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I would put Monster's Inc., Toy Story, Wall-e, and Up as my top ones with Pixar Magic (though, it probably helps that 4 of them were some of the original ideas that Pixar came up with for movies and had plenty of time to stew. A Bug's Life was great, but not really novel, and the world building and attachment to characters wasn't really quite there. Finding Nemo was almost there, but I always felt it was missing something. Ratatouille is really close to being there, but it's missing a "deep message". I haven't seen Brave yet, but it doesn't really seem to draw me as much as the other movies have as a "must see".
I'm kinda mad that Disney has been forcing Pixar to do only 1 movie a year to cash in on the summer blockbuster market, especially when Pixar wants to do a lot of sequels. It'd make more sense to release sequels in the fall and new stuff in the spring, because the people who know the first movies are more likely to go see the sequel regardless of the time of year.
I'm hopeful that the Monster's Inc. prequel will be good, but I fear that working as a prequel means tiptoeing around too much and might wind up as an excuse to have Sully and Mike dick around for an hour and a half just because they're popular characters. The same can be said for Finding Nemo 2.
And while I like Toy Story 2, I do think a lot of it was grasping at a way to keep being funny and relevant. The parts about Jessie and her problems with being abandoned by Emily (I think that's her name?) were Pixar's finest moments, but Zerg and all of the obvious references didn't really do much for the movie besides provide short term humor.
Pixar magic, to me, is when something not only captivates your mind whimsically, but also makes you think. Toy Story explores what it means to be a toy and how our actions could reflect on the things we play with, destroy, and abandon. Monster's Inc. deals with misconceptions and a sort of double standard. Wall-e deals with the concept of humanity and personal responsibility. Up deals with the problems with blinding chasing dreams and the importance of letting go.
These, I feel, are all "deep messages" that are done just right. Many of them can be cliche, but the way they're presented are masterful. Pixar is wonderful about following the "show, don't tell" school of thought, something they especially did in Wall-e and Up.
We may not even agree with what's been presented in the movies, but at the very least, they get us thinking.
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