see him whipping up a beef steak. A reference to Rocky Balboa’s training in the first part of the saga.

(Re)discover all the hidden details in ‘Ratatouille’…