After five consecutive hits—Pixar’s other two movies are the inspired Toy Story 2 and the middling A Bug’s Life—the animation studio must now be considered ‘the most reliable creative force in Hollywood. Perhaps not since Preston Sturges made seven classic comedies in a row between 1940 and 1944 has one name been such a consistent indicator of audience and critical pleasure.’ The ‘next Disney’ comparisons that have long been lavished upon Pixar and its creative head, John Lasseter, have become more emphatic: Now Pixar and Lasseter are compared not just to Disney, but to Disney during its ‘golden age some 60 years ago,’ as the Los Angeles Daily News put it.”