It's not like Pixar hasn't had hits. They might not be the institution that Disney is, but certainly they've experienced enough success to ruin themselves with it, right? I keep expecting it to happen. Cars felt like the beginning of the end to me, but then they came back from that stronger than ever. Certainly, Toy Story 3 sounded like a cash grab but now I'm hearing it's a masterpiece as well. Da fug?

>>Disney's biggest mistake was trying to push its fragile animated films past success into the realm of "we need a blockbuster every time".

This goes both ways though, because at some point the audience started expecting this as well. For the longest time their movies were seen as events. A new Disney feature meant topping the box office AND the Billboard charts AND selling Happy Meals etc etc With Pixar the only 'event' I expect is a good ass story. That's my only expectation with them. Even if Disney is able to give me that, if their film doesn't become an absolute critical and commercial sensation, part of me is gonna perceive it as a 'flop'. Same way you couldn't help but compare MJ's post-Thriller albums to Thriller, Disney features will always be held to an Aladdin/Lion King standard for me. As ridiculous as that may seem.

And you know, I feel like Disney has tried to step outside the box a couple of times (or at least stuck a foot out Hokey Pokey style) and even if the movies were good, the reception just wasn't there. I loved Emporer's New Groove for example, but I think most would agree that for some reason, it didn't 'work'

I think to put it simply, Pixar just isn't as afraid of failure