Since Epcot opened in Orlando’s Walt Disney World in 1982, the France Pavilion has been a part of the popular World Showcase area, as one of the park’s many pavilions themed to different countries. But now there’s a notable new rodent resident added to the France Pavilion in the form of Remy the rat the new attraction Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure.
Having first debuted at Disneyland Paris, the attraction is now getting its stateside debut in the most appropriate place for it, given it’s an area already themed to where the Pixar film Ratatouille took place. Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure officially opens October 1, as part of the 50th Anniversary celebration for Walt Disney World, and I paid an early visit to the attraction, and the extended area that comes with it in the France Pavilion, to see how Disney imagineers approached bringing the beloved Pixar film to life.
GIVING YOU REMY’S PERSPECTIVE
Disney attractions are typically designed to tell guests a story, and in Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, the guests are meant to be right alongside Remy as he goes on his journey all around Gusteau’s restaurant – which means, naturally, that everyone riding it is experiencing life from a rat’s POV, small size included.
As Matt Beiler (Producer, Walt Disney Imagineering) explained, “In every one of our stories that we tell at Walt Disney Imagineering, we want to make sure that we put you in and immerse you into that story. So what better way to experience a ride inspired by the film Ratatouille than to make you rat scale? To make you the size of Chef Remy the rat and see that experienced through his eyes?”
While much of the story is told via 3D film, there are many other elements to it as well, as your ride vehicle moves about through different areas of Gusteau’s, involving sets and props built to maintain the illusion that we’re looking up at the world from a rat’s perspective – I was a particular fan of the moment where you go underneath a kitchen counter and can see the bottom of a broom pushed between two counters, followed by another soon after when a stove is turned on above you, causing your vehicle to race forward to escape the heat.
Said Beiler, “We employ a number of different techniques to enhance the experience. We have three dimensional visuals combined with oversized set pieces, along with other sights and sounds and music and smells. It’s a film about food and it’s a ride about food, so you should smell the food being made, right? It’s all of those employing all your senses that truly immerses you into this world.”
TRACKLESS OPPORTUNITIES
Following Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure is the second US-based Disney Parks attraction to make major use of a trackless system for its ride, following several well-received attractions to do so at overseas Disney Parks. With no track to be seen in front of you, there’s a much more genuine sense of being part of the environment, along with some nice little surprises. I was able to go on the ride a few times at the press event I attended and it was the third or fourth time when I suddenly found myself going a wider route at one point — between some giant-sized food and the wall — in an area I hadn’t even thought the ride vehicle might venture previously.
Without a track, Beiler said they were able to incorporate more varied motion into the vehicle, explaining, “It’s truly through the motion of this vehicle that we’re really able to capture an emotion that we want you to feel…. When we want it to be a majestic dance on the rooftops of Paris, when we want it to have you scurry in the walls in the restaurant, you’re able to do that and the ride vehicle is able to make you feel what it feels like to move like that.”
WORLD SHOWCASE ROOTS
There are some Epcot purists who would prefer that Disney keeps their popular film characters away from the park entirely or at least outside of the World Showcase. From Disney’s perspective, Epcot Vice President Kartika Rodriguez told me that they always look to see how they can incorporate their beloved stories — and a ride like Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure — in a way that doesn’t throw off what has been built before it.
For Remy’s, a whole new addition has been built onto the pre-existing France Pavilion — complete with some rather delicious crepes found at the new Les Creperie de Paris restaurant — with the intention of continuing the feel in the original section, while also gradually transitioning you to the Remy ride and the more Pixar take on Paris.
Said Rodriguez, “I truly believe our Walt Disney Imagineering does a fantastic job of understanding that [blending]. And so what they have done creatively is that they continue to look for things that are distinctly Disney that our guests love and they add touches where it makes sense and where it fits into our storyline. And then what they do is they take the existing assets and they basically enhance them.”
Rodriguez added that she felt the familiar characters and their accompanying rides “Are a fun way to introduce families to different things and yet say what’s important to us. Like if you look at the American Pavilion, where we added the Soul exhibit, that’s about the story of jazz, from New York City to L.A. And so I think we are finding ways to continue to make things fresh, but we also understand and value and appreciate the fact that the World showcase represents – things like culture, cuisine, architecture, and just tradition.”
Beiler noted the Imagineering team studied Ratatouille, and that film’s version of Paris, quite a bit, while also looking at what the France Pavilion already held. “We have to seamlessly blend it with what makes World Showcase so charming. We have to bring this Ratatouille version of Paris and make it a part of this expanded part of the France Pavilion. And we do that through looking at the film working with the Pixar animators and the Pixar team, to express the Paris you see through Remy’s eyes in the film here in real life in front of you. We expect a lot of different nuances to the artiface.”
As you approach the elaborate entrance to the ride, Beiler said, “It’s whimsical, it’s colorful, it’s got an age to it and things don’t evenly match up. The buildings are a little bit askew. It brings to life that Paris that you see in Ratatouille.”
Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure officially opens October 1 at Epcot at Walt Disney World in Orlando, FL.
For more on Pixar and how they create their main characters, click on the image below.
