I guess what you found memorable, I find fairly commonplace in fiction in general (regardless of the medium), and so I don’t find it particularly notable unless it’s very good. I eventually saw Ratatouille a second time on Bluray, and it was very enjoyable. But I still don’t recall anything exceptionally emotional. Rat betrays human’s trust after feeling unappreciated. That’s practically a story archetype. Human then falls in “love” with girl super fast, seemingly out of the blue, a la fiction of the 80′s and 90′s. Wall-E had some great parts, though.

I would agree with your assessment of Miyazaki when it comes to humor. The humor in his movies is definitely more reserved. Though, I feel his movies are more adult, at the same time. Generally speaking, I would say Pixar movies are more refined and cleaned up, like a precision tool, or a perfect spherical ball-bearing (pardon my nerd-out haha). Pixar does what they set out to do, very well. Nemo is a good example of that. Ratatouille, too. Ratatouille was overall a very heartwarming, comfort-food-for-your-soul movie (like its name, ha!). Whereas Miyazaki movies seem more raw, like a large, rough, uncut gem. They can and do fall short in some areas, but they may peak far above in other areas at the same time. For example, Mononoke and Wall-E both have environmentalist themes to it. Mononoke took a more even-handed approach about it, leaving room for reflection. But Wall-E was much more heavy-handed about it. “You screwed up the earth, you apes!”

Anyway, those are my current thoughts on the matter. Hope that wasn’t too boring. Just for the record, I was disappointed in Ponyo and Howl’s Moving Castle, and I really didn’t think Totoro was particularly great. Even Mononoke was a bit rough.

I think I was a little too reserved about TS3 above. I think it blows Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars, and Monster’s Inc. out of the water. =)

You say Pixar has no memorable moments in their movies, I remember quite a lot of joyful, hilarious, and sad moments from Ratatouille, Wall-E and Up, which are IMO the best animation pictures ever produced. The sequence in UP that showcases Carl and Ellie’s life is probably the most memorable and powerful moment in the history of animation.

I’m a huge fanboy of Miyazaki, Totari no Totoro, Princess Mononoke and Ponyo are very magical movies, Chihiro and Howl’s Moving Castle are close followers, and all other movies I have watched them and are good (although not as great). But they aren’t up there in terms of emotional creativity and humor which is why I love the last 4 Pixar movies so much.