Ratatouille director Brad Bird has poured cold water on the suggestion that he might cook up a sequel to the beloved animated Pixar film.
The 2007 movie, about a young rat who dreams of becoming a chef at a Parisian restaurant, was a box office hit when it was released, particularly in France. It has continued to be popular on streaming and in the Disney theme parks, leading many to suggest that it might be the latest Disney property to spawn a sequel.
However Bird, who wrote and directed the film, has revealed in a new interview that he is has quick to dismiss the idea when studio executives suggest turning the film into a franchise.
Speaking to Collider, Bird said: “They’ve made little feints towards that to see how I would react. They’ll, like, crack a joke, but the joke will be a little bit serious, like, ‘Would you?’ And I’m like, ‘No, we told that story.’”
Bird went on to say that he understood why people have called for a sequel, saying: “Any time you do something that ends up connecting with people, they automatically think, ‘How about another?’ People have mentioned it about The Iron Giant, which is hilarious to me because the film didn’t succeed at all in its initial release. It’s caught up in time, but what would you do to follow that up? He’s lumbering around, still undiscovered? In other words, to me, that story is told.”
Although Ratatouille is widely popular today, it earned mixed reviews when it was first released. The Independent’s Anthony Quinn compared it to another of Bird’s Pixar films The Incredibles, writing that the director “hasn’t created anything as funny as Edna Mode, though there are laughs to be had with a head chef who looks like John Galliano and a pompous restaurant critic named Anton Ego.”
Among the film’s many admirers is actor Josh O’Connor, who has been described as a “superfan” and says he’s seen the film “like 100 times.”
During his press tour for his 2021 romance thriller Mothering Sunday, O’Connor told Grazia UK: “There’s not many films that could get me crying in the same spots.
“But there’s a couple, and one of them is Ratatouille,” he said.
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When he sat down with Letterboxd and was asked to list his favorite films, O’Connor responded: “Ok these are my four favorite movies. First is Accattone, which is a film I love. Ratatouille, I don’t need to say anything about Ratatouille – a perfect movie. Kes or Looking for Eric [by] Ken Loach. And Happy as Lazzaro by Alice Rohrwacher.”