Winsor McCay was a huge influence on Maurice. He’s a huge fan of Little Nemo. If you look at In the Night Kitchen—which is one of my favorite books—that’s basically the book he put all of his favorite things in, his biggest influences. The paneling is totally stolen from Winsor McCay: a little boy in bed, starting out in his room and falling into this slumberland place. When he was a little kid in the 30s, Maurice just loved Mickey Mouse and thought he was hilarious—but he always makes sure to clarify that that’s before Mickey was raped by the Disney Corporation. So the main character in Night Kitchen is named Mickey. He loved Laurel & Hardy, but he didn’t want to draw Laurel because he’s too skinny, and no fun to draw—so he just made all the chefs Hardy. All inside that book are intimate little clues about what he was into, and it pays special tribute to Winsor McCay. It’s all things that he loved as a kid, and it’s dedicated to his parents.
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It’s interesting to see how the look of Ratatouille was influenced by In the Night Kitchen. The way Gusteau is represented in the pages of his book Anyone Can Cook mirror the Chef’s from In the Night Kitchen in everything from style to color scheme. Nice to see Pixar paying tribute to such a great artist.
[...] out Spike’s post about the influence of Winsor McCay on Maurice’s Little Nemo-esque In The Night Kitchen for [...]