Tear Jerker / Ratatouille

• The subversion of Linguini's attempt of the Rousing Speech, in which Linguini reveals the truth about Remy being the actual cook and trying to rally his crew around that crazy notion. Instead of banding together, everyone decides to up and quit in disgust. The look on Colette's face as she struggles to hold back tears is especially heartbreaking.
  • Horst, in particular, pauses in front of Linguini before everyone starts leaving. The look on his face reads nothing but pure disappointment. He was expecting Linguini to be every bit as great as he thought... hearing the truth clearly felt like a betrayal to him.
  • It gets worse when, by the end, only Colette returns to discover the Cassandra Truth; the others supposedly never found out when the last we see of them is them handing in their jobs and livelihoods, likely not getting in on her and Linguini's happy ending.
  • Shortly before, the whole staff moves to kill Remy where he stands without a second thought, and what does he do? He closes his eyes in anticipation. And this is following his I Am What I Am epiphany, meaning that he knows that returning to the kitchen will get him killed on the spot, but at least he can go out with the comfort of knowing exactly who he is.
  • When Remy first enters, Django and Emile, who were initially trying to stop him, bolt to the side. They probably still had a clear view of what was happening. They found him again only a few days ago after they thought him dead for what's implied to be weeks, and if Linguini hadn't intervened when he did, they would have had to watch him get killed. Borders on Nightmare Fuel when you consider how horrifying it must have been to have to watch a family member be murdered.
  • What about Linguini? This poor fellow has spent his whole life feeling that he is worthless, never excelling at anything, and never getting respect from anyone. Then, he suddenly receives a lot of attention, but more importantly, feels the tremendous pressure of succeeding his Disappeared Dad — two things that he doesn't actually deserve. Then, when he comes clean, it's back to square one. Had Django not called the colony to help Remy, and Colette hadn't come back, Linguini would be left despairing in the chef's office all night, possibly dying of a broken heart like his father did.
  • The shot at the end of the speech, when Ego refers to him as the "finest chef in France" as Remy watches the sun rise.
    • The quiet little moment immediately beforehand when Ego tastes the ratatouille and flashes back to his mother's cooking. When you see him for the first time, he's a cold, snide, hard-hearted, and impossible to please boogeyman-esque figure. Buried deep underneath that exterior, however, he was someone who loved food. Someone who once lived to experience, to taste and explore. He had the same fire that Remy has, but after years of criticizing, of making food a job, everything he enjoyed was naught but ashes in his mouth. It took something simple, just a simple peasant dish, something he'd probably not tasted in DECADES, to rekindle his passion. All the fancy glitz in the world couldn't do that.
• The ending. Skinner and the health inspector are let loose and they spread the word that there were rats in the kitchen, resulting in Gusteau's getting shut down and Ego losing his job and his credibility as a food critic. But it's still a happy ending. Remy is the chef of his own restaurant, La Ratatouille, with Linguini and Colette. Blame the amazing French music.
  • Want to hear it again? Here you go.
  • Ego's grand finale line: "Surprise me!" Man, weren't we all.
  • Also, Remy mentions how happy Ego is because, after losing his job and his credibility as a critic, he became a small-business investor. Ego used his wealth to help Linguini and Colette with the finances they needed to start their own restaurant just for the sake of being able to continue to eat Remy's cooking and share it with the world. Think about that kind of act from him and how much it says about his love and respect for Remy's talent. It's probably one of the biggest win-win endings in cinematic history! Happy tears.
• Linguini catching Remy and his crew raiding the restaurant's pantries... after he had a Heel Realization over how he treated Remy:
  Linguini: "Y-You're stealing food? H-how could you? I-I thought you were my friend! I trusted you! Get out! You and all your rat buddies! And don't come back or I'll treat you the way restaurants are supposed to treat pests!"
• The moment when Linguini lets Remy out of the jar and Remy just runs away. Sure, we know a few seconds later that he comes back, but that moment of sadness for Linguini is pretty terrible. He has to go back, and is probably going to get fired again when they all find out that he didn't actually cook it.
• An easily forgotten line, but just before the scene above, while gesticulating about what he would do with Remy, Linguini muses that he "has lost everything" and would do anything just to keep himself from being fired from Gusteau's. There are several things to imply from this, as the movie does not detail Linguini's past, but it is likely that a gig at Gusteau's is probably Linguini's last chance to live on a stable income, however small. He might have been fired from all his previous jobs, or worse, he never got one at all (which might explain why he has to slightly bribe Skinner by presenting him with Renata's letter). And that's not even including his run-of-the-mill apartment, or the fact that he has presumably just lost his only living relative. When you think about it, it is a miracle that Remy came into his life.
• Early in the movie, Remy and Emile try to get saffron from Mable, but after she wakes up and tries to kill them, Remy and Emile trying to escape through the roof resulting in the rat colony's cover being blown. The entire colony is forced to evacuate their old home. Remy gets separated during the evacuation, and it seems that he'll never see his family again. Granted, Remy reunites with the colony halfway into the movie, but still.
  • Fridge Tearjerker in that Remy was miserable before, but at least he had the colony to cheer him up. Now he has no one. Thank goodness (or should we say, thank the director) that his Conscience, in the form of Gusteau, compelled Remy to keep moving forward.
• The story of Gusteau's death, which suggests that he literally died of heartbreak after Ego's damning review of his restaurant. It's especially shocking because Remy was watching the story of Gusteau's life on television, tremendously inspired by his ideals about cooking .... only to learn that his beloved icon had been dead the whole time.
  • But wait, there's more! Gusteau's death was apparently inspired by a real-life event: Beloved and popular French chef Bernard Loiseau (whose past served as inspiration for Gusteau) committed suicide after rumors that his restaurant was going to lose one of its Michelin Guide stars, which he had built up after years of hard work and ambition. Makes Gusteau's character a lot more depressing.
    • It doesn't help that Skinner attempts to make a Gusteau frozen food franchise, which is exactly what happened to Loiseau.
• Colette tries to pry into what happened in the meeting between Skinner and Linguini, only to be met with dead silence from Linguini. We know it's because he's hungover, asleep and being controlled by Remy, but from Colette's perspective, she's essentially being ignored by her protégé who, after apparently befriending the boss, is apparently too self-important to even dignify her with a vocal response anymore. Colette sounds genuinely sad that the kid she trained has essentially thrown her away after hitting it big, even muttering about how she thought he was different from everyone else who underestimated her, and after being snored at by him, outright regrets helping him after admitting she might have liked him. Good thing Linguini was able to patch things up.
• In an earlier script, Gusteau was still alive when Linguini and Remy came into the picture. In this deleted scene, he and Skinner discuss the progress of the restaurant franchise. Gusteau is depressed at selling out and letting his named be used, and Skinner reminds him that the microwaved goods sell, are convenient and are all that is keeping the restaurant afloat. The discussion gives off the impression that both Gusteau and Skinner entered the business together as far more idealistic partners, and falling on hard times is what turned Skinner into the cynical, money- and merchandise-driven person he is.
  Gusteau: What has happened to us, Skinner?
  Skinner: We woke up.

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