On DVD: Ratatouille

One of my favorite films of the year, Pixar's latest is a feast for the eyes and food for the soul, especially if you've ever been part of the creative process. Rats cook, inept humans engage in slapstick, Paris shines, and a digital kitchen has never looked so yummy.

Although there's some weird energy in the first 20 minutes of the film that can throw some viewers off, once Remy (our hero) climbs out of the Paris sewers, the film takes flight and is smart and hard about the process of creation and our ability to change. Anton Ego (voiced by the amazing Peter O'Toole) provides, in his review of the restaurant in which Remy cooks, one of the most concise and pointed descriptions of the difficulty of the creative process that I have ever encountered (and believe you me, having run a theater for a decade or more, I've seen a lot). The moment when Ego finally bites in to the rat's creations is, for me, hilarious and moving and utterly perfect.

There's a great bonus feature on the DVD: a cleverly animated look at the relationship between rats and humans over the past 1000 years. Plus there's Paris in the film, over and over. I'm like a moth when I see the lights of that city at night, whether digitally rendered or real. I'm drawn, and want to return again and again and again.