Thanks to Snipe’s most recent Ratatouille thread, I found out that initially Remy’s mother was going to be part of the story. Does anyone know why she was written out? And just for fun, who would you have liked to provide her voice? I was thinking either Jennifer Tilly or (at the completely opposite end of the spectrum), Andrea Martin.
I think it’s like Aladdin. They cut her out because it just wasn’t working in the right direction.
I would of loved if Remy’s mother was in it. In fact, I’d love it if any female rats was shown! (not counting that one that says “How would you know” at the end. If that was a female)
I guess they just felt like they had enough characters already, and Collette was their strong female voice. So his mother than became unnecessary.
A lot of characters in Disney films have a missing parent that’s never really mentioned. Maybe it just wasn’t fitting into the story that well? As to who I would have liked to provide her voice, I can’t think of anyone else now that WheezysBestBud mentioned Jennifer Tilley…she would have contrasted nicely with Brian Dennehy.
Yeah, I think they wrote her out because they probably didn’t have a purpose for her. Just look at Toy Story. Andy should have a father but there is no mention of him whatsoever. I’m guessing that Andy’s father had a divorce or less likely died before the events of Toy Story.
In Ratatouille’s case. I’m guessing Remy’s mother probably died of some cause. Maybe it was a disease, rat poison or even killed by a human, which could explain why Remy’s father wants him to stay away from them so much. Or maybe she didn’t die, maybe she just ran away. The least likely theory could be that she’s still in the colony, but stays away from her family due to a fall-out with Remy’s father, so we never see her.
In conclusion, we don’t really know what happened to her or why she was cut out of the story. It remains a mystery to us.
I’ve sometimes wondered whatever happened to his mother since no mention is ever made of her. It would make sense though that she died before the movie because of something that humans did.
I think in the earlier concepts of Ratatouille, there were just “too many rats” - the focus needed to be narrowed down to the relationship between Remy and his father. As for a voice - from the sketches in the Art of Ratatouille book, she looks a bit the worse for wear (Remy had a BUNCH of little siblings), is shaped more like Emile, and it’s implied that she might have been a singer - I’m thinking someone fairly mature, with more of a “smoky, French cabaret singer” voice.
I also have a weird theory about the number of Missing Mothers in these films: The stereotype is that Moms are better at coping with their children’s emotional dramas and quirks, whereas Dads are at a loss to know how to deal with such things and just resort to the authoritarian “Don’t do that!” approach (Ariel & Triton, Remy & Django, Marlin & Nemo, Stoick and Hiccup in HTTYD), which creates more conflict and drama.
Disney and moms just don’t work, it’s like tradition. Thus Remy and Linguini were simply fated to be motherless. Poor Desiree and Renata never had a chance…
On a serious note;
The decision to cut a parent has been made so many times before, like Virginia’s Aladdin example. It would have really taken away the father-son plot too, to throw another parent in there would have really messed with things in that area of the script. It would have just been a distraction, IMO.
karly05 wrote:
it’s implied that she might have been a singer - I’m thinking someone fairly mature, with more of a “smoky, French cabaret singer” voice.
How about Marion Cotillard? Even though she’s only in her thirties, her voice certainly seems to fit your description.
Remy’s mother is actually in the movie. She just didn’t have the big role Pixar originally wanted her to have.
She’s the female rat sitting next to Django. And she’s got to be Remy’s mother, because she looks enough like both him AND Emile for it to be true. Plus, she’s sitting right next to Django, which is a bit of a giveaway.
She’s also seen here helping Emile get out from under the cheese. The only way I knew it was her is because her nose looks just like Emile’s, she’s the same color blue as the rat in the first screencap I showed you, and she’s wearing an expression that just looks like Emile. 
Oh the observations you make after seeing and analyzing this movie hundreds of times… xDDD
little chef
wow, so she really is in the movie, awesome
Whoa! She does look just like Emile and Remy. I think that’s her.
Wow. They sure do know how to sneak things past us dumb people. XD
Naw, it’s not that you guys are dumb… it’s just that I’m far too observant. 
Seriously, my sister and I have taken the teeniest, tiniest details from this movie and used them as plot aids for back stories of the characters in this movie. It’s… kinda stupid, just how much I’ve broken down this movie.
little chef
Hey, great find Little Chef. That female rat does look like Remy and Emile enough to be the mother. What I don’t understand though is why Emile is a brown rat yet both of his parents are blue rats.
I thought Django looked kinda brown to me. 
I had assumed that’s where Emile got his color.
no Django is Grey for sure.
Perhaps Brown color is a resessive gene, kind of like blonde hair in humans. That would too explain why there isn’t a lot of brown hair rats, just like how there are less blondes in the world than brunettes.
OMG LOL Your sig is hilarious snape and the city lmao and also the gene thing makes sense.