In fact, some characters even seem designed to specifically evoke memories of earlier, better films, right down to the overprotective underwater parents who you'd imagine would be great friends with Albert Brooks' curmudgeonly dad in 'Finding Nemo.' But even at their weakest, the studio still offers up enough simple pleasures to make spending time in these worlds worthwhile.

Like all late-period Pixar, you don't need to squint to notice the similarities to the studio's greatest hits.

'Luca,' the studio's latest offering, is another decidedly mid-tier outing from the studio, albeit one that makes up in charm what it lacks in originality. It doesn't exactly make for a bad film - just one that doesn't possess the same imagination characteristic of the greatest Pixar productions. 'Soul' may have been their biggest critical hit in some time, but it still shamelessly lifted its narrative from the recycled scraps of earlier films a bit of 'Inside Out' and its metaphysical race against time here, a touch of ' Coco' and its irreverent look at the afterlife there. Back in 1994, before 'Toy Story' was even released, the studio's leading animators had a lunch meeting where they noted down ideas for four future movies on a napkin - ideas that over the decade that followed would become 'A Bug's Life,' 'Monsters Inc.,' 'Finding Nemo,' and 'Wall-E.' Since being bought by Disney, the studio has rarely exhibited the same creative energy, opting instead for an endless string of merchandise-ready sequels, with the original films that fall between all shamelessly borrowing the plot beats of their biggest successes.

They may still be winning Oscars with every other new release, but it's becoming clearer with each film that Pixar are straying further from their golden age.

Luca review