Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (film)
2011 film based on John le Carré's novel
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a 2011 Cold War spy film directed by Tomas Alfredson. The screenplay was written by Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan, based on John le Carré's 1974 novel of the same name. The film stars an ensemble cast including Gary Oldman as George Smiley, with Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, John Hurt, Toby Jones, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ciarán Hinds, David Dencik and Kathy Burke. It is set in London in the early 1970s and follows the hunt for a Soviet double agent at the top of the British secret service.
The film was produced through the British company Working Title Films and financed by France's StudioCanal. It premiered in competition at the 68th Venice International Film Festival. A critical and commercial success, it was the highest-grossing film at the British box office for three consecutive weeks. It won the BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film. The film also received three Oscar nominations: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, and for Oldman, Best Actor.
The novel had previously been adapted into the award-winning 1979 BBC television series of the same name with Alec Guinness playing the lead role of Smiley.
Plot.
In 1973, "Control", head of British intelligence ("The Circus"), sends field agent Jim Prideaux to Budapest to meet a Hungarian general and potential defector, who has offered to identify a mole installed by Soviet spymaster Karla amongst the Circus' senior leadership. Prideaux realises the meeting is a trap, attempts to leave and is shot in the back. Control and his deputy, George Smiley, are forced to retire and Control dies shortly after. Sir Percy Alleline becomes the new Chief, Bill Haydon his deputy, and Roy Bland and Toby Esterhase his lieutenants. In a flashback, we see that despite Control's and Smiley's suspicions, the four had begun handling a high level Soviet source ("Operation Witchcraft"); Alleline later begins sharing Witchcraft intelligence with the Americans.
Alleline and Bland meet with Permanent Undersecretary Oliver Lacon, the senior civil servant responsible for the Circus, to discuss the ongoing cost of a secret safe house to meet the Witchcraft source. After the meeting, field agent Ricki Tarr, currently in hiding due to being connected to several deaths in Istanbul, telephones Lacon to inform him of a mole within the Circus. Aware that Control had a similar theory, Lacon asks Smiley to investigate. Smiley recruits Peter Guillam and retired Special Branch Inspector Mendel to assist him.
After setting up a base in the Hotel Islay, Smiley has Guillam steal personnel records and copies of the Circus' slush fund accounts. He discovers several Control loyalists were ousted after Prideaux's shooting, as well as a record of payment made to "Mr. Ellis", one of Prideaux's identities, "after" the shooting. In Oxford, Smiley interviews analyst Connie Sachs. Sachs had discovered evidence that Soviet cultural attaché Alexei Polyakov was actually a military officer, and suspected his true role was to run a mole in London; Alleline had scoffed at her findings and sacked her.
Back in London, Smiley discovers Tarr in his house. Tarr tells how he was assigned to trail Boris, a Russian trade delegate in Istanbul who was offering to defect, but whom he quickly guessed was actually KGB. After Tarr witnessed Boris assault his wife and fellow agent Irina, he and Irina began an affair. Irina offered to reveal the identity of a top-level mole in exchange for asylum in the UK. Hours after Tarr cabled London about the existence of a double agent the local station chief was murdered and Irina abducted. Smiley sends Guillam to the Circus archive to steal the duty officer's logbook for the night Tarr contacted London. Guillam, who had been Tarr's boss, is unexpectedly brought before Circus leadership and told that Tarr, who has been detected flying into Amsterdam, is a traitor who has been bribed by the Soviets. Guillam returns to Smiley's house and, discovering for the first time that Tarr is there, punches him, but Smiley finds that the logbook pages for the relevant night have been removed, supporting Tarr's story.
That night, Smiley recounts his only meeting with Karla to Guillam. Whilst working under the name "Gerstmann" in 1955, Karla was captured and traded to Russia by the Americans. Believing he would likely be executed upon his return, Smiley travelled to Delhi to recruit him. However, his constant urging for Karla to think of his wife only revealed Smiley's weakness: his love for his wife, Ann. A chainsmoker, Karla listened silently, stole a lighter given to George by Ann, and returned to Russia.
Smiley contacts another sacked loyalist, former duty officer Jerry Westerby, who tells him of how Prideaux's shooting sent Control into shock. Hoping to find George, Westerby had telephoned Ann; Haydon then arrived and took charge. Guillam wonders how Haydon could have learned of the emergency, before Smiley informs him Haydon was having an affair with Ann. Smiley interviews Prideaux, who is working as a French teacher at a prep school. Prideaux explains that his Budapest mission was to identify the mole and relay one of five code-names to Control. Alleline was "Tinker", Haydon "Tailor", Bland "Soldier", Esterhase "Poorman", and Smiley "Beggarman". However, he was captured and tortured by the KGB, during which he witnessed Irina's execution. During his interrogation, Karla personally visited and asked how close Control was to identifying the mole before trading Prideaux back to the Circus.
Smiley realises that Witchcraft is actually a KGB ruse. The four Witchcraft lead officers believe Polyakov is trading sensitive Russian military and political intelligence for trivial British material. In reality Polyakov is trading false or insignificant intelligence and the mole is leaking substantive British intelligence. Smiley informs Lacon and the Minister that the true object of Witchcraft is to lure the CIA into sharing US intelligence, which the mole can then leak to Karla.
To draw out the mole, Smiley and Guillam send Tarr to the Paris Station to cable the Circus. To ensure his compliance, Smiley agrees to Tarr's request to trade the mole for Irina, despite knowing she is dead. Smiley and Guillam surprise Esterhase as he leaves the Circus and drive him to an airstrip where they threaten to deport him until he provides the address of the safe house. Smiley and Guillam wait at the safe house for the mole to alert Polyakov that Tarr is about to blow their cover. The mole is revealed to be Haydon, and Smiley arrests him at gunpoint.
The Circus holds Haydon at its training and debriefing facility, Sarratt. Smiley informs him he will be traded for British operatives held in the Soviet Union, and agrees to settle several of Haydon's sexual relationships with both women and men. Haydon informs him that Karla ordered him to seduce Ann to cloud Smiley's judgement. He also confirms that Prideaux, a long-time friend (and, it is hinted, lover), suspected Haydon was the mole and tipped him off before his Hungary mission. Haydon was able to inform Karla and prevent Prideaux being killed by the KGB. Prideaux, however, blames Haydon for allowing his torture.
Prideaux infiltrates Sarratt with a hunting rifle and shoots his friend underneath his eye, which forms a bloody teardrop that Prideaux watches from a distance before Haydon collapses. Ann returns home, and Smiley returns to the Circus as its Chief.
Cast.
<templatestyles src="Div col/styles.css"/>* Gary Oldman as George Smiley ("Beggarman")
Production.
Development.
The project was initiated by Peter Morgan when he wrote a draft of the screenplay, which he offered to Working Title Films to produce. Morgan dropped out as the writer for personal reasons but still served as an executive producer. Following Morgan's departure as writer, Working Title hired Peter Straughan and Bridget O'Connor to redraft the script. Park Chan-wook considered directing the film, but ultimately turned it down. Tomas Alfredson was confirmed to direct on 9 July 2009. The production is his first English language film. The film was backed financially by France's StudioCanal and had a budget corresponding to $21 million. The film is dedicated to O'Connor, who died of cancer during production.
Casting.
The director cast Gary Oldman in the role of George Smiley, and described the actor as having "a great face" and "the quiet intensity and intelligence that's needed". Many actors were connected to the other roles at various points, but only days before filming started, Oldman was still the only lead actor who officially had been contracted. David Thewlis was in talks for a role early on. Michael Fassbender was in talks at one point to star as Ricki Tarr, but the shooting schedule conflicted with his work on '; Tom Hardy was cast instead. On 17 September 2010, Mark Strong was confirmed to have joined the cast. Jared Harris was cast but had to drop out because of scheduling conflicts with '; he was replaced by Toby Jones. John le Carré appears in a cameo as a guest in a party scene.
Filming.
Principal photography took place between 7 October and 22 December 2010. Most of the film was shot in London. Studio scenes were shot at Inglis Barracks, a former army barracks in Mill Hill. Exterior shots of "The Circus" were at Blythe House in West Kensington. The Merlin safe house scenes were filmed at Empress Coach Works in Cambridge Heath. Some exterior scenes were filmed on Hampstead Heath and in Hampstead Ponds, where Smiley is shown swimming. Some exterior shots were filmed in Kensington Gore, and interior scenes were filmed in Queen Alexandra's House and the physics department of Imperial College London, all in South Kensington.
The production filmed in Budapest for five days. Exterior shots included scenes at Fisherman's Bastion. The café scene in which Jim Prideaux is shot was filmed in the interior hall of "Párizsi Udvar Hotel". The events which take place in Czechoslovakia in the novel were moved to Hungary, because of the country's 20% rebate for film productions.
The production filmed in Istanbul for nine days, shortly before Christmas.
The production reunited Alfredson with cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema and editor Dino Jonsäter, with whom he had made his previous film "Let the Right One In".
Post-production and music.
The film took six months to edit. The final song in the film, Julio Iglesias' rendition of the French song "La Mer", set against a visual montage of various characters and subplots being resolved as Smiley strides into Circus headquarters to assume command, was chosen because it was something the team thought George Smiley would listen to when he was alone; Alfredson described the song as "everything that the world of MI6 isn't". A scene where Smiley listens to the song was filmed, but eventually cut to avoid giving it too much significance.
Heard at a Circus office party, sung along to by the guests, is "The Second Best Secret Agent in the Whole Wide World", composed by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen, and performed by Sammy Davis Jr., from the British spy spoof "Licensed to Kill" (1965). At the same office Christmas function, the Circus staff sing the official "State Anthem of the USSR", conducted by a figure dressed as Father Christmas but wearing a Lenin mask. "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)", an album featuring Alberto Iglesias's score, was released by Silva Screen Records on 14 October 2011.
Release and reception.
The film premiered in competition at the 68th Venice International Film Festival on 5 September 2011. StudioCanal UK distributed the film in the United Kingdom, where it was released on 16 September 2011. The US rights were acquired by Universal Pictures, which owns Working Title, and they passed the rights to their subsidiary Focus Features. Focus planned to give the film a wide release in the United States on 9 December 2011 but pushed it to January 2012, when it was given an 800 screen release.
The film was released in France on 8 February 2012 under the title "La Taupe" (meaning "The Mole").
Critical response.
"Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" received critical acclaim. Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 83% based on 229 reviews, with an average rating of 7.80/10. The site's critics' consensus states: ""Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" is a dense puzzle of anxiety, paranoia, and espionage that director Tomas Alfredson pieces together with utmost skill." Metacritic calculated an average critic score of 85/100 based on 42 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".
Jonathan Romney of "The Independent" wrote, "The script is a brilliant feat of condensation and restructuring: writers Peter Straughan and the late Bridget O'Connor realise the novel is overtly about information and its flow, and reshape its daunting complexity to highlight that". David Gritten of "The Daily Telegraph" declared the film "a triumph" and gave it a five star rating, as did his colleague, Sukhdev Sandhu. Stateside, Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" wrote, "As Alfredson directs the expert script by Peter Straughan and Bridget O'Connor, the film emerges as a tale of loneliness and desperation among men who can never disclose their secret hearts, even to themselves. It's easily one of the year's best films." M. Enois Duarte of "High-Def Digest" also praised the film as a "brilliant display of drama, mystery and suspense, one which regards its audience with intelligence".
Writing in "The Atlantic", le Carré admirer James Parker favourably contrasted Smiley with the James Bond franchise but found this "Tinker Tailor" adaptation "problematic" compared with the 1979 BBC mini-series. He wrote: "To strip down or minimalize le Carré, however, is to sacrifice the almost Tolkienesque grain and depth of his created world: the decades-long backstory, the lingo, the arcana, the liturgical repetitions of names and functions".
Keith Uhlich of "Time Out New York" named "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" the fourth-best film of 2011, calling it "a visually stunning adaptation with a stellar cast." In 2020, Uhlich named it the ninth-best film of the 2010s.
Box office.
The film topped the British box office chart for three consecutive weeks and earned $80,630,608 worldwide.
Possible sequel.
While doing press for Working Title's "Les Misérables" film adaptation, producer Eric Fellner stated that fellow producer Tim Bevan was working with writer Straughan and director Alfredson on developing a sequel to "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy". Fellner did not specify whether or not the sequel would be based on "The Honourable Schoolboy" or "Smiley's People", the two remaining Smiley novels in Le Carré's Karla trilogy. While doing press for "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" in 2014, Oldman stated that talk of a sequel, an adaptation of "Smiley's People", had since disappeared; while also stressing that he would still like to see the film produced.
In July 2016, Oldman said that a sequel was in its early stages, stating, "There is a script, but I don't know when we will shoot." It was reported at the time that a script based on "Smiley's People" had been "greenlit" by Working Title Films.
In December 2021, Alfredson said that a film sequel to the 2011 film was unlikely; the rights having reverted to Le Carré's estate, who were planning to reboot Smiley on television. Alfredson expressed an interest in directing Oldman in a future TV miniseries adaptation of "Smiley's People" but he thought that the moment had likely passed. In an interview with the "Radio Times" in September 2024, producer Douglas Urbanski said that, "We loved "Tinker" and we started to do prep for Gary to do "Smiley’s People", and suddenly there was an unexpected rights issue. We've reached out, including again recently, to Le Carré’s sons and — the damnedest thing — they have no interest in Gary playing Smiley again. I don’t know why."
However, in March 2025, it was announced that a new TV adaptation of several Le Carré novels entitled "A Legacy of Spies" had begun production, effectively ending hope of a film sequel.
References.
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Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
1974 spy novel by John le Carré
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a 1974 spy novel by the author and former spy John le Carré. It follows the endeavours of the taciturn, ageing spymaster George Smiley to uncover a Soviet mole in the British Secret Intelligence Service. The novel has received critical acclaim for its complex social commentary—and, at the time, relevance, following the defection of Kim Philby. It was followed by "The Honourable Schoolboy" in 1977 and "Smiley's People" in 1979. The three novels together make up the "Karla Trilogy", named after Smiley's long-time nemesis Karla, the head of Soviet foreign intelligence and the trilogy's overarching antagonist.
The novel has been adapted into both a television series and a film, and remains a staple of the spy fiction genre. In 2022, the novel was included on the "Big Jubilee Read" list of 70 books by Commonwealth authors, selected to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II.
Plot.
Background.
As the tension of the Cold War is peaking in 1973, George Smiley, former senior official in Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (known as "the Circus" because its London office is at Cambridge Circus), is living unhappily in forced retirement, following the failure of an operation codenamed Testify in Czechoslovakia which ended in the capture and torture of agent Jim Prideaux. Control, chief of the Circus, had suspected that one of the five senior intelligence officers at the Circus was a Soviet mole, and had assigned them code names for Prideaux to relay back to the Circus, derived from the English children's rhyme "Tinker, Tailor":<poem>Tinker, tailor,
soldier, sailor,
rich man, poor man,
beggarman, thief.</poem>
The failure resulted in the dismissal of Control, Smiley, and allies such as Connie Sachs and Jerry Westerby, and their replacement by a new guard consisting of Percy Alleline, Toby Esterhase, Bill Haydon, and Roy Bland. Control has since died, and Smiley's former protégé, Peter Guillam, has been demoted to the "scalphunters".
Guillam unexpectedly approaches Smiley and takes him to the house of Under-Secretary Oliver Lacon, the civil servant who oversees the Circus. There they meet Ricki Tarr, an agent recently declared "persona non grata" due to suspicion of having defected. Tarr defends himself by explaining that he was informed of a Soviet mole at the highest level of the Circus – codenamed Gerald – by Irina, the wife of a trade delegate, while in Hong Kong. Irina claimed that the mole, Gerald, reports to a Soviet official stationed at the embassy in London called Polyakov. Shortly after Tarr relayed this to the Circus, Irina was forcibly returned to the Soviet Union, leading Tarr to suspect that the mole was real, and now knew his identity. Tarr went into hiding, resurfacing to contact Guillam.
Lacon reasons that neither Smiley nor Guillam can be the mole, due to their respective dismissal and demotion, and so requests that Smiley investigate the presence of the mole in total secrecy to avoid another PR scandal for both the Government and the Circus. Smiley cautiously agrees, and forms a team consisting of himself, Guillam, Tarr, and retired Scotland Yard Inspector Mendel. Smiley is also given access to Circus documents, and begins by examining Alleline's restructuring, discovering the ousting of Jerry Westerby and Connie Sachs, as well as slush fund payments to Jim Prideaux.
Smiley begins the hunt.
Smiley visits Sachs, discovering that she confronted Alleline about her discovery that Polyakov was actually a Soviet Colonel called Gregor Viktorov, but he ordered her to drop the subject. She also mentions rumours of a secret Soviet facility for training moles, and makes allusions to Prideaux and Bill Haydon's relationship being more than just platonic friendship.
Smiley examines Operation Witchcraft, an operation in which Soviet intelligence was obtained through a key source known as "Merlin", which was treated with suspicion by both Smiley and Control. Alleline obtained ministerial support to circumvent Control's authority, and his post-Testify promotion supporters Haydon, Esterhase, and Bland have sponsored it. Smiley also learns that this "Magic Circle" has obtained a safe house somewhere in London where they obtain information from a Merlin emissary posted in London under a diplomatic cover, who – Smiley concludes – is Polyakov himself.
Smiley suspects that the Circus does not realise the flow of information is going the other way, with the mole "Gerald" passing important British secrets ("gold dust") in return for low-grade Soviet material ("chicken feed"), which would make "Witchcraft" simply a cover for the mole.
Karla.
Smiley also discovers that the log from the night Tarr reported in from Hong Kong has been removed, and Guillam starts to suffer from paranoia as a result of their operation. Smiley tells Guillam that he suspects a Soviet intelligence officer named Karla is linked in some way to the operation, and reveals what he knows about him. Karla is believed to have followed his father into espionage, getting his start during the Spanish Civil War posing as a White Russian émigré in the forces of General Francisco Franco, recruiting foreign, mainly German, operatives. After this the Circus lost track of Karla, but he resurfaced during Operation Barbarossa, directing partisan operations behind German lines. Smiley explains his belief that somewhere in the gap between these two conflicts, Karla travelled to England and recruited Gerald.
Smiley points out that Karla is fiercely loyal to both the Soviet Union and communism, highlighting Karla's current rank despite his internment in a gulag by the Stalinist regime, and reveals that Karla turned down an offer from Smiley in India to defect, even though his return to the USSR in 1955 was to face a likely execution. During his attempt to obtain Karla's defection, Smiley plied him with cigarettes and promises that they could get Karla's family out to the West safely. Smiley suspects that this only revealed his own weakness, his love for his unfaithful wife, Ann. Smiley offered Karla his lighter, a present from Ann, to light a cigarette, but Karla rose and left with it.
Merlin and Testify.
Smiley suspects a link between Merlin and the botched Operation Testify. Sam Collins, who was duty officer that night, tells Smiley that Control ordered him to relay the report of the Czech operation only to him, but that when he did so, Control froze up, and that Bill Haydon's sudden arrival was the only reason the hierarchy didn't fall apart that night. Smiley then visits Max, a Czech operative who served as a legman for Prideaux on the operation, who tells Smiley that Prideaux gave him instructions to leave Czechoslovakia any way he could if Prideaux didn't surface at the rendezvous at the appointed time. Smiley next visits Jerry Westerby, who tells Smiley about the trip to Prague when a young army conscript insisted that the Russians were in the woods waiting for Prideaux a full day before he was ambushed.
Finally, Smiley tracks down Prideaux. Prideaux tells him Control believed there was a mole in the Circus, and had whittled it down to five men, Alleline (Tinker), Haydon (Tailor), Bland (Soldier), Esterhase (Poorman), and Smiley himself (Beggarman), and that his orders were to obtain the identity from a defector in Czech intelligence who knew. He tells Smiley he almost didn't make the rendezvous with Max because he noticed he was being tailed, and that when he arrived to meet the defector, he was ambushed, taking two bullets to his right shoulder. During his captivity, both Polyakov and Karla interrogated him, focusing solely on the extent and status of Control's investigation. Prideaux suggests that the Czech defector was a plant, contrived by Karla to engineer Control's downfall through Testify's failure, all conceived to protect the mole.
Catching the mole.
Smiley confronts Toby Esterhase, stating that he is aware that Esterhase has been posing as a Russian mole, with Polyakov as his handler, in order to provide cover for Merlin's emissary Polyakov. Smiley compels Esterhase into revealing the location of the safe house, through making him realise that not only is there a real Soviet mole embedded in the SIS, but also that Polyakov has not been "turned" to work in British interest pretending to run the "mole" Esterhase, and in fact remains Karla's agent. Tarr is sent to Paris, where he passes a coded message to Alleline about "information crucial to the well-being of the Service". This triggers an emergency meeting between Gerald and Polyakov at the safe house, where Smiley and Guillam are lying in wait.
Haydon is revealed to be the mole, and his interrogation reveals that he had been recruited several decades ago by Karla and became a full-fledged Soviet spy partly for political reasons, partly in frustration at Britain's rapidly declining influence on the world stage, particularly on account of the failings at Suez. He is expected to be exchanged with the Soviet Union for several of the agents he betrayed, but is killed shortly before he is due to leave England. Although the identity of his killer is not explicitly revealed, it is strongly implied to be Prideaux, due to the method of execution echoing the way he euthanises an injured owl earlier in the book, Prideaux's implied threat to execute a driver in Czechoslovakia in the same way that Haydon is killed, and a sense Smiley has of someone with Prideaux's background observing some of his later interrogations. Smiley is appointed temporary head of the Circus to deal with the fallout, and is still head at the start of the second book of "The Karla Trilogy", "The Honourable Schoolboy".
Background.
"Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" is the fifth of le Carré's spy novels to feature the character of George Smiley (the first four being: "Call for the Dead", "A Murder of Quality", "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold", and "The Looking Glass War") and the fictionalised intelligence agency of "the Circus." Two of the characters, Peter Guillam and Inspector Mendel, first appeared in "Call for the Dead", while Control appeared in "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold." With "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy", le Carré returned to the world of spy fiction after his non-espionage novel, "The Naïve and Sentimental Lover", was panned by critics.
When "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" was published in 1974, revelations exposing the presence of Soviet double agents in Britain were still fresh in public memory. Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean, and Kim Philby, later known as members of the Cambridge Five, had been exposed as KGB spies. The five had risen to very senior positions in the British diplomatic service.
John le Carré, whose real name was David Cornwell, worked as an intelligence officer for MI5 and MI6 (SIS) in the 1950s and early 1960s. Senior SIS officer Kim Philby's defection to the USSR in 1963, and the consequent compromising of British agents, was a factor in the 1964 termination of Cornwell's intelligence career. Le Carré also drew from the paranoid atmosphere created by CIA counterintelligence chief James Jesus Angleton, who after Philby's defection became convinced that there were other moles operating at the highest levels of Western intelligence agencies.
The title alludes to the nursery rhyme and counting game Tinker Tailor.
Themes.
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"It's scarce wonder that Smiley has become almost as legendary a figure as [Kim] Philby, for "Tinker, Tailor" with all its outward verisimilitude, constructs a potent and appealing myth for the class-ridden and post-imperial "angst" of Britain in the 1970s."
David Stafford
"Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" is set against a theme of decline in British influence on the world stage after the Second World War, with the USSR and the USA emerging as the dominant superpowers during the Cold War. Mark Fisher said the notion of "postcolonial melancholia" hangs over the novel, arguing that both the protagonists and antagonists are motivated by what they see as Britain's "irreversible decline." These themes are particularly found in the character of Bill Haydon, who is modelled off the upper-class double agent Kim Philby. After his unmasking and capture, Haydon voices both a latent hostility towards the United States and a mourning of Britain's lack of "relevance or moral viability in world affairs." The novel is emblematic of a British "rottenness," according to critic David Monaghan, and le Carré locates it with a failure of the British ruling class itself, which has become directionless and self-seeking.
Central to the novel is the theme of betrayal. Melvyn Bragg wrote that le Carré sought to illustrate that "the public or institutional default is always more excusable than the personal betrayal of faith." Haydon's betrayal of the Circus to Karla comes as a reaction to a postwar world that "[deprived] him of the Empire he was trained to rule." Monaghan notes that le Carré (in "Smiley's People") refers to Haydon as a "born deceiver," who betrays his colleague (Smiley), his lover (Ann and/or Prideaux) and his country. Nevertheless, Haydon's exact motivations are left vague – unlike Philby, who espoused a deep ideological commitment to communism."
Historian David A.T. Stafford considered Haydon's eventual capture to be a mythologised reimagining of the Philby affair. He noted that, "far from receiving his just desserts," the real-life mole ended up alive and well in Moscow, thanks to the incompetence of his superiors and the wilful ignorance of his colleagues. "That Philby was protected by a conspiracy of class is true enough, but that he was unmasked by a Smiley is not... "Tinker Tailor" is a fantasy; George Smiley a myth." In this sense, Stafford considers Smiley and Haydon to exist as classic foils to each other:
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Tom Maddox wrote that Smiley's conflict with the Circus, past and present, represents the idealistic virtues of the Second World War that are "at odds" with the inhumanity, sophistry, and careerism of the spying profession. "The secret service seeks to dispense with that humanity, the consensus on high being that humane virtues have outlasted whatever limited usefulness they might have had. So Smiley comes and goes, comes and goes." Fisher noted Smiley's characterisation as an outsider to the affairs the Circus, representing an archetypical Englishness that is both "stolid" and "voyeuristic". Fisher likens Smiley in the novel to both King Arthur — a "perpetually cuckolded" figure "returning to save his ailing kingdom" — as well as T. S. Eliot's figure of J. Alfred Prufrock, who is at once self-conscious and "pathologically self-blinding" to his weaknesses.
Jargon.
"Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" employs spy jargon that is presented as the authentic insider-speak of British Intelligence. Le Carré noted that, with the exception of a few terms like "mole" and "legend", this jargon was his own invention. In some cases, terms used in the novel have subsequently entered espionage parlance. For example, the terms "mole", implying a long-term spy, and "honey trap", implying a ploy in which an attractive person lures another into revealing information, were first introduced in this novel, and have only subsequently entered general usage.
The television adaptation of "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" also uses the term "burrower" for a researcher recruited from a university, a term taken from the novel's immediate sequel "The Honourable Schoolboy".
Moscow Centre.
Moscow Centre is a nickname used by John le Carré for the Moscow central headquarters of the KGB, especially those departments concerned with foreign espionage and counterintelligence. It arises from use by Soviet officers themselves, and Le Carré likely just used the nickname to gain greater credibility for his books.
The part of Moscow Centre most often referred to in Le Carré's novels is the fictional Thirteenth Directorate headed by Karla, the code name for a case officer who has risen and fallen from political favour several times and was at one point "blown" by the British in the 1950s. Karla and George Smiley meet while Karla is in prison in Delhi, with Smiley trying to persuade Karla to defect during an interrogation in which Karla gives nothing away. Karla refuses these advances and eventually returns to favour in the USSR, masterminding the Witchcraft/Source Merlin operations supporting the mole Gerald in the Circus. Karla possesses a cigarette lighter given to Smiley by his wife, which he took during Smiley's interrogation of him.
Critical response.
In a review for "The New York Times" written upon the novel's release in 1974, critic Richard Locke called "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" "fluently written," noting that "it is full of vivid character sketches of secret agents and bureaucrats from all levels of British society, and the dialogue catches their voices well." He praised the novel's realism, calling the detailing of "the day to day activities of the intelligence service at home and abroad" convincing. He noted that the "scale and complexity of this novel are much greater than in any of Le Carré's previous books," while the "characterisation too has become much richer."
An article published in in-house Central Intelligence Agency journal "Studies in Intelligence", presumably written by agents under pseudonyms, called it "one of the most enduring renderings of the profession". It does question the "organisational compression" involved in the form of a large organisation, which the SIS would be, being reduced to a handful of senior operatives playing operational roles, but admits that this "works very well at moving the story along in print." However, the idea that a major counter-intelligence operation could be run without the knowledge of counter-intelligence professionals, an allusion to Smiley's investigation progressing in an undetected manner, is deemed an "intellectual stretch."
John Powers of NPR has called it the greatest spy story ever told, noting that it "offers the seductive fantasy of entering a secret world, one imagined with alluring richness." Le Carré himself considered the novel to be among his best works.
In other media.
Television.
A TV adaptation of "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" was made by the BBC in 1979. It is a seven-part serial and was released in September of that year. The series was directed by John Irvin, produced by Jonathan Powell, and stars Alec Guinness as George Smiley, with Ian Richardson as Bill Haydon. Ricki Tarr was played by Hywel Bennett. In the US, syndicated broadcasts and DVD releases compressed the seven-part UK episodes into six, by shortening scenes and altering the narrative sequence.
Radio.
In 1988, BBC Radio 4 broadcast a dramatisation, by Rene Basilico, of "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" in seven weekly half-hour episodes, produced by John Fawcett-Wilson. It is available as a BBC audiobook in CD and audio cassette formats. Notably, Bernard Hepton portrays George Smiley. Nine years earlier, he had portrayed Toby Esterhase in the television adaptation.
In 2009, BBC Radio 4 also broadcast new dramatisations, by Shaun McKenna, of the eight George Smiley novels by John le Carré, featuring Simon Russell Beale as Smiley. "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" was broadcast as three one-hour episodes, from Sunday 29 November to


Rat in Mi Kitchen
1987 single by UB40
"Rat in Mi Kitchen" is a song written and performed by British reggae and pop group UB40. It features Herb Alpert on trumpet and is the sixth track on their album 1986 "Rat in the Kitchen". Released as a single on 5 January 1987, it reached number 12 on the UK Singles Chart later the same month, staying on the chart for seven weeks.
Although "Rat in Mi Kitchen" is attributed to the whole group, like many UB40 songs, it was written by Astro. At the time, lead singer Ali Campbell had moved into a new home in Balsall Heath, Birmingham and was troubled by rodents. When asked by Astro if he had any ideas for new songs he replied, "Oh God, I don't care about the album for a minute, I've got a rat in the kitchen!" Astro, who sings lead vocals on the song, wrote the track in response.
The sleeve artwork is by Bob Linney.
References.
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Ratatouille (film)
2007 film by Brad Bird
Ratatouille ( ) is a 2007 American animated comedy-drama film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. The eighth film produced by Pixar, it was written and directed by Brad Bird and produced by Brad Lewis, from an original idea by Jan Pinkava, who was credited for conceiving the film's story with Bird and Jim Capobianco. The film stars the voices of Patton Oswalt, Lou Romano, Ian Holm, Janeane Garofalo, Peter O'Toole, Brian Dennehy, Peter Sohn and Brad Garrett. The title refers to the French dish ratatouille, and also references the species of the main character, a rat. Set mostly in Paris, the plot follows a young rat Remy (Oswalt) who dreams of becoming a chef at Auguste Gusteau's (Garrett) restaurant and tries to achieve his goal by forming an unlikely alliance with the restaurant's garbage boy Alfredo Linguini (Romano).
Development for "Ratatouille" began in 2000 when Pinkava wrote the original concepts of the film, although he was never formally named the director of the film. In 2005, following Pinkava's departure from Pixar for lacking confidence in the story development, Bird was approached to direct the film and revise the story. Bird and some of the film's crew members also visited Paris for inspiration. To create the food animation used in the film, the crew consulted chefs from both France and the United States. Lewis interned at Thomas Keller's The French Laundry restaurant, where Keller developed the confit byaldi, a dish used in the film. Michael Giacchino composed the Paris-inspired music for the film.
"Ratatouille" premiered on June 22, 2007, at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, California, with its general release on June 29, in the United States. The film became a critical and commercial success, grossing $623.7 million worldwide. It finished its theatrical run as the sixth highest-grossing film of 2007 and the year's second highest-grossing animated film (behind "Shrek the Third"). The film received widespread acclaim for its screenplay, animation, humor, voice acting, and Giacchino's score. It also won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and was nominated for several more, including Best Original Screenplay. "Ratatouille" was later voted one of the 100 greatest motion pictures of the 21st century by a 2016 poll of international critics conducted by the BBC.
Plot.
Remy, a young rat with heightened senses of taste and smell, dreams of becoming a chef like his human idol, the late Auguste Gusteau. Conversely, the rest of his colony, including his older brother Émile and his father, Django, the clan leader, only eat for sustenance and are wary of humans. The rats live in an elderly woman's attic outside Paris, but when the woman discovers them, they are forced to evacuate, and Remy is separated. Encouraged by an imaginary Gusteau, he explores until he finds himself on the roof of Gusteau's namesake restaurant.
Remy sees the restaurant's new garbage boy, Alfredo Linguini, struggling to fix a soup he ruined and steps in to help. Linguini notices Remy but keeps his presence secret from Skinner, Gusteau's former sous-chef and new owner. When Skinner confronts Linguini about the soup, it unexpectedly becomes a hit. Colette Tatou, the restaurant's only female chef, persuades Skinner to keep Linguini and support Gusteau's motto, "Anyone can cook." Skinner demands Linguini replicate the soup but spots Remy, ordering Linguini to take him outside and kill him. Alone, Linguini realizes Remy understands him and persuades Remy to assist with cooking.
Remy controls Linguini's movements like a marionette by pulling on his hair while hiding under his toque. They recreate the soup and continue cooking at the restaurant. Colette begrudgingly trains Linguini but steadily appreciates him heeding her advice. Later, Remy finds Émile and reunites with the clan. After Remy tells Django that he intends to stay at the restaurant, Django shows him a group of exterminated rats to convince him that humans are dangerous, but Remy ignores his warnings and leaves.
Meanwhile, Skinner discovers a letter from Linguini's late mother stating that Linguini is Gusteau's son and thereby the rightful owner of the restaurant. Skinner is shocked and enraged about this revelation, as Gusteau's will stated that he would inherit ownership of the restaurant only if no biological heir appeared two years after the latter's death. After his lawyer verifies that Linguini is Gusteau's heir, Skinner hides the evidence in an envelope. Remy escapes with this, and shows it to Linguini, who then fires Skinner and discontinues a line of frozen food that Skinner had started. The restaurant thrives as Remy's recipes become popular, and Linguini's life improves as he develops a romantic relationship with Colette. Food critic Anton Ego, whose previous negative review of the restaurant indirectly led to Gusteau's death, announces to Linguini that he will review the restaurant again the following day. After Linguini takes credit for Remy's cooking at a press conference, he and Remy have a falling out. As revenge, Remy leads his clan to raid the restaurant's pantries. Linguini arrives to apologize, but upon discovering the raid, he furiously expels Remy and his clan from the restaurant.
The next day, Skinner captures Remy, who is quickly freed by Django and Émile. After returning to the restaurant, he and Linguini reconcile, and Linguini reveals Remy and his cooking techniques to his staff, who all immediately quit. Reminded of Gusteau's motto, Colette returns to help the clan cook under Remy's direction while Linguini waits tables. Skinner and a health inspector attempt to interfere, but the rats lock them in the pantry. Remy creates a variation of ratatouille, which reminds Ego of his mother's cooking. Delighted, Ego asks to meet the chef and is stunned when introduced to Remy. The next day, he writes a review, stating that he has come to understand Gusteau's motto and describing Remy without revealing that he is a rat.
Although the rats imprisoned Skinner and the health inspector, the authorities learned of the rats in the kitchen and Gusteau's is shut down, stripping Ego of his job and credibility. Remy, Linguini, and Colette open a bistro called La Ratatouille, which a now-happier Ego invests in and frequents. The rat colony settles into the bistro's attic as their new home.
Voice cast.
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Production.
Jan Pinkava came up with the concept in 2000, creating the original design, sets and characters and core storyline, but he was never formally named the director of the film. By 2004, Pixar added Bob Peterson as a co-director and he was given exclusive control of the story. After three months and lacking confidence in the story development, Pixar management turned to "The Incredibles" director Brad Bird to direct the film, just as Pinkava departed Pixar in 2005 while Peterson left the film to return to work on "Up". Bird was attracted to the film because of the outlandishness of the concept and the conflict that drove it: that rats feared kitchens, yet a rat wanted to work in one. Bird was also delighted that the film could be made a highly physical comedy, with the character of Linguini providing endless fun for the animators. Bird rewrote the story, with a change in emphasis. He killed off Gusteau, gave larger roles to Skinner and Colette, and also changed the appearance of the rats to be less anthropomorphic.
Because "Ratatouille" is intended to be a romantic, lush vision of Paris, giving it an identity distinct from the studio's previous films, director Brad Bird, producer Brad Lewis and some of the crew spent a week in the city to properly understand its environment, taking a motorcycle tour and eating at five top restaurants. There are also many water-based sequences in the film, one of which is set in the sewers and is more complex than the blue whale scene in "Finding Nemo". One scene has Linguini wet after jumping into the Seine to fetch Remy. A Pixar employee (Shade/Paint department coordinator Kesten Migdal) jumped into Pixar's swimming pool wearing a chef's uniform and apron to see which parts of the suit stuck to his body and which became translucent from water absorption.
A challenge for the filmmakers was creating computer-generated images of food that would appear delicious. Gourmet chefs in both the U.S. and France were consulted, and animators attended cooking classes at San Francisco-area culinary schools to understand the workings of a commercial kitchen. Sets/Layout department manager Michael Warch, a culinary-academy-trained professional chef before working at Pixar, helped teach and consult animators as they worked. He also prepared dishes used by the Art, Shade/Paint, Effects and Sets Modeling departments. Renowned chef Thomas Keller allowed producer Brad Lewis to intern in his French Laundry kitchen. For the film's climax, Keller suggested a fancy, layered version of the title dish for the rat characters to cook, called "confit byaldi". The same sub-surface light scattering technique that was used on the skin in "The Incredibles" was used on fruits and vegetables, while new programs gave an organic texture and movement to the food. Completing the illusion were music, dialogue, and abstract imagery representing the characters' mental sensations while appreciating food. The visual flavor metaphors were created by animator Michel Gagné inspired by the work of Oskar Fischinger and Norman McLaren. To create a realistic compost pile, the Art Department photographed fifteen different kinds of produce, such as apples, berries, bananas, mushrooms, oranges, broccoli, and lettuce, in the process of rotting.
The cast members strove to make their French accents authentic yet understandable. John Ratzenberger notes that he often segued into an Italian accent. Ian Holm was cast as the character of Skinner after Bird saw him in "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. According to Pixar designer Jason Deamer, "Most of the characters were designed while Jan [Pinkava] was still directing… He has a real eye for sculpture." According to Pinkava, the critic Anton Ego was designed to resemble a vulture. To save time, human characters were designed and animated without toes. Dana Carvey was originally approached for a role but he declined as he was busy raising kids.
Rat expert Debbie Ducommun (a.k.a. the "Rat Lady") was consulted on rat habits and characteristics. Along with Ducommun's insight a vivarium containing pet rats sat in a hallway for more than a year so animators could study the movement of the animals' fur, noses, ears, paws, and tails as they ran.
Promotional material for Intel credits their platform for a 30 percent performance improvement in rendering software. They used "Ratatouille" in some of their marketing materials.
The film was animated with traditional techniques rather than motion capture. Bird noted this in the credits because he felt there was a trend of using real-time performance capture in animated films instead of the frame by frame methodology he "love[s] & was proud that we had used" on the movie.
Soundtrack.
"Ratatouille" is the second Pixar film to be scored by Michael Giacchino after "The Incredibles". It is also the second Pixar film not to be scored by Randy or Thomas Newman. The scores feature a wide range of instrumentation and are influenced by various music genres. Giacchino wrote two themes for Remy, one about him with the rat colony and the other about his hopes and dreams. He also wrote a buddy theme for both Remy and Linguini that plays when they are together. In addition to the score, Giacchino wrote the main theme song, "Le Festin", about Remy and his dream to be a chef. French artist Camille (who was 29 at the time of the film's release) was hired to perform "Le Festin" after Giacchino listened to her music and realized she was perfect for the song; as a result, the song is sung in French in almost all versions of the film. The soundtrack album was released by Walt Disney Records on June 26, 2007.
Ratatouille (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) track listing
Release.
Theatrical.
"Ratatouille" was initially scheduled for release on June 9, 2006, but was later pushed back to June 29, 2007. This shift was reportedly made to accommodate the 2006 date for "Cars".
"Ratatouille"'s world premiere was on June 22, 2007, at Los Angeles' Kodak Theatre. The commercial release was one week later, with the short film "Lifted" preceding "Ratatouille" in theaters. Earlier in the year, it had received an Academy Award nomination. A test screening of the film was shown at the Harkins Cine Capri Theater in Scottsdale, Arizona on June 16, 2007, at which a Pixar representative was present to collect viewer feedback. Disney CEO Bob Iger announced an upcoming theatrical re-release of the film in 3D at the Disney shareholders meeting in March 2014.
Marketing.
The trailer for "Ratatouille" debuted with the release of "Cars", its immediate predecessor. It depicts an original scene where Remy is caught red-handed on the cheese trolley in the restaurant's dining area, sampling the cheese and barely escaping the establishment, intercut with separate scenes of the rat explaining directly to the audience why he is taking such risks. Similar to most of Pixar's teaser trailers, the scene was not present in the final film release.
A second trailer was released on March 23, 2007. The Ratatouille "Big Cheese Tour" began on May 11, 2007, with cooking demonstrations and a film preview. Voice actor Lou Romano attended the San Francisco leg of the tour for autograph signings.
Disney and Pixar were working to bring a French-produced "Ratatouille"-branded wine to Costco stores in August 2007, but abandoned plans because of complaints from the California Wine Institute, citing standards in labelling that restrict the use of cartoon characters to avoid attracting under-age drinkers. Moreover, both companies faced other challenges trying to lure audiences, as several stores had been overflowing with merchandise themed to other newly released films like "Spider-Man 3", "Shrek the Third" and "Transformers", making it tougher to persuade parents to spend an additional cost between $7.99 to $19.99 on a plush rat.
In the United Kingdom, in place of releasing a theatrical trailer, a commercial featuring Remy and Emile was released in cinemas before its release to discourage obtaining unlicensed copies of films. Also, in the United Kingdom, the main characters were used for a commercial for the Nissan Note, with Remy and Emile watching an original commercial for it made for the "Surprisingly Spacious" ad campaign and also parodying it, respectively.
Disney/Pixar was concerned that audiences, particularly children, would not be familiar with the word "ratatouille" and its pronunciation. The title was, therefore, also spelled phonetically within trailers and on posters. For similar reasons, in the American release of the film, on-screen text in French was printed in English, such as the title of Gusteau's cookbook and the sign telling kitchen staff to wash their hands, though, in international versions such as the British English release and the US Spanish-language DVD release, these are rendered in French. In Canada, the film was released theatrically with text in English, but on DVD, the majority of the text (including Gusteau's will) was in French.
Home media.
"Ratatouille" was released by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment on Blu-ray and DVD in North America on November 6, 2007. A new animated short film featuring Remy and Emile entitled "Your Friend the Rat" was included as a special feature, in which the two rats attempt to entreat the viewer, a human, to welcome rats as their friends, demonstrating the benefits and misconceptions of rats towards humanity through several historical examples. The eleven-minute short uses 3-D animation, 2-D animation, live action and even stop-motion animation, a first for Pixar.
The disc also includes a CGI short entitled "Lifted", which was screened before the film during its theatrical run. It depicts an adolescent extraterrestrial attempting to kidnap a sleeping human. Throughout the sequence, he is graded by an adult extraterrestrial in a manner reminiscent of a driver's licensing exam road test. The entire short contains no dialogue, which is typical of Pixar Shorts not based on existing properties. Also included among the special features are deleted scenes, a featurette featuring Brad Bird discussing filmmaking and chef Thomas Keller discussing culinary creativity entitled "Fine Food and Film", and four easter eggs. Although the Region A Blu-ray edition has a French audio track, the Region 1 DVD does not, except for some copies sold in Canada.
The DVD release on November 6, 2007, earned 4,919,574 units (equivalent to US$) in its first week (November 6–11, 2007) during which it topped the DVD charts. In total it sold 12,531,266 units (US$) becoming the second-best-selling animated DVD of 2007, both in units sold and sales revenue, behind "Happy Feet". In 2014 the film was re-rendered in 3D and in July of that year was released on Blu-ray 3D in the UK, France, and India. In 2019, "Ratatouille" was released on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray.
Plagiarized film.
"If" magazine described "Ratatoing", a 2007 Brazilian computer graphics cartoon by Vídeo Brinquedo, as a "ripoff" of "Ratatouille". Marco Aurélio Canônico of the Brazilian newspaper "Folha de S.Paulo" described "Ratatoing" as a derivative of "Ratatouille". Canônico discussed whether "Ratatoing" was similar enough to "Ratatouille" to warrant a lawsuit for copyright violation. The Brazilian Ministry of Culture posted Marco Aurélio Canônico's article on its website. To date no sources have been found to indicate that Pixar took legal action.
Reception.
Box office.
In its opening weekend in North America, "Ratatouille" opened in 3,940 theaters and debuted at number one with $47.2 million, the lowest Pixar opening since "A Bug's Life". When the film opened, it topped at the box office ahead of 20th Century Fox's "Live Free or Die Hard". "Ratatouille" was the first non-sequel film to reach the number one spot since "Disturbia" debuted two months earlier. The film only stayed in its position for a few days before being taken by "Transformers". In France, where the film is set, the film broke the record for the biggest debut for an animated film and dethroned "Titanic" for the most consecutive weeks at the top of the box office. In the United Kingdom, the film debuted at number one with sales over £4 million. The film has grossed $206.4 million in the United States and Canada and a total of $623.7 million worldwide, making it the seventh-highest-grossing Pixar film.
Critical response.
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported approval rating with an average rating of based on reviews. The site's consensus reads: "Fast-paced and stunningly animated, "Ratatouille" adds another delightfully entertaining entry—and a rather unlikely hero—to the Pixar canon." On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 96 out of 100 based on 37 reviews, the highest of any Pixar film (tied with "Toy Story") and the 46th highest-rated film on the site. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "A" on scale of A+ to F.
A. O. Scott of "The New York Times" called "Ratatouille" "a nearly flawless piece of popular art, as well as one of the most persuasive portraits of an artist ever committed to film"; echoing the character Anton Ego in the film, he ended his review with a simple "thank you" to the creators of the film. Wally Hammond of "Time Out" gave the film five out of five stars, saying "A test for tiny tots, a mite nostalgic and as male-dominated as a modern kitchen it may be, but these are mere quibbles about this delightful addition to the Pixar pantheon." Andrea Gronvall of the "Chicago Reader" gave the film a positive review, saying "Brad Bird's second collaboration with Pixar is more ambitious and meditative than his Oscar-winning "The Incredibles"." Owen Gleiberman of "Entertainment Weekly" gave the film a B, saying ""Ratatouille" has the Pixar technical magic without, somehow, the full Pixar flavor. It's Brad Bird's genial dessert, not so much incredible as merely sweetly edible." Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four, saying "What makes "Ratatouille" such a hilarious and heartfelt wonder is the way Bird contrives to let it sneak up on you. And get a load of that score from Michael Giacchino, a perfect complement to a delicious meal." James Berardinelli of "ReelViews" gave the film three out of four stars, saying "For parents looking to spend time in a theater with their kids or adults who want something lighter and less testosterone-oriented than the usual summer fare, "Ratatouille" offers a savory main course." Christy Lemire of the Associated Press gave the film a positive review, saying ""Ratatouille" is free of the kind of gratuitous pop-culture references that plague so many movies of the genre; it tells a story, it's very much of our world but it never goes for the cheap, easy gag." Justin Chang of "Variety" gave the film a positive review, saying "The master chefs at Pixar have blended all the right ingredients—abundant verbal and visual wit, genius slapstick timing, a soupcon of Gallic sophistication—to produce a warm and irresistible concoction."
Michael Phillips of the "Chicago Tribune" gave the film four out of four stars, saying "The film may be animated, and largely taken up with rats, but its pulse is gratifyingly human. And you have never seen a computer-animated feature with this sort of visual panache and detail." Rafer Guzman of "Newsday" gave the film three out of four stars, saying "So many computer-animated movies are brash, loud and popping with pop-culture comedy, but "Ratatouille" has the warm glow of a favorite book. The characters are more than the sum of their gigabyte-consuming parts – they feel handcrafted." Roger Moore of the "Orlando Sentinel" gave the film three out of five stars, saying "Has Pixar lost its magic recipe? "Ratatouille" is filled with fairly generic animated imagery, a few modest chases, a couple of good gags, not a lot of laughs." Scott Foundas of "LA Weekly" gave the film a positive review, saying "Bird has taken the raw ingredients of an anthropomorphic-animal kiddie matinee and whipped them into a heady brew about nothing less than the principles of artistic creation." Colin Covert of the "Star Tribune" gave the film four out of four stars, saying "It's not just the computer animation that is vibrantly three-dimensional. It's also the well-rounded characters… I defy you to name another animated film so overflowing with superfluous beauty." Steven Rea of "The Philadelphia Inquirer" gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four, saying "With "Ratatouille", Bird once again delivers not just a great, witty story, but dazzling visuals as well." Bill Muller of "The Arizona Republic" gave the film four-and-a-half stars out of five, saying "Like the burbling soup that plays a key part in "Ratatouille", the movie is a delectable blend of ingredients that tickles the palette and leaves you hungry for more."
Rene Rodriguez of the "Miami Herald" gave the film three out of four stars, saying ""Ratatouille" is the most straightforward and formulaic picture to date from Pixar Animation Studios, but it is also among the most enchanting and touching." Jack Mathews of the "New York Daily News" gave the film four out of four stars, saying "The Pixar magic continues with Brad Bird's "Ratatouille", a gorgeous, wonderfully inventive computer-animated comedy." Stephen Whitty of the "Newark Star-Ledger" gave the film three out of four stars, saying "Fresh family fun. Although there are those slightly noxious images of rodents scampering around a kitchen, the movie doesn't stoop to kid-pandering jokes based on backtalk and bodily gases." David Ansen of "Newsweek" gave the film a positive review, saying "A film as rich as a sauce béarnaise, as refreshing as a raspberry sorbet, and a lot less predictable than the damn food metaphors and adjectives all us critics will churn out to describe it. OK, one more and then I'll be done: it's yummy." Peter Hartlaub of the "San Francisco Chronicle" gave the film four out of four stars, saying ""Ratatouille" never overwhelms, even though it's stocked with action, romance, historical content, family drama and serious statements about the creation of art." Richard Corliss of "Time" gave the film a positive review, saying "From the moment Remy enters, crashing, to the final happy fadeout, "Ratatouille" parades the brio and depth that set Pixar apart from and above other animation studios." Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film four out of four stars, saying "A lot of animated movies have inspired sequels, notably "Shrek", but Brad Bird's "Ratatouille" is the first one that made me positively desire one." Peter Howell of the "Toronto Star" gave the film four out of four stars, saying "Had Bird gone the safe route, he would have robbed us of a great new cartoon figure in Remy, who like the rest of the film is rendered with animation that is at once fanciful and life-like. It's also my pick for Pixar's best."
Joe Morgenstern of "The Wall Street Journal" gave the film a positive review, saying "The characters are irresistible, the animation is astonishing and the film, a fantasy version of a foodie rhapsody, sustains a level of joyous invention that hasn't been seen in family entertainment since "The Incredibles"." Kenneth Turan of the "Los Angeles Times" gave the film four-and-a-half stars out of five, saying "Brad Bird's "Ratatouille" is so audacious you have to fall in love with its unlikely hero." Claudia Puig of "USA Today" gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four, saying ""Ratatouille" is delicious fun sure to be savored by audiences of all ages for its sumptuous visuals, clever wit and irresistibly inspiring tale." Miriam Di Nunzio of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four, saying ""Ratatouille" will make you wonder why animation needs to hide behind the mantle of 'it's for children, but grownups will like it, too.' This one's for Mom and Dad, and yep, the kids will like it, too." Michael Booth of "The Denver Post" gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four, saying "Writer and director Brad Bird keeps "Ratatouille" moving without resorting to the cute animal jokes or pop-culture wisecracking that ruined so many other recent animated films." Tom Long of "The Detroit News" gave the film an A, saying ""Ratatouille" has the technical genius, emotional core and storytelling audacity to lift it into the ranks of [the best] Pixar films, the crème de la crème of modern animation." Liam Lacey of "The Globe and Mail" gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four, saying "No sketchy backgrounds here—"Ratatouille"'s scenes feel like deep-focus camera shots. The textures, from the gleam of copper pans to the cobblestone streets, are almost palpable." Desson Thomson of "The Washington Post" gave the film a positive review, saying ""Ratatouille" doesn't center on the over-familiar surfaces of contemporary life. It harks back to Disney's older era when cartoons seemed part of a more elegant world with less edgy characters."
Accolades.
"Ratatouille" won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 80th Academy Awards and was nominated for four others: Best Original Score, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Original Screenplay, losing to "Atonement", "The Bourne Ultimatum" (for both Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing), and "Juno", respectively. With five Oscar nominations, the film broke the record for an animated feature film, surpassing the four nominations each of "Aladdin", "Monsters, Inc.", "Finding Nemo", and "The Incredibles". As of 2013, "Ratatouille" is tied with "Up" and "Toy Story 3" for the second-most Oscar nominations for an animated film, behind "Beauty and the Beast" and "WALL-E" (six).
Furthermore, "Ratatouille" was nominated for 13 Annie Awards including twice in the Best Animated Effects, where it lost to "Surf's Up", and three times in the Best Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production for Janeane Garofalo, Ian Holm, and Patton Oswalt, where Ian Holm won the award. It won the Best Animated Feature Award from multiple associations including the Chicago Film Critics, the National Board of Review, the Annie Awards, the Broadcast Film Critics, the British Academy of Film and Television (BAFTA), and the Golden Globes.
Legacy.
Video game.
A primary video game adaptation of the film, titled "Ratatouille", was released on June 26, 2007 for Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Java ME, and mobile phones. A PlayStation 3 version was released on October 23, 2007.
A Nintendo DS exclusive game, titled "", was released in October 2007.
"Ratatouille" is also among the films represented in "", released in March 2012 for Xbox 360.
Remy is featured in the video game "Kingdom Hearts III". He appears as the head chef for Scrooge McDuck's bistro and participates with Sora in cooking minigames. He is addressed only as "Little Chef" in the game, as he does not speak and cannot reveal his name to the characters.
Remy, Linguini and Colette appear as playable characters in the world builder game "Disney Magic Kingdoms", in addition to attractions based on Gusteau's Kitchen and Remy's Ratatouille Adventure. In the game, the characters are involved in new storylines that serve as a continuation of the events of the film.
In the video game "Disney Dreamlight Valley", Remy appears as one of the characters that the player meets during the progress of the story, being the owner of the valley's restaurant, "Chez Remy".
Theme park attraction.
A Disney theme park attraction based on the film has been constructed in Walt Disney Studios Park, Disneyland Paris. is based upon scenes from the film and uses trackless ride technology. In the attraction, riders "shrink down to the size of a rat".
At the 2017 D23 Expo, Disney announced the attraction would be built at the France Pavilion in Epcot's World Showcase which opened on October 1, 2021, during the 50th anniversary of Walt Disney World and the 39th anniversary of Epcot.
Unofficial musical.
In late 2020, users of the social media app TikTok crowdsourced the creation of a musical based on the film. A virtual concert presentation of it, produced by Seaview Productions, streamed for 72 hours on TodayTix beginning January 1, 2021 to benefit The Actors Fund in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is directed by "Six" co-creator and co-director Lucy Moss from a script adaptation by Michael Breslin and Patrick Foley, both of whom co-executive produced the concert with Jeremy O. Harris. The cast included Kevin Chamberlin as Gusteau, Andrew Barth Feldman as Linguini, Titus Burgess as Remy, Adam Lambert as Emile, Wayne Brady as Django, Priscilla Lopez as Mabel, Ashley Park as Colette, André De Shields as Anton Ego, Owen Tabaka as Young Anton Ego and Mary Testa as Skinner. The concert raised over $1.9 million for The Actors Fund.
References in popular culture.
The film has often been referenced in popular culture since its release, being mentioned or parodied on shows such as "Saturday Night Live", "My Name Is Earl", "The Simpsons", "Breaking Bad", "Key & Peele", "Orange Is the New Black", "Teen Titans Go!", "Difficult People", "The Good Place", "Once Upon a Time", "Brooklyn Nine-Nine", and "Ted Lasso", as well as in the films "The Five-Year Engagement" (2012), "The Suicide Squad" (2021), "" (2023), and in comedian John Mulaney's comedy special "New in Town".
A parody of "Ratatouille" is a significant plot thread in the 2022 science-fiction film "Everything Everywhere All at Once". In the middle of the film, the main character Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) attempts to explain the multiverse and the concept of "verse-jumping" (temporarily linking one’s consciousness to another version of themselves in a different universe, and accessing all the emotions, memories, and skills in the process) to her family using the Pixar film as an analogy, only to misremember it as being about a raccoon and being titled "Raccacoonie". Later, in one of several parallel universes, Evelyn is a "teppanyaki" chef who works with another "teppanyaki" chef named Chad (Harry Shum Jr.) who is indeed being puppeteered by the anthropomorphic Raccacoonie (voiced by Randy Newman) who is hiding under Chad's chef hat, much like Remy and Linguini; during the film's climactic montage, Evelyn exposes Raccacoonie and he is taken away by animal control, before she has a change of heart and helps Chad rescue Raccacoonie. Reportedly inspired by producer Jonathan Wang's father's habit of misremembering the names of popular films, the running joke was described by "IGN" as "one of the film's highlights", while Alison Herman of "The Ringer" noted a thematic resonance as both films were about "the virtues of creativity within material constraints".
References.
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Rat in the Kitchen
Rat in the Kitchen is the seventh album by UB40, released in July 1986. This album contained two UK hits, "Sing Our Own Song" (UK