Ronald Cuffie chuckled at the thought of Baltimoreans lining up this weekend to see Ratatouille, the new animated film about a rat in Paris who's an expert chef.
Surely some of the city's moviegoers are responsible for the 25,000 service requests made each year to the city's "Rat Rubout" program, which removes the repulsive vermin from infested neighborhoods.
"In the movies, rats are likable characters," said Cuffie, director of the city's vector control initiative. "In real life, people want to drop a brick on them."
Actually, even in popular culture, rats aren't all that likable. Other animals, from creepy, crawly ones to man-eaters, have been made lovable in children's literature, on television and in the movies. But the rat has rarely been able to transcend its repulsive, garbage-eating, germ-carrying self. Perhaps only the snake has a worse public-relations problem.
The rat's rodent cousin, the mouse, may not be much more likable in real life but has been all but lionized in popular fare: Mickey Mouse, Mighty Mouse, Danger Mouse, even Jerry trumps Tom the cat. The few fictional rats of fame are mostly in supporting roles.
Perhaps that could change with Ratatouille (pronounced rat-a-TOO-ee), the story of a cuisine-savvy rodent named Remy who lives out his craft through a bumbling human chef. With his sad eyes, passion for his dream, a father who doesn't believe in him and the struggle to remain alive in a kitchen full of sharp instruments, viewers will surely pull for him.
There's nothing about this rodent that says break out the strychnine. That's due mostly to the creative work of Walt Disney's Pixar, the animation studio that made clownfish such a sought-after pet after Finding Nemo, made insects lovable in A Bug's Life and even made heroes from the stuff of childhood nightmares in Monsters, Inc.
Pixar creators say that in order to gain a better understanding of rats, they adorned their offices with rats in cages.
"We spent a lot of time at first just observing them and getting to know the rats," said Brian Green, the film's character supervisor in a Disney/Pixar news release. The film crew incorporated the rats' behavior into models that helped the animators convey their movements.
"Living with rats, you get to see all their mannerisms," Green added. "They're really quite social animals. They'll play with you and even cuddle on your arm."
That's not the typical view of the rat of film and fairy-tale lore.
