The Wonderful World of Disney Pixar!

On 22 November 1995, a cultural and generational touchstone was born. After the Oscar-winning 1988 short Tin Toy, the instant classic Toy Story, the world's first feature-length animated film and no part one of a celebrated trilogy (continued in 1999 and concluded - at least for now - in 2010), Pixar Animation Studios have revolutionised cinema and global pop culture.

Since that first game-changing adventure with Woody, Buzz and the rest of the gang, Disney Pixar, under the guidance of founders Ed Catmull, the late Steve Jobs and most especially John Lasseter, have delivered a nearly freakish number of movie masterpieces. From their sophomore effort A Bug's Life (1998) to Monsters, Inc. (2001) and its prequel Monsters University (2013), Finding Nemo (2003, which for me makes it an honorary Aussie company) and its 2016 sequel Finding Dory, The Incredibles (2004), Ratatouille (2007) and WALL-E (2008), through to Brave (2012) and Inside Out (2015) for this decade, they've dazzled and nourished me so frequently I can forgive them for the disappointing Cars series (2006, 2011 and 2017) and Up (2009). Now, their gift for us this Christmas is Coco. I had the pleasure of catching an advance screening on Sunday and it is glorious; God, I cried buckets. It could be my top movie of 2017.

If genius was illegal (and thank God it's not), everybody at Disney Pixar would be on death row. But what really keeps them ahead of the pack is how even as each successive film becomes more technologically sophisticated, they have never strayed from trying to tell a great story and make us care for the characters. In the Toy Story 10th anniversary DVD liner notes, Lasseter says that has always been their first priority. There is heaps more solid contemporary animations out there, but Pixar remains the yardstick for me.

Another thing I champion them for is how with every flick, in the credits they name the "production babies": employees' children who were born during production. That emphasises just how much sincere affection they have for their target audience. Also, they consistently try to appeal also to adults, with certain themes and jokes.

Disney Pixar's work has now defined two generations, and I fully doubt I'm the only male Millennial for whom visiting their Studios would be just like visiting the North Pole on Christmas Eve. I have nothing but the utmost respect and admiration for them and their work, and they just keep outdoing themselves. They have published for the Magic Kingdom their own, powerful book of spells.