This 'Ratatouille' Musical Lyric Has People Confused, But TikTokers Have A Solution
Months after Ratatouille fans banded together to create a TikTok musical based on the Disney Pixar film, people are weighing in on one detail that still doesn't quite make sense. After TikToker Em Jaccs first uploaded an "Ode to Remy" back in August, composer Daniel Mertzluff took things one step further by uploading what sounded like a professional score in mid-October. As much as fans are here for the impromptu musical and catchy music, the tweets about this Ratatouille TikTok musical lyric highlight a point of confusion.
Since Jaccs first floated the idea of a musical accompaniment to the popular 2007 Pixar movie back in August, there's been some pushback from fans who took issue with the TikToker's lyrics: "Remy, the ratatouille." ICYMI, Jaccs sang, "Remy, the Ratatouille, the rat of all my dreams/ I praise you, oh Ratatouille, may the world remember your name." Considering the lyrics seem to say Remy, the star of the animated film, is the ratatouille he prepared to win over critic Anton Ego, some people couldn't help but point out the confusing lyrics.
On Monday, Nov. 23, Twitter user @ronniegrossjr took to the social media platform to voice his frustration about the mix-up with an all-uppercase service announcement to fans.
"REMY IS NOT A RATATOUILLE," he wrote. "HE MAKES THE RATATOUILLE. HE IS NOT A WALKING PILE OF ROASTED VEGETABLES. HE IS A RAT."
Deceptive as the all-caps tweet may be, most of the tweets seem to be in good fun, because we are talking about a pandemic-produced fake musical about a cartoon rat.
Even so, the Twitterverse quickly chimed in following the pronouncement, with some agreeing with Gross, referring to it as a Frankenstein/Frankenstein's monster situation.
While it might be a touchy subject for Ratatouille fans hoping Disney decides to make a musical based on the animated film a reality, composer Mertzlufft told Vulture in a Nov. 19 interview he thought fans' attention was misplaced.
"I love all of [Em Jaccs’s] videos," Mertzlufft said in response to the criticism. "She makes these very specific choices that just make it so funny. Now that it’s really exploded, people are commenting at least like four or five times every day, 'That lyric doesn’t make any sense! He’s not the ratatouille. It’s just a dish.' It’s funny, because it’s clearly meant to be a joke, and people then take it seriously."
Joke or not, fans seriously got down to business making the lyrics work for a musical. The most popular solution is to have the chorus sing "Remy" while the Remy sings "the ratatouille," as TikToker Olivia Morris thoroughly explained in her Nov. 4 TikTok video.
Other fans of the impromptu musical believe it's best to just let it be and enjoy it for what it is.
Disney has yet to signal whether it will consider making a Ratatouille musical, but an official Disney TikTok account did recently share its own contribution to the effort. So here's hoping one day you'll see exactly how this lyrical puzzle gets worked out. Thankfully, TikTokers have plenty of ideas.
