8 Startling Early Versions Of Your Favourite Pixar Films

6. A Gang Of Anthropomorphised Rats Meet A Living Gusteau - Ratatouille

When it arrived in cinemas in such a perfect form, managing to blend a smart twist on the typical fish (or other animal) out of water plot with a heartfelt human=based tale and a spot on analysis of criticism, many people forgot that Ratatouille was then Pixar's most troubled production.

The general idea - a rat likes cooking and uses a human to live his dream - was always present, but many of the early decisions would have led to a completely different (and potentially poor) film. Jan Pinkava originally chose to give the rats a more human look, much more typical of animated characters, and his plot was equally as standard (he kept Gusteau alive), which saw him kicked off the project and replaced by Brad Bird.

Fresh off The Incredibles, Bird was confident that audiences wouldn't be put off by more rodent-looking rats and felt it necessary to properly explore the conflict of a rat wanting to work in a kitchen. It was his treatment of the story's literal human side, however, that really had the big impact; he shifted characters around and included some more biting commentary on working kitchens (the role of women and the increase in franchising).

Ratatouille's development is an odd one. Its early version wasn't on the face of it too different from what was eventually released, but without the changes it could easily have been Pixar's worst, rather than one of its best.