STIRRING UP THE MUSIC:
ABOUT MICHAEL GIACCHINO’S SCORE

When it came to finding the right music to fuel the manic action and subtle emotion of RATATOUILLE, Brad Bird returned to the composer who had done such a bang-up job with “The Incredibles”: Michael Giacchino, who conjured up a brassy, jazzy, percussive score that is as fun, fast-paced and French-themed as the film itself.

“Even though this film is so completely different from ‘The Incredibles,’ Michael’s range is so great I just knew that he was the right guy for it,” says Bird. “This film is more whimsical than ‘The Incredibles’ -- a funny, romantic journey into Paris -- and Michael did a tremendous job capturing that.”

The collaborative spirit between Brad Bird and Giacchino is part of what spurred the two on to define a fresh sound for the film. “These two guys are basically able to read each other’s minds,” observes producer Brad Lewis. “Brad speaks in a visual language and Michael speaks in a musical language, but somehow they find a way to intertwine them perfectly in the film. Sometimes the music is subtle, sometimes it’s very broad and comic and Michael has this great way of creating the right mood to go along with each moment in the story. He can get really grand and emotional, he can get really small and light, and he can get a little bit goofy, all of which we needed in this movie.”

When Giacchino saw a first cut of RATATOUILLE, he knew he was in for one of the biggest musical challenges of his life. “When I saw the movie, I was really scared because I knew that the music it needed was something I’d never done before. It was a style I’d never worked in before – actually it was more than one style, it was filled with all kinds of styles.

So I left the theatre and went to Brad Bird and said ‘this is terrifying, but I’m happy to give it a shot,’” he recalls.

With those words, Giacchino dove into the project, yet he found that even his creative process had to transform. “Before I saw the film, I was thinking about it from a very practical point of view, but after I saw it, it became a very emotional process,” he explains. “It was the scene at the end of the film where the food critic Ego is giving his review made me say ‘wow, that’s what this story is about’ and that scene helped me to come up with the main theme for the score, which we also turned into a song for the film.”

He continues: “It’s a happy movie, obviously, but there’s also a bit of melancholy to it – the melancholy of looking back at the things you’ve always wanted to do in your life – and I wanted to pull that idea out and express it musically. My biggest goal was to try to capture that feeling. At the same time, there’s a lot of fun and action, but I never wanted that to overshadow what the movie is about.”

In addition to the main theme, Giacchino developed off-shoot themes for each of the characters, reflective of their highly individual personalities and desires. “I really like working thematically because it’s how you can best represent the characters,” he says. “That’s what I love about soundtracks like ‘Star Wars’ or ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ or ‘The Adventures of Robin Hood’ from the 30s – they have these great thematics that are almost operatic in their approach. Those are the scores that inspired me most growing up.”

Remy, he notes, has two themes, as well as a “buddy theme” he shares with Linguini. “Remy at first has this ratty theme, which is almost like a thief-like thing, a melody that follows him around, like the genes that make him a rat even though he wants to be something else,” Giacchino says. “It’s prevalent in the scenes where he’s running through the house and in between the floors. But when gets to the roof and sees Paris for the first time, the new theme that plays there is about his hopes and wishes and dreams. That’s what is inside Remy. The first theme is what you think of when you see Remy, but when he’s looking at Paris, that’s the real Remy.”

As for the theme that emerges between Linguini and Remy, Giacchino says: “The buddy theme only really happens when they are working together. The prime example of it is when Remy first learns how to control Linguini – that’s the embodiment of their theme. Then, it progresses into a very big, kind of heroic action cue at the end of the film when all the rats band together and Linguini’s on his roller skates. It’s almost like a British World War II theme because their friendship has evolved to the point where they’re going to get this done together.”

Another key theme in the film is that of Colette, which Giacchino explains “surrounds the whole cooking process.” He continues: “You hear it for the first time when Colette is teaching Linguini what to do in the kitchen and what he needs to know to be a great chef. Then, it kind of changes throughout the film, depending on what’s going on. When Linguini has to come up with an off-menu dish and Remy starts improvising, that same theme is used in a much more improvisational way, the same way that Remy is just going off the cuff and making up the recipe as he goes. The themes and the music constantly change with the story.” Skinner’s theme also shifts with his mercurial moods – starting out with a hipsterstyle French jazz theme that grows increasingly frenetic and orchestral as he loses control of the kitchen. “The theme starts out cool and suave and ends up a little insane, just like the character does in the film,” laughs Giacchino.

In weaving together the film’s many styles and tones, Giacchino made a musical separation between the human and rodent worlds. “There’s certain instrumentation that I used a lot in the rat world, including a giant thumb piano that’s layered into the orchestration, and a lot of pizzicato strings,” he says. “Brad really loved the sound of the pizzicato strings for the rats, but again, there was no hard and fast rule. What was right for one scene with the rats might not be right for the next, so it is always changing.”

Yet, to contrast with the visual wildness of RATATOUILLE’s madcap physical comedy, Giacchino kept the focus of much of his score on subtlety. “It’s easy in animation to chase every single move,” he notes. “but the thing I like most about film music is that the slightest thing can be suggestive. So I really tried to pull back and let the picture be the picture, just as if it were a live action film.”

With such an unusually diverse score, Giacchino’s next task was putting together a unique, jazz-influenced orchestra, which included such unconventional instruments as harmonicas and accordions. The composer was thrilled to be able to recruit numerous world-renowned musicians to add their touch to the recording sessions, including: Tommy Morgan, one of the world’s greatest harmonica players who has graced more than 7000 recording sessions for records, television, film and more in his 50-year career; awardwinning jazz accordionist Frank Marocco, considered the most-recorded accordionist in the world; bass guitar legend Abe Laboriel who has recorded with jazz greats ranging from Ella Fitzgerald to Herbie Hancock; and influential jazz drummer Harvey Mason who began his career with Duke Ellington and Erroll Garner in the 60s and has gone on to garner seven GRAMMY® nominations.

“This was a wonderful chance to get some of the greatest musicians in the world in one room for a week,” says Giacchino of recording the score.

Topping off Giacchino’s score is the song “Le Festin,” which he wrote and then recorded with the captivating young French singer Camille, who has forged her own adventurous and contemporary chanteuse style. “She has such a unique sound and special voice, there was nobody else other than her I wanted to sing the song,” says the composer. “The song is based on an old French saying which basically refers to getting together with your best friends and closest family and having a great meal together, while celebrating all that is good in life. It’s a song that grew directly out of RATATOUILLE’s story.”

NEXT
EXTENDED SYNOPSIS
From Academy Award®-winning director Brad Bird and the amazing storytellers at Pixar Animation Studios comes RATATOUILLE, the most original comedy of the summer about one of the most unlikely friendship’s imaginable. The film’s protagonist is a rat named Remy who dares to dream the impossible dream of becoming a gourmet chef in a five-star French restaurant. Together with a down-and-out garbage boy named Linguini, the pair carves their own imaginative path to becoming the greatest chef in Paris.