From the moment your foot hits cobblestones rather than cracked concrete or scorching blacktop, you’ll recognize something is different about La Place de Rémy. In fact, this charming plaza has what the rest of Walt Disney Studios is missing: trees! A water fountain! Places to relax! Yes, this quaint cortyard tucked between the industrial Toon Studios and the oversized Toy Story Land actually lives up to the beauty and detail of Disneyland Paris next door; a true rarity!
No soundstages; no scaffolds; no lighting rigs or backlot buildings… It’s the kind of area you probably wouldn’t mind staying in for a bit; grabbing a bite to eat; relaxing by the central fountain (on closer inspection, made of rats popping bottles of champagne); enjoying the atmosphere. Still, this pleasant plaza contains the most technologically advanced ride in Walt Disney Studios; its new headliner, and the ride everyone’s talking about: Ratatouille: L’Aventure Totalement Toquée de Rémy. Let’s head in…
Ratatouille: L’Aventure
Passing through the entrance, guests find themselves queuing along the romantic rooftops of Paris at night, beneath the glowing incandescent sign advertising Gusteau’s. Occasionally, Chef Gusteau himself comes to life, speaking to guests and welcoming them to the City of Lights.
“So many hungry faces! You’ve come to ze right place. Everyone knows ze best food in ze world is made here in Paris, and tonight ze toast of ze town, Chef Remy, will prepare for you a culinary masterpiece!” Yes, you and I have been hand-selected for a meal made by Remy himself. Which means you and I need to join him as a rat!
Rounding the corner, guests emerge among the same rooftops, but now each chimney and pipe appears much, much larger. That’s because we’ve been ceremoniously “shrunk” down to the size of a rat for our culinary journey, as from the darkness emerge our “Ratmobiles.” Seating six guests in each, these simplified rats set out among the rooftops where our adventure begins…
As always, the best way to tell the tale is with an on-ride video captured of the ride, from our friends at SoCal Attractions 360 (whose videos are shot with special low-light cameras, often showing more than the human eye does in person!). Keep an eye out for larger-than-life set pieces and key moments where screen and scene synchronize…
Did you notice the moving cart wheels when the Ratmobiles scurry under the moving cart? Linguini lifting the cart’s red velvet skirt? Do you see where elements of the ride’s original, all-physical, larger-than-life concept were retained? As you can see, Ratatouille is a whimsical, scurrying dark ride that’s grand in scale and pretty darn big in execution.
Screen & scene
So what is there to say about Disney’s first-ever fusion of the LPS trackless technology of Pooh’s Hunny Hunt and the multi-media-focused experience of a ride like Spider-Man?
To be clear, Ratatouille never reaches the heights of either. While Disney Imagineers likely envisioned this as a resort-defining E-Ticket, calmer heads would probably rank Ratatouille as a D-Ticket despite its pomp and circumstance and the technology it employs. Put another way, it’s almost as if Ratatouille is the modern equivalent of a Fantasyland dark ride in terms of its function; it just happens to be by way of much larger sets and much more current technology.
(A likely culprit? While screens act as “windows” on Spider-Man by extending physical sets, they’re used more like “windshields” on Ratatouille, responsible for the frantic “thrill” of scurrying around on the floor… an illusion that’s broken when your peripheral vision notices that the physical sets and floor around you are also coming along for the ride. The “Ratmobiles” also lack the motion simulating capabilities of Spider-Man, simply rumbling and rotating.)
However, in true Disney fashion, it’s the physical sets and spectacular scale of the project that’s most unbelievable, with new props and effects to notice each time. It was also a revolutionary ride in the story of Walt Disney Studios; a spearheading example of the park’s new path forward.
Sure, Walt Disney Studios had been bolstered by the opening of Ratatouille… but like the piecemeal additions that had satiated demands at Disney’s California Adventure in the 2000s, Ratatouile was merely the most elaborate Band-aid on a broken bone. Ultimately, Walt Disney Studios Park needed the kind of foundational restart – the complete, floor-to-ceiling rebrand and reimagining – that California Adventure had undergone. Without it, E-Tickets alone wouldn’t be enough to save the park, or the Disneyland Resort Paris.
Walt Disney Studios: Take 2
In a surprise announcement in Februar 2018, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that, at last, Walt Disney Studios Park would receive its long-overdue rebirth. While the core of the park would remain a Hollywood-themed land anchored by the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, the park would triple in size.
In a massive, five-year growth spurt, Walt Disney Studios would welcome three gargantuan new lands. Most importantly, instead of seeing “behind-the-scenes,” guests would at last step into big screen Disney stories.
A new central lagoon (for nighttime spectaculars) will be ringed by immersive worlds: Avengers Campus, Arendelle: The World of Frozen, and Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. They’d be joined by the existing lands dedicated to Toy Story and Ratatouille, laying out a new direction for the park. In fact, you might think of the “new” Walt Disney Studios as a modern IP park in the tradition of Islands of Adventure; a 21st century World Showcase replacing global countries with blockbuster worlds, well represented by the North Mountain from Frozen looming over it all (and likely becoming the park’s icon).
And to think, Ratatouille was proof positive that immersive, cinematic worlds had a place in Disneyland Paris; that “living lands” were indeed the future… And speaking of Ratatouille and World Showcase… This importat family ride was scurrying onward…