Can Pixar Still Go Up?

Among the freshmen at Monsters University, Mike Wazowski stands out like any creature who's basically an eyeball with feet would. With the brains, drive and guts to be a BMOC (Big Monster on Campus), Mike lacks just one talent: shock appeal. His "Boo!" is a lullaby to kids who need the sleep scared out of them. "If you're not scary," the dean says, "what kind of a monster are you?"

Back in 1995, when Pixar birthed Toy Story--the company's, and the world's, first computer-generated feature--some people wondered what kind of a cartoon it was. Disney had recently set the standard with...