remy from ratatouille is POC coded.
if you make remy human, its a story about a person who can’t communicate with the other people around him who is labeled dirty and thief and overall undesirable who also happens to be talented in terms of culinary ingenuity and creativity finally getting the chance to do what he loves by hiding his accomplishments under the identity of a white man who could easily exist in the space remy wants to. linguini in turn has the potential to be successful due to his privilege as a white guy who descends from a culinary genius, but lacks the skills or determination to since he honestly lacks a sense of identity at all.
the two of them act as foils as remy lives out his dreams through linguini and linguini to form an identity around the opportunities remy has given him. neither are truly independent of each other and neither are able to escape who they are outside of the other. remy is still a rat and linguini is still a man searching for identity and acceptance. this is further exacerbated by linguini getting to exist in the spotlight and begin forming a relationship with colette while remy is still getting no credit and feeling under appreciated.
then he and linguini fight and when they reunite, his reveal causes the other chefs to leave, feeling betrayed and disillusioned. remy doesn’t have the face of a chef and linguini doesn’t have the skill or command of one. its a low moment for the both of them because they are stripped back down to who they were apart. to who they wore before remy hid behind linguini’s mask and linguini hid behind remy’s aspirations.
i don’t think the movie goes against it’s moral by having linguini not become a chef and instead become a waiter. linguini never seemed like he dreamed or longed to be a chef in the first place. he wanted an identity and a community. he wanted to feel acknowledged and relied upon.
the moral of “not anyone can be a great artist but a great artist can come from anywhere” resonates more with colette and of course remy, especially if you read remy as a poc. especially when you consider historical connotation and think about how many innovations were made by people who never got credit for them because of they’re identities. especially how many get accredited to white men instead because its seen as “better branding”
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