It’s a fact; Pixar rocks. The Emeryville, California-based animation studio has been pumping out a seemingly endless run of critically acclaimed movie properties ever since Toy Story became the first feature-length fully-CGI picture ever, back in 1995. Pixar has produced ten more movies since then, all showing a tremendous amount of care both in their high production values and quality storytelling. As a result, ranking these outstanding pictures is a difficult (and highly subjective) task. But the internet loves lists, so someone had to do it.
11. Cars (2006): If there is a movie that comes close to taking the shine off the Pixar name, it is Cars. Not that there is anything particularly wrong with the movie. In fact, the film’s secondary characters are some of the strongest Pixar has ever fielded, including the Larry the Cable Guy-voiced tow truck, Mater. An all-star voice cast including Owen Wilson, Bonnie Hunt, Paul Newman, and George Carlin is probably the movie’s biggest asset (Disney.go.com). However, the story of a headstrong young athlete discovering real values, aka the plot, is a tried-and-true movie device that never really gets off the ground. Rottentomatoes.com agrees, with Cars by far the lowest-rated Pixar film on the site, at a measly 74%.
10. Monsters Inc. (2001): With a creative spin on the universal childhood fear of monsters in the closet, Pixar created a story that anyone could understand. However, they went too far in their efforts to mature the topic, and the primary storyline, the redemption of the main character, feels a bit contrived.
9. Ratatouille (2007): A rat teaches himself to cook from a mass-produced cookbook and immediately becomes the toast of Paris. That plot alone plays out awkwardly enough, but add in secondary storylines concerning everything from paternity testing to murderous sous-chefs, and Pixar has created a Frankenstein’s monster of a tale. Strong characters, a very memorable soundtrack, and the sheer imagination of it all keep the film from falling any further down the Pixar ranks.
8. A Bug’s Life (1998): Developed at a time when Pixar’s future as a movie studio was still very much in flux, the only insect-themed Pixar film was actually released around the same time as Dreamworks Pictures’ Antz. The Pixar effort, of course, ruled the day, taking in significantly more at the box office that year, and remaining relevant to this day despite subsequent advances in CGI technology and the fact that it’s not named Toy Story. A few standout characters and an imaginative final confrontation with the villainous Hopper are some of the highlights, but as Mr. Durkin will tell anyone, the standout moment of the film is Hopper’s rather philosophical line, “Ideas are very dangerous things.”
7. Toy Story 2 (1999): Originally intended as a one-hour direct-to-video sequel, the movie was instead given the feature-film treatment after the voice actors put pressure on Disney. As with any film in the Toy Story trilogy, number 2 is all quality, but lacks the childish wonder of its predecessor or the maturity of its successor. It is, in fact, an excellent movie that still shows a lack of purpose.
6. The Incredibles (2004): When a children’s movie has a body count of 16, something has either gone very right or very wrong (moviebodycounts.com). While it is difficult to imagine a superhero movie without a fair amount of physical violence, the fact remains that the litany of fiery deaths and dead bodies as seen in the movie are intended for a different audience than is the case for other Pixar efforts. The numerous references to bureaucracy, while humorous to older, more jaded individuals, feel flat to the average Pixar fan, but cool robot-centric action sequences and an exceptional lineup of characters keep the film feeling fresh, if a bit misguided.
5. Wall-E (2008): Hardly any words are spoken in this recent Pixar work, which undoubtedly put a ton of pressure on the studio’s animators to basically render entire personalities without the aid of dialogue. They succeeded, and in fact produced some of the most memorable characters in company history. The movie has an obvious kid-friendly layer to it, but more so than other Pixar films it also prominently features a mature theme, that of eco-friendliness (or consequently, eco-destruction). A few live-action segments exist within this movie, making it a unique Pixar production in that way, and the film is more philosophical than Pixar’s other efforts, which works for the most part but more meaning can be easily missed here than in other animated films. What prevents it from climbing higher on the list is not necessarily its weaknesses, but the better films’ strengths. One to watch, in any case.
4. Finding Nemo (2003): Pixar’s second-highest grossing film, Nemo wows with screwball secondary characters (Bubbles, Crush, Bruce to name a few) and their outstandingly dynamic main-character counterparts, most notably Gill, Dory and Marlin, the initially overprotective and world-fearing father of the title character. Unfortunately, Nemo’s most glaring weakness is Nemo himself, whose character possesses all the depth of the aquarium he becomes trapped within, not the ocean to which he longs to return.
3. Toy Story (1995): Pixar’s first full-length film, which began the studio’s awe-inspiring run of blockbuster titles, Toy Story remains a favorite of both original fans and the next generation of kids, who weren’t even a thought back in 1995. When viewed within the Toy Story trilogy alone, the film is undoubtedly the best, as it introduces the series’ principal characters while avoiding traditional origin-story pitfalls. Lines such as “To infinity and beyond!” and “That wasn’t flying. That was…falling with style!” have left an imprint on popular culture that remains visible to this very day. However, when viewed as just one of Pixar’s entire library, Toy Story falters a bit. The animation quality of some characters is painfully lacking compared to newer Pixar films, and lighting and texture work are indeed indicative of work done on computers from over 16 years ago. The cast of characters is also smaller when compared to many other Pixar films, and many of the secondary characters, while iconic, are not the deepest personalities in the world. Even so, Toy Story’s immense popularity years after its release is not without reason. In fact, a recent Facebook poll among USC high-schoolers showed that Toy Story is still the most popular Pixar film.
2. Toy Story 3 (2010): Pixar’s highest-grossing film to date, and the highest-grossing animated film of all time, Toy Story 3 is an incredibly well-rounded movie (imdb.com). For younger children, perhaps being introduced to the Toy Story mythos for the first time, it delivers a perilous tale of loss and rediscovery (which, let’s be honest, is the principal idea behind all Toy Story plots), and undoubtedly leads to many kindergarteners hugging their toys especially hard after watching. For teenagers, it plays off childhood nostalgia to create emotional scenes that can bring tears to the eyes of even the meanest teens. And it reminds parents that they might not be the only ones who watch their kids grow up with sadness in their hearts. Clearly an animated feature that can address so many audiences successfully is a masterwork, but Toy Story 3’s sad story reaches its peak near the end, leaving its audience without much of a feel-good moment to remedy all the sadness, and so misses out on the top spot.
1. Up (2009): Eschewing most, if not all, of the typical Pixar formula for a successful film, Up manages to top its animated brethren in just about every way. Instead of the large ensemble cast typical in movies like Toy Story and Cars, Up features two old guys, a little kid, a few animals and…nobody else. With such a small character base, Pixar leaves no room for weak secondary acts, and instead makes sure that the relationships between these characters are the best-developed of any of their films. As with Toy Story 3, Up contains a scene so poignant and tragic that tears well up in the audience, but unlike that other film, Up breaks down its viewers less than ten minutes in, and spends the rest of its runtime building them back up. That’s not to say that the majority of the movie is a laughapalooza; on the contrary, Up’s tale of childish wonder and personal discovery is plenty serious. It is never dull, though, as laughter is injected via the rogue talking dog, Dug, and the antics of the “small mailman” that stows away on the flying house. The movie’s happy ending doesn’t feel as contrived and expected as those of other children’s tales, but that is likely because Up is not a children’s tale; it is a film for all who love movies.