Pixar: The Best of the Best
Animated movies bring out the child in all of us. For a couple of hours everything else seems to fall by the wayside and we’re swept up in the colors, animation, and story. Pixar films are the culmination of years of animation and story development within Hollywood. When talking about animation or family movies, Pixar’s creations are the best of the best.
Since it’s widely established that Pixar creates the best animated films, I want to breakdown my favorites and why. What makes Pixar films so special to me is obviously how they make me feel first and foremost, but where they take me. When watching most of their movies you feel in another world. The visuals are so appealing and the story incredibly encapsulating. I can always rely on Pixar movies to take me to another world, even if its inside the mind of a child or in my front yard’s bug colony.
I have my personal favorite Pixar movies, and then there are Pixar movies that are amazing, just not the best. There literally isn’t one Pixar movie I don’t like, honestly. These few are just my favorites time and time again. Unfortunately I love so many of Pixar’s movies that the list ended up including around half of their movies.
10 — Finding Nemo
The most captivating aspect of Finding Nemo is the backdrop to the story. Animation in the movie is overall average in terms of Pixar movies. It’s nothing to shake your head at, but nothing in the realm of spectacular. But what I mean by backdrop is the amazing job Pixar does at displaying the beauty and vastness of the ocean.
A job they did just as well in the sequel Finding Dory. The difference between the two films is how they handled the story and what the content was between the first and second movies. The characters were just as engaging in Finding Nemo as they were in Finding Dory. The story and pacing just didn’t work as well in the sequel as in the original.
9 — Monsters University
One of the few movies where the original and the sequel are both very well made. This movie was everything I loved about Finding Dory, but actually executed in making me feel like it was a needed film. I never cared about the story of Dory finding her parents. Immediately upon watching this movie for the first time I cared about the story Monsters University presented.
Leaving Monsters University I wanted more from this universe. That was the big difference between this prequel, and the sequel to Finding Nemo. I never want to see another movie in the Nemo/Dory universe. That doesn’t take anything away from those two movies, I just don’t. Monsters University is a great movie. It’s re-watchability is great, the story is desirable, and the animation and visuals appealing as ever.
8 — Up
Easily one of the best stories told in a movie. The subtle messages were actually appreciated in this movie. Taking a little kid and an old man on an adventure was genius. The entirety of the movie was filled with both innocently joyful topics, and heavy emotion filled themes. The best part of the movie as the adventure it created both for an old man, and a boy. They both were able to experience and explore their dreams. Providing hope is what Pixar provides when their stories are at their best.
7 — WALL-E
I didn’t really know what to do with this movie. It’s one of my favorite movies of all time. I think it’s genius. The visuals are enthralling. The story is captivating. The characters are fascinating. It’s an amazing movie. I’ve tried to properly comprehend and put together what this movie makes me feel. The vastness of space combined with the innocence of Wall-E is gorgeous.
6 — Monsters Inc.
One of the few Pixar movies that don’t feel special or unique. This movie feels like it could have been created by any company and still feels the same in terms of how it feels. That takes absolutely nothing away from the movie in terms of its enjoyment factor. The story was fascinating and the characters were engaging. There are multiple moments throughout the movie that are memorable. It was simply an incredibly solid movie, nothing extraordinary, just a solid effort by Pixar.
Check out 5 through 1 on the next page:
5 — Cars
Not sure Cars would be in the top five for many people’s best Pixar movies list. For whatever reason this movie always appealed to me. The characters, story, and I can’t explain much more than that. It was just appealing. My little sister watched this movie probably 50 times in the car when she was a toddler, so it helps that I watched it plenty of times. What also assisted in my love for this movie was the video game. It wasn’t genius or anything. You basically just drove around and collected coins. But it helped me get to know the characters more, and that helped in my appreciation for the movie.
4 — Toy Story 3
The culmination and ending, or so we thought, of the Toy Story franchise was arguably the most difficult to pull off out of the 3 movies. The series was seemingly complete. There wasn’t going to be a 3rd, then all of sudden there was a 3rd. The controversy behind JJ Abrams bringing back Star Wars was dwarfed in comparison to the fear of ruining the Toy Story franchise with this film. Star Wars had been partially tarnished by Episodes I, II, and III. Toy Story was untarnished. So the fact that Toy Story 3 can be viably argued to be as good as the first and second movie is a credit to how fantastic it is.
I personally liked Toy Story 3 better than Toy Story 2 simply because of what this movie means to me. I was born around the release date of the first toy story, and I was getting close to college once Toy Story 3 came out. It was an emotional culmination of my end to childhood all in a movie franchise. It was amazing to experience, and the relief that the movie was amazing somehow was better than the actual quality of the movie, which was already incredible.
3 — Ratatouille
Being taken away to Paris through the eyes of a rat couldn’t sound more boring, and yet, somehow this movie encapsulates the best of Pixar. After watching this movie multiples times I’m convinced this movie is the most difficult to pull off of all the Pixar movies. The tight rope of overly cheesy vs overly serious climbs the more ridiculous the plot line is. A rat ending up as the secret chef at a high-class French restaurant is the definition of ridiculous.
The joy of food being prepared is usually in direct opposition with rats. It’s always a nasty combination. Ratatouille makes you love Remy, the main rat. He’s curious and ambitious throughout his plan to experience the best food around. Once Remy meets disastrous chef Alfredo Linguini, the story goes to entirely new heights. Their relationship is fascinating to watch. Forgetting that Remy is a rat happens so quickly once Alfredo enters the picture., that’s the magic of Ratatouille. Making a rat act as a chef while inside the hat of a clumsy chef seem normal is genius. That’s why Ratatouille is number three.
2 — The Incredibles
Loving the Incredibles isn’t that hard. Per usual the Incredibles provides everything that Pixar does to perfection. The characters are memorable, the story was fascinating, and the animation something captivating beyond words. It’s as close as we’ll get to Marvel and Pixar collaborating on a superhero movie. Which as a nerd sounds amazing. In terms of combining two things I love it’s as close to an Excel spreadsheet merging with a basketball as I’m going to get.
The most underrated part of this movie to me was how much I was left wanting more of the characters. Whether it was Lucius Best/Frozone, Bob Par/Mr. Incredible, or Violet Parr; I want more of the Incredibles. Thankfully we’ll finally be getting more of it in the future.
1 — Toy Story
The movie that created an immediate standard for Pixar is the greatest animated movie of all time. Toy Story initiated and has since carried on the standard Pixar formula of an amazingly engaging set of characters, story that’s complex, animation that is breathtaking, a universe that sweeps you away in its intricacies, and somehow leading you to believe toys do come to life when our backs are turned.
Toy Story did all of that in a funny, emotional package. It brought deep relationship questions to the forefront of adult’s minds. It has lessons for children. The humor was simple enough for a child to find hysterical, yet complex and layered enough for adults to find funny for the first time on their third viewing. It was a majestically made movie. A true piece of art that has defined years of amazing movie making. Despite the fact that some of the movies that have come after it have made more money, they’ll never take Toy Story’s place of number one in my favorite Pixar movies of all time.
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