A Brief Look at Rats In Popular Culture

Image from Parlour Magazine

Yes, that's a picture of Remy from the 2007 Disney/Pixar film, Ratatouille. Why? Because it's one of the few major motion pictures to portray rats in a positive light. I mean, yes, Remy's ratty kin are not the cleanest of animals, but the fact that there's a lovable rat protagonist is still a step in the right direction.

Mice have been getting positive attention ever since Mickey took to the screen in the late 1920s, but rats have always seemed to be trapped in a negative light. I've made up a short list of the many times rats have had a villainous or negative role.

The Pied Piper of Hamelin features a plague of rats that overtakes a town, destroying food and driving people out of their homes. It's the people's desperation to rid themselves of the rats that attracts the piper.

The main antagonist in the Disney film The Great Mouse Detective is a massive rat, Professor Rattigan, who seeks to seize control of the British monarchy. While he's later revealed to be a mouse, it's his status as a rat throughout the film that establishes him as a villain.

In the film The Tale of Despereaux, rats play the greedy villains who kidnap the small kingdom's princess.

The beloved children's story Charlotte's Web features Templeton, a rat who is portrayed as greedy, gluttonous, and lazy. While he does help Wilbur quite a bit, it would be nice if he didn't have to be bribed into doing all of his good deeds.

The horror films Willard and Ben (Willard's sequel) feature hyper-intelligent rats with a penchant for attacking and occasionally killing people.

I'll leave you with that, but I think you get my point. Apart from Remy, the only rats I can immediately think of that are portrayed positively in pop culture are those in The Secret of NIMH (to a degree; they're still kind of scary) and Rat-In-A-Hat from the Australian children's show Bananas In Pyjamas.

I'll talk more about the reasoning behind these portrayals in a later post, so for now, tell me your favourite (or least favourite) movie, show, game, or book that features rats. I'm sure there are tonnes more than the ones I've mentioned.