Ratatouille — How Rewatching an Old Favorite Re-inspires the Search for Greatness

Quarantine Movie: Ratatouille (2007, Produced by Pixar).

The punchline: a theme of upstart Greatness vs. the established elite — a reminder that what is yet great can be found in the most unlikely places (even during these times).

Movie Review

You may recall Ratatouille as the film about a rat that can cook.

But during a family rewatch this Quarantine Season, I was surprised to find a richer theme: an Everyman story about an outsider looking to break into an established, snobbish culture, demanding a place to create Greatness.

Ratatouille doesn’t explore a cook in the restaurant industry at large — the story dives head first into high-end French cuisine. A space that is happy to reject most entrants. Not based on lack of promise or merits, but based on establishment.

And in this story, the entrant is the very antithesis of a restaurant’s success, i.e., a rodent.

It is this conflict that the movie works through until finally (SPOILER ALERT), the restaurant elite — personified à la food critic Anton Ego — must reckon with an undeniable truth: that of raw talent.

Watching this movie with my kids again — we all saw the cliché ‘follow your dreams’ narrative. It’s an important one: the aspiring rodent chef must fight his clan’s ‘stick-to-what-you-know’ advice and risk his life for a shot at Greatness. There are a lot of nuggets of wisdom here along the road of expression and risk taking.

But even so, it took a while to realize how disruptive our rodent protagonist really is.

In one of the final scenes after the reckoning, you may remember Ego’s reflection on Gusteau’s famous motto, “‘Anyone can cook“’” in light of his newfound understanding about our chef. I’ve highlighted part of his final critique here — which is poetry in it’s own right (I tip my hat to Pixar here).

To say that both the meal and its maker have challenged my preconceptions is a gross understatement. They have rocked me to my core. In the past, I have made no secret of my disdain for Chef Gusteau’s famous motto: Anyone can cook.

But I realize that only now do I truly understand what he meant. Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere. It is difficult to imagine more humble origins than those of the genius now cooking at Gusteau’s, who is, in this critic’s opinion, nothing less than the finest chef in France. I will be returning to Gusteau’s soon, hungry for more. — Anton Ego

The truth is NOT that Greatness follows everyone, but that Greatness can exist in anyone. Or in Ego’s words “A great artist can come from anywhere.”

And that — margarita in hand on a locked-down Tuesday — hit me deep.

The Timely Reckoning

Greatness is NOT everywhere. That much we know right now. We’ve been locked down for weeks. We haven’t seen our friends and we certainly aren’t able to enjoy fine dining like the before time (what my kids call the time before mid March when schools were “cancelled”). Every day is another day at war with casualties— measured in unemployment, GDP decline, and deaths — piling up .

It feels like Greatness has taken a break. But while that feeling persists, we must not forget the lesson from the unlikely tale of our rat chef and converted critic, namely, that it can be anywhere, in anyone.

And that got me asking, in times like these — with record unemployment and a national crisis of identity — have we stopped looking for Greatness?

It’s my sense that there is much to fix with America, the world. But what we need in times of reckoning is a focus on what is still good, and how it can be better.

And I think this point is just as important in small business. The way to rebound is not from the sole focus of the destruction of what is wrong in your business or life, but a rediscovery of what is (and must continue to be) great.

And it’s in that focus that I implore my own colleagues and clients to keep looking.

To use the metaphor of the invisible hand for the economy: it has surely lost a finger. But when we lose a finger, do we not focus on the health and strength of the rest of the hand?

A crisis of failure doesn’t mean that we all throw our hands up or put down our goals and dreams. It should remind us to step up.

And thanks to Ratatouille, I’m reminded that…

Great businesses, teams, career decisions, and ideas remain and they can come from anywhere — even here. But we have to get back to looking for it.

There are still amazing ideas, people, and companies to work for — Greatness didn’t die, even if she is sick at the moment.

And that’s why right now, more than ever, it’s time to reinvigorate our Greatness search.

I’ve made a personal decision: I’m not going to complain about government, protestors, politicians, or policy this month (full disclosure I’m not a big fan of much right now).

Instead, I’m going to obsess about finding that Greatness around me: in my team, clients, and family.

As Anton Ego reminds us:

In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little, yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so.

IMO — Only when we truly believe Greatness can be anywhere can we spot the beacon of hope through the fog.

I hope you’ll join me in my search — in your own lives and communities.

Note: if you have any encouraging stories about your business/career/family during these challenging times— or if you hate my blog and want to beg me to stop writing — please email me at hello@miguelalexander.com. Try me.