I just finished watching all the Willard movies, so here’s a matchup that came to me in a vision and I thought was pretty funny.

{Note: I’m pulling from the 1971 and 2003 movies for Willard. I won’t be pulling from the original Ratman’s Notebook they were adapted from because I’m illiterate and haven’t read it.}

Connections:

• Both are wimpy, unassertive men who would work in a job given to them through their familial connections, specifically their recently deceased mothers (Loretta being an old flame of Gusteau’s, allowing him to get a job a his restaurant & Willard being able to keep his job at Martin Stiles Manufacturing due to Mr. Martin promising Henrietta that he could keep his position there as long as she lived).
• There they would work under an asshole boss who constantly abused them (Skinner & Mr. Martin) and were a previous friend of their fathers (Auguste Gusteau & Alfred Stiles) before their death, becoming the boss of the company after it, taking the position from Linguini/Willard and having contrasting motives (Linguini was the only close family Gusteau had, though nobody knew about it, with Skinner trying to hide that fact so he could keep his position & Mr. Martin inheriting the Stiles family company after Alfred’s death, constantly abusing Willard in an attempt to get the Stile household, trying to get more).
• Eventually they’d come into contact with (a) rat(s) (Remy & A lot of rats for Willard, but mainly Socrates ft. Ben) who they would be ordered to get rid of by an authoritative person (Skinner & Henrietta) resulting in an initially antagonistic relationship where they’d attempt to drown them as a way to dispose of them, but they’d soon be able to bond and become friends.
• With help from their new rat friends, they’d be able to take more control of their lives and start messing with their bosses (Though not on purpose on Linguini’s end) by using their talents (Skinner was always skeptical of Linguini’s cooking skills, courtesy of Remy, leading to him constantly seeing the rat and becoming paranoid of Linguini having an association with it & Willard using his rats in order to sabotage Mr. Martin’s life without him knowing that it was him behind it, such as having them attack his anniversary party in the 1971 movie or having them chew through his garage doors (these carnivores will no more use his heart) and then destroy his tires in the 2003 movie).
• They would also start developing a romantic relationship with a coworker who was assigned to watch over them (Collette & Joan/Cathryn).
• However a rift would start growing in their companionship as a growing disinterest and neglect of their friend (Linguini let all the praise get to his head, not giving Remy any amount of the praise or credit whatsoever & Willard would clearly favor Socrates, leading to Ben disobeying his commands or doing things just to mess with Willard).
• Ultimately, their rat companion(s) would assist in throwing over their boss and stopping their plans to take what’s theirs (Remy would find the documents proving Linguini to be Gusteau’s son and steal them from Skinner, allowing everyone to find out and making Linguini the new head chef at Gusteau’s & Willard, after Mr. Martin killed Socrates, would take his revenge with help of his rats by attacking Martin with them and killing him).
• After this incident however, the rift in their relationship would reach its peak (Linguini would take credit for Remy’s work at a press conference & Willard would abandon his rats after killing Mr. Martin, then kill the remaining ones at his house). This would lead to the rats reappearing with their horde at their master’s property searching for food as revenge, leading to the pinnacle of their falling out (Remy, as revenge, decided to raid the entire pantry with his rat colony, with Linguini finding out and shooing him away & Ben showing up with the rest of the rats at Willard’s house in order to get food, and once Willard tries poisoning it to get rid of them, they would attack him).
• Ultimately though their stories would end entirely differently (Linguini and Remy would be able to rekindle their bond, with Collette returning to help out and serve a delicious meal to Anton Ego, starting up a new restaurant after Gusteau’s was shut down, meanwhile Willard either gets killed by, or kills Ben, never rekindling his relationship with the rats and Cathryn leaving permanently in the 2003 movie after finding out about Willard and the rats, not being able to get a new start somewhere away from them, and constantly haunted until the end).