The recipe for making a great animated film involves selecting the finest ingredients — including the right vocal talent to enrich the flavor of the characters. For Ratatouille, master chef and writer-director Brad (The Incredibles) Bird chose an eclectic mix of performers for his feast: including a comedian, an art director and a storyboard artist.
The Comedian
The comedian is Patton Oswalt, best known for his role as Spence Olchin on The King of Queens. He voices Remy, the rat who dreams of becoming a gourmet chef at a five-star restaurant in France.
"With all the hassles that that entails," Oswalt says. "It's a great story. It's really cool. Remy is enthusiastic about something that no one else he knows has any enthusiasm for. There's lots of frustration along those lines. Remy wants what's good in life.
He doesn't want to go through the garbage and stuff himself with the average. Remy holds out for the good stuff. He wants to create, not take."
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The Art Director
Lou Romano primarily works in Pixar's art department, having done visual development for Monsters, Inc. and production design on The Incredibles (for which he won an Annie Award). Currently, he's involved in Pete (Monsters, Inc.) Docter's next project, Up, set to be released in 2009. However, Romano is no stranger to acting.#
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The Storyboard Artist
Animators are traditionally known as "actors with pencils" or (perhaps these days) "actors with pixels." On Ratatouille, Peter Sohn became one of the rare animation artists who got to storyboard, voice and animate his own character. "Yeah, I've been doing story here since Finding Nemo" he says. "I worked on The Incredibles and now Ratatouille. I move around the different departments.
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