Did Jan Pinkava get kicked off of Ratatouille?

Yes. Yes he did.

The original story for Ratatouille was written by Jan Pinkava. When Lasseter saw the story headed downhill, he brought on Brad Bird, who just hit a home run with Incredibles...

Jan had the original story, created the set, and the key characters. Brad wrote the final story, all the details, and basically what made the movie "alive" and "emotional." He also directed all the animation. It is accurate that Jan was the co-director and the writer of the original story. That's all.

It's true that Lasseter pulled Jan off the project (at least he was taken off as the head director). To say that it was done to put a name as the director (since Brad Bird had a stronger name at the time) is completely untrue. Pixar doesn't care about names, and it always takes chances on promising directors. Bird wasn't a name when he did Incredibles (all Bird did was the flop, Iron Giant). Jan was more of a name than Bird was, because Jan got an Academy Award for Geri's Game.

None of that matters to Lasseter and Steve Jobs. The story's king, and Jan wasn't tugging the heart strings with his story. So they pulled him. If Lasseter ever pulls you off of something, you should humble yourself, say, "okay," and then see how you can help. Jan couldn't do that. He left the project, tried helping with other projects at Pixar, and then he had to leave; he couldn't stand see someone else take over his story.

Lasseter does this a lot. He recently went to the Lilo & Stitch director who was doing Bolt. He laid down a lot of changes (I believe about 80% of the story had to be cut), and the director bolted... to DreamWorks.

Story is king in Pixar's world (and now in Disney's world since Iger, Lasseter, and Jobs took over). If directors can't see that, then I say good riddance. They should be replaced with directors who can get with the story.

Brad Bird's fourth movie is going to be called "1906."

- TAE