Remy's Ratatouille Adventure Is The Ultimate Disney Ride For Food Lovers
Based on the Academy Award-winning Disney and Pixar film Ratatouille, Remy's Ratatouille Adventure opened at EPCOT at Walt Disney World Resort in late 2021 to much praise. Located in the stunning France pavilion, the all-ages experience brings riders into chef Gusteau’s kitchen in a rat-shaped car, wearing 3D glasses and going underneath cabinets and past giant containers of food like Remy does in the movie.
“What's so cool is the scale. You're shrunk down to Remy's scale. So we were calling that our rat's eye perspective, and now you're experiencing the world the way he did,” says Joe Vitale, the Senior Production Designer for Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. “You're seeing underneath things, you're trying not to get stepped on, and you start to go on this wild chase through the ride, which brings you inside of the kitchen, brings you inside of the pantry.”
Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure features both animation and large-scale set pieces to create an immersive environment.
“You've got the animation done by Pixar that's playing this projected media. Then the next layer is adding giant physical sets and scenery, that's in front of those screens or around those screens. It's just a balance of bringing those two together to make them feel seamless,” says Vitale.
The ride makes guests feel like they're in Paris: they can hear the sounds of the city and admire the rooftop views.
“We want our guests to have the most authentic experience they can. The ride's really based on a scene in the film where Remy is up on the rooftop and he falls through the skylight down into Gusteau's kitchen. This crazy chase happens where he's trying not to get stepped on by the staff,” says Vitale.
But what makes it really unique are the aromas that waft around you. The technology itself is reminiscent of Smell-O-Vision, a system developed to release scents during movies. In its current form, it was created by Hans Laube and adapted by Mike Todd Jr. for the 1960 film Scent of Mystery, when containers of scents were released in the theater for different scenes.
Scent is used in many Disney attractions across multiple parks. You might smell an unpleasant aroma during an encounter with a stinkbug during It’s Tough to Be a Bug at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park. For Remy's ride, however, it was important to feature the real (and delicious) smells that would come from a Parisian kitchen.
“When they were creating the film, a big concern was getting the food right. They made the meals from the film. They physically had chefs make the meals and then have the team render those meals and make sure that they're appetizing, make sure they look great," says Vitale. "So for the ride, our team at Pixar sort of did the same thing, physically made the meals.”
So how did the Disney team create the realistic smell of bread without having a behind-the-scenes baker like Gusteau's patissier Patrick Pompidou? With the signature Disney magic, of course.
“We do work with vendors who create these scents. We sit down and we smell a lot of scents until we find the one that fits that scene just right and smells just right to us. ‘This one's a little too that. I think it's here.’ You got a little nose blind after a while as well, so you have to take a break and come back, re-smell things,” says Vitale.
This scent technology makes the chemical components of the aromas fire neurons in our brains, taking hold in our memory. For the purpose of the ride, you smell the kitchen aromas before your eyes might see it.
“Some people get off and say, 'Did I smell bread in there? Or was I imagining that just because I was looking at these images?' So really fun to add that dimension.”
You might have a different experience every time you ride because the cars are dispatched in groups of three, scurrying like Remy might through a Parisian alley.
“Every time you ride, you get a little bit different experience because you might enter a scene earlier or much later, and you get different point of views from those different ride vehicles. They don't take the same exact path.”
So who might enjoy this ride? Vitale says just about anyone, Disney megafans or not.
“I think if you hadn't seen the film, that it really doesn't make a difference. It's a fun story in itself,” he says. “I don't care if you're five or 50. That's really cool.”
Don’t miss the chance to experience Paris like Remy on your next trip to EPCOT!
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