With Ratatouille being about… well… rats (as well as GOOD food) the options for food tie-ins was much more limited than with other films. However I was surprised to see something at our local Dollar store the other day (for US$1):
Ratatouille “Cookbook Gourmet Gummies.” Made in China (including the food). I picked one up as a souvenir.
Here’s a picture of it from one place selling it: fantastic.redberrycandyshop.com/ … 5fe69ad49c
However it’s hard to tell from the picture that it’s actually not flat – it’s about an inch thick, like a cardboard book. It’s sealed with a strip of clear plastic tape and I haven’t opened mine up yet (because I’m just going to keep it as a souvenir), but from what I can tell by peering inside, it looks like there’s a little plastic spoon, as well as a few gummy candies.
My question to the rest of you is: have you spotted any other instances of food tie-ins for Ratatouille? (For instance, other packaged food with the Ratatouille logo on it?) Just curious. I was quite surprised to see this (though it WAS at the local dollar store where a lot of clearance items appear).
Somehow I don’t think Made in China gummies (where the first 4 ingredients are: Sugar, Maltitol, Water, Polyglycitol Syrup…) would be something Remi would make – or want to eat.
Disney-Pixar used to have a promotion with a few Australian cities’ (not mine, though) fresh fruit and vegetable markets to try to appeal to the healthier side of people’s eating habits. I remember seeing a picture of a bag of apples with a picture of Remy on the tag, but I can’t find it on the website anymore… The site even had an “interview” with Remy, as well as colouring-in pictures and prize packs to give away. I think it’s a good idea for Pixar to associate themselves with healthy eating, since we have enough overweight kids, and people in general, already.
But on the contrary, here’s a Ratatouille-themed sugar laden snack I came across on eBay…
I think it’s a chocolate dip, that comes with some sweet biscuits and, as far as I can tell, a Ratatouille figurine. It’s from a European country. Really cute.
Thanks, rachelcakes, very interesting! I guess they did have some (though very limited) food tie-ins other than those gummy candies. At least fruit & vegetable markets are healthier than those candies (no Vegemite tie-ins for Australia?)
That chocolate dip looks interesting, but Remi of course would probably go nuts knowing his face was on something whose ingredients all came from a chemical factory and were at least 16 letters long… hm… kind of like Chef Ego’s mini corn puppies…
By the way, how did you upload the picture to your post? I never figured out how to upload pictures (otherwise I would have just uploaded the pictures instead of the links), or also how to “bold” someone’s name when quoting them in a reply.
Oh, I typed in “Zaini” into google (the company making that chocolate dip) and it popped up with an Italian chocolate company. So I guess it’s Italian…
Disney/Pixar had a deal going with Costco, who was going to be selling bottles of 2004 Chardonnay Bourgogne under the Ratatouille name, with one of the classier 2D art caricatures of Remy on it. (You can see the exact bottle label at winespectator.com/Wine/Featu … 21,00.html )
Sadly, wine interest groups protested and plans to sell the wine were scrapped. Domestic vintners were pretty upset that French wine was being imported to sell this, though the public story is that you can’t use kids’ characters to sell alcohol. What crap.
