Ratatouille (2007) IMDb
Anyone can cook or write Broadway-worthy musical numbers, as demonstrated by TikTok users around the world. Based on the beloved Pixar film
Ratatouille (2007),
Ratatouille the Musical became one of the most popular memes of 2020. With the COVID-19 pandemic closing Broadway and keeping everyone at home, many people indulged in escapism by contributing to a wild thought experiment: what if
Ratatouille was a musical? From that question came one of the weirdest examples of collaboration produced by the Internet, with fans composing and designing everything for this imagined musical, such as original songs, choreographies, set designs, and even costumes.
I KNEW I Smelled a Rat!: A Review of Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical
Cast members of Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical belt out the rousing finale.
Courtesy of Ratatouille: TheTikTok Musical/TodayTix By
As all good things do, it probably started as a meme.
On August 10, 2020, TikTok user Emily Jacobsen (@e jaccs) posted a short musical snippet titled “Ode to Remy” on the social media platform, featuring her pitch-altered voice and a slideshow of Pixar’s
Ratatouille’s star rat Remy. From there, other TikTok accounts expanded on her viral clip, creating theatrical personas for Remy’s brother Emile; no-nonsense chef Colette; and the bumbling son of Chef Gusteau, Linguini. Some fans added dance numbers, showed off their individual renditions of rat costumes, or even composed an orchestration of Jacobsen’s ode, in the case of Daniel Mertzlufft (@danieljmertzlufft). The rest is history: with Disney’s blessing (the musical was permitted to air