Jen Chaney was filling in for Liz Kelly as the “Celebritologist” at the Washington Post last week — and she made the most of her guest spot. Instead of providing us with the latest celebrity gossip, she aimed a little higher and took on some big boys — in this case, the ones at the animation powerhouse Pixar.

This doesn’t surprise us — since Jen was one of the original voices on PopPolitics back at the turn of the Millennium, taking on everything from the marketing of the white wedding fantasy to the underappreciated substance of John Hughes to the return of earnestness in pop culture.

In her latest analysis for the Post, she argues that Pixar’s feature film “Ratatouille” — which she and most every other critic loves — is a source of disappointment, since it represents yet another Pixar film without a female lead.

From this perspective, it actually makes her nostalgic for the classic Disney films which, however much they fed into the age-old stereotypes, “put women at center stage.”

Janeane Garofalo voicing Colette in “Ratatouille”

She recognizes that many of the Pixar films have represented women well, but she still wants more:

I give Pixar much credit for breathing life into some gutsy, admirable females. Helen Parr of “The Incredibles” not only keeps her household in order, she can stretch her limbs to limits even the uber-flexible Madonna couldn’t reach. Sally Carrera in “Cars” is the spunky owner of her own business. And in “Ratatouille,” Colette (voiced by Janeane Garofalo) makes an impassioned speech about how, as the only woman working in the kitchen at the chi-chi Gusteau’s, she is tired of getting pushed around by all the men. She is femme, hear her roar.

But still, in the end, all of these women wind up playing love interest — and second fiddle — to the heroes. The fact that most of the Pixar filmmakers behind these flicks are male could be part of the problem. Interestingly, none of this seems to bother girls, who seem to flock to and adore these movies just as much as boys do. Perhaps to them, watching an animated toy or fish or rat transcends gender. Maybe they see these characters as just beings, neither male nor female. Perhaps there’s a lesson there.

Jen’s analysis might have inspired Jody Liss, who has an op-ed in today’s Baltimore Sun and makes a similar lament — without having actually seen “Ratatouille.”

Colette in “Ratatouille”

Liss, when she considers how women have taken the lead in so many professions in the real world, has even less sympathy for the Pixar filmmakers, whatever their motives might be. “It wasn’t great when female characters had to be rescued,” she writes, “how much worse it is when they are secondary or invisible.”

The official website for “Ratatouille,” interestingly, goes to great lengths to depict Colette in the context of a patriarchal world, noting, “Colette is the toughest chef and the only female in the kitchen at Gusteau’s. Her grit, talent and intimidating air have brought her far, but years of climbing the ladder in the male-dominated world of haute cuisine have made her wary and self-contained.”

That’s certainly not invisible, but Colette and other female characters shouldn’t have to represent themselves and women only from the sidelines.