It is, in fact, very Pixarian.  Someone at Dreamworks went to storytelling class.  The movie made me quite curious about the books.  I got to say, the illustrations in the books made me laugh a lot.
What's great is that the movie is surprisingly touching.  I teared up in a couple of places.
And something that I think may be overlooked as well is the great score the film has.  I found it to be quite wonderful.
