There does seem to be a division forming: Films like this and Brave are being made by their second division, whereas films like Toy Story, Finding Nemo and Inside Out are being made by their first division. There's a clear difference in quality and style.
Like I've pointed out in previous threads, it's basically their first bunch of directors (veterans for short) versus their new directors. Lee Unkrich, who directed
Toy Story 3, is kind of an exception, but then again he had been a co-director on three movies prior to that gig, starting from early on, so arguably he could be counted as one of their veterans.
In a broader sense, there are times when "lightning in a bottle" just happens to strike, and one of those times was when Pixar became a new feature animation studio (previously they made graphics hardware and software, and only did a little animation on the side) that just happened to have many essential pieces (i.e. the right people and circumstances) in place for wild success. The same thing happened earlier when animators of the same generation, who completed school during the 1970s, finally took control of WDAS, creating the Disney Renaissance. And somehow WDAS just happened to have the right people in place for their current "Revival" era (most of whom joined WDAS during the Renaissance, to go along with holdovers from the 1970s group), too, while Pixar weren't so fortunate with their new directors (whether groomed and promoted from within or hired from the outside).
As implied, luck plays a crucial role, as it does in most everything--knowing what you're doing and doing it well improves your odds of success, both in making movies and finding the right people to do it, but ultimately it all comes down to chance. And Pixar, still run by the same guy who runs WDAS now (John Lasseter, of course), haven't even had the same luck in hiring people from
The Simpsons, for example--not that they haven't worked out, but WDAS happened to get Rich Moore, who, probably surprisingly even to himself, became an instant success as a WDAS director (
Wreck-It Ralph, and now
Zootopia with Byron Howard). Then Jennifer Lee, a screenwriter with limited experience and none in animation, was hired to finish/polish a script (
Wreck-It Ralph), and ended up being quickly promoted to director (
Frozen with Chris Buck from Lasseter's 1970s generation), whereupon she helped WDAS break records at the box office (and every other market). While it's not all about luck, luck is nevertheless important, and WDAS sure have had a lot of it lately while Pixar, in contrast to their early years, have not. Lightning in a bottle--catch it if you can, and enjoy it while it lasts.
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