I actually went into it expecting it to be about the worst Pixar movie ever, simply because I didn’t see the need for a second sequel after Toy Story 2. Boy, was I wrong! Mind you, I didn’t bawl, nor did I think it topped “Up” (which, in my mind, is the best film Pixar has yet made), but it WAS beautiful. I did find the whole [spoiler] “descent into hell” sequence at the garbage dump, when they just give up and accept their fate (made me think of Adama in “Exodus Part II” actually) just harrowing and I wondered how my eight year old was taking it (she took it well, though she was holding up to The Mrs.’ arm pretty hard).[/spoiler]
I did like the short a lot. It wasn’t as hilarious as some others (“One Man Band” is still my favorite), but it was adorable and I loved the (apparent) mix of hand drawn and computer animation.
In a Pixar scale of quality, where “Cars” is the worst and “Up” is the best, I’d give it a Ratatouie, or maybe a Wall-E.