(7 minute read) ~ Written by a Special Guest Contributor
After seeing Toy Story 4 this weekend, I decided to attempt the impossible and rank the Pixar movies. The beautiful thing about Pixar movies is that so many of them touch on such true and deep emotions that it’s totally understandable if any particular one of them is your favorite because the themes in each film can be relevant to your life and strike a chord.
If you’re someone who suffers from short term memory loss or any other mental health problem, then Finding Dory might be your favorite. If you’re a parent who’s had to balance your career with raising kids, then Incredibles 2 might be your favorite.
I believe that the movies near the top of my list contain such universal ideas and are so rich in metaphor that they are relevant to anyone’s life, but the bottom line is that a list like this is inherently personal, and it’s okay if yours is different.
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21) Cars 2 (2011)
20) Brave (2012)
19) The Good Dinosaur (2015)
18) A Bug's Life (1998)
17) Monsters University (2013)
16) Cars 3 (2017) 😢
15) Cars (2006)
14) Finding Dory (2016) 😢
None of these movies are bad. Cars 2 was pretty enjoyable when I was a teenager and also should get more props for going out on a limb and trying to make the spy-thriller genre work with cars. Brave is visually gorgeous. The Good Dinosaur is pretty good considering how accessible it is for younger ages. A Bug's Life features ahead-of-its-time animation. Monsters U is the rare kid's movie that actually tackles what to do if hard work isn't enough to accomplish your dreams. The scene in Cars 3 when Lightning realizes that Doc kept all the newspaper clippings of Lightning’s successes because they kept him happy in his old age made me tear up. And so on and so forth.
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13) Incredibles 2 (2018)
12) Ratatouille (2007)
11) Wall-E (2008) 😢
10) Coco (2017) 😭😭😭
9) Toy Story 3 (2010) 😭😭😭
8) The Incredibles (2004)
7) Monster's Inc. (2001) 😢😭
6) Up (2009) 😢😭
Pixar has made 11 perfect or nearly perfect movies and choosing one to cut from the top ten was impossible. Wall-E is both a harrowing look at the unsustainable path that humanity is on and an optimistic vision of what we can do to change our future, while also serving as a love story for a robot. It’s not one that I rewatch particularly often though; because for me, the movie peaks too early — the second half not as original or as bold as the Charlie Chaplin-inspired first half. The same is true of Up, but Up’s first half contains perhaps the best animated movie sequence of all time when we see Carl and Ellie’s entire marriage unfold in four minutes. Coco could easily move as high as #6 because of the way it deals with death and a horde of other mature themes in a kid's movie, but it's lacking in humor and the story drags a bit in the middle.
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5) Toy Story 4 (2019) 😭😭😭
4) Toy Story 2 (1999) 😢
3) Finding Nemo (2003)
2) Toy Story (1995)
Toy Story 4 blew me away. I thought Toy Story 3 was the perfect ending to the saga, but 4 proved itself to be necessary for Woody's character arc. I was worried Pixar wouldn't have enough ideas left for another installment, but 4 arguably has more new ideas and complex themes than it can handle. There are also five or six major new characters, all of whom are hilarious or interesting or both. My face was a waterfall by the end, as it was when I rewatched 3 last week, but I think 4 is more thought-provoking. TS2 gets the slight edge on TS4 because I credit it with first introducing the themes of morality that are explored in TS4. TS1 remains untouchable.
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If we were ranking the Toy Story films by “How unbelievable is the most outrageous physical act carried out by a toy?” it would go:
4) Toy Story 3 (2010) – The aliens operating the garbage dump claw
3) Toy Story 4 (2019) – A plastic spork walking five miles
2) Toy Story (1995) – Hamm flipping a coin up in the air such that it lands perfectly in his 1mm wide piggy bank slot (I mean s***… that would be impossible for a human to do)
1) Toy Story 2 (1999) – Bullseye catching up to a 747 plane on foot
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1) Inside Out (2015) 😭😭😭
Inside Out — the only movie that has ever made me cry while simultaneously explaining why it's okay to be crying. No movie has changed the way I live my life more than Inside Out, which I saw on my 18th birthday the week before high school graduation. First, the scene in which Sadness comforts Bing Bong after Joy is unable to comfort him completely changed the way that I deal with other people who are sad (As Sadness explains to Joy, "He was sad, so I listened to him"), and I think I've gone from someone who was previously not good at providing friends and family with emotional support to being at least competent in that regard.
And then there's the movie's profound ending. To me there's no better visual representation of the bittersweet nature of existence than Riley's once happy childhood memories being played back for her by Sadness with a dark blue color palette. Happy memories becoming sad over time is not just an inevitable part of life, but a positive transformation that allows us to grow and appreciate the things we love. There’s societal pressure on people of all different ages and genders to keep their emotions in check, but since this movie came out I have not only allowed myself to be sad more often but I've allowed myself to be sad with other people, which has led to beautiful experiences and a deepening of relationships for which I truly believe I have Pixar to thank.
Leave a comment if you agree! And follow this blog for an awesome new article every other week!
After seeing Toy Story 4 this weekend, I decided to attempt the impossible and rank the Pixar movies. The beautiful thing about Pixar movies is that so many of them touch on such true and deep emotions that it’s totally understandable if any particular one of them is your favorite because the themes in each film can be relevant to your life and strike a chord.
If you’re someone who suffers from short term memory loss or any other mental health problem, then Finding Dory might be your favorite. If you’re a parent who’s had to balance your career with raising kids, then Incredibles 2 might be your favorite.
I believe that the movies near the top of my list contain such universal ideas and are so rich in metaphor that they are relevant to anyone’s life, but the bottom line is that a list like this is inherently personal, and it’s okay if yours is different.
😢 denotes tearing up
😢😭 denotes crying
😭😭😭 denotes dehydration due to bawling
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21) Cars 2 (2011)
20) Brave (2012)
19) The Good Dinosaur (2015)
18) A Bug's Life (1998)
17) Monsters University (2013)
16) Cars 3 (2017) 😢
15) Cars (2006)
14) Finding Dory (2016) 😢
None of these movies are bad. Cars 2 was pretty enjoyable when I was a teenager and also should get more props for going out on a limb and trying to make the spy-thriller genre work with cars. Brave is visually gorgeous. The Good Dinosaur is pretty good considering how accessible it is for younger ages. A Bug's Life features ahead-of-its-time animation. Monsters U is the rare kid's movie that actually tackles what to do if hard work isn't enough to accomplish your dreams. The scene in Cars 3 when Lightning realizes that Doc kept all the newspaper clippings of Lightning’s successes because they kept him happy in his old age made me tear up. And so on and so forth.
.
13) Incredibles 2 (2018)
12) Ratatouille (2007)
11) Wall-E (2008) 😢
10) Coco (2017) 😭😭😭
9) Toy Story 3 (2010) 😭😭😭
8) The Incredibles (2004)
7) Monster's Inc. (2001) 😢😭
6) Up (2009) 😢😭
Pixar has made 11 perfect or nearly perfect movies and choosing one to cut from the top ten was impossible. Wall-E is both a harrowing look at the unsustainable path that humanity is on and an optimistic vision of what we can do to change our future, while also serving as a love story for a robot. It’s not one that I rewatch particularly often though; because for me, the movie peaks too early — the second half not as original or as bold as the Charlie Chaplin-inspired first half. The same is true of Up, but Up’s first half contains perhaps the best animated movie sequence of all time when we see Carl and Ellie’s entire marriage unfold in four minutes. Coco could easily move as high as #6 because of the way it deals with death and a horde of other mature themes in a kid's movie, but it's lacking in humor and the story drags a bit in the middle.
.
5) Toy Story 4 (2019) 😭😭😭
4) Toy Story 2 (1999) 😢
3) Finding Nemo (2003)
2) Toy Story (1995)
Toy Story 4 blew me away. I thought Toy Story 3 was the perfect ending to the saga, but 4 proved itself to be necessary for Woody's character arc. I was worried Pixar wouldn't have enough ideas left for another installment, but 4 arguably has more new ideas and complex themes than it can handle. There are also five or six major new characters, all of whom are hilarious or interesting or both. My face was a waterfall by the end, as it was when I rewatched 3 last week, but I think 4 is more thought-provoking. TS2 gets the slight edge on TS4 because I credit it with first introducing the themes of morality that are explored in TS4. TS1 remains untouchable.
-----
If we were ranking the Toy Story films by “How unbelievable is the most outrageous physical act carried out by a toy?” it would go:
4) Toy Story 3 (2010) – The aliens operating the garbage dump claw
3) Toy Story 4 (2019) – A plastic spork walking five miles
2) Toy Story (1995) – Hamm flipping a coin up in the air such that it lands perfectly in his 1mm wide piggy bank slot (I mean s***… that would be impossible for a human to do)
1) Toy Story 2 (1999) – Bullseye catching up to a 747 plane on foot
-----
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
1) Inside Out (2015) 😭😭😭
Inside Out — the only movie that has ever made me cry while simultaneously explaining why it's okay to be crying. No movie has changed the way I live my life more than Inside Out, which I saw on my 18th birthday the week before high school graduation. First, the scene in which Sadness comforts Bing Bong after Joy is unable to comfort him completely changed the way that I deal with other people who are sad (As Sadness explains to Joy, "He was sad, so I listened to him"), and I think I've gone from someone who was previously not good at providing friends and family with emotional support to being at least competent in that regard.
And then there's the movie's profound ending. To me there's no better visual representation of the bittersweet nature of existence than Riley's once happy childhood memories being played back for her by Sadness with a dark blue color palette. Happy memories becoming sad over time is not just an inevitable part of life, but a positive transformation that allows us to grow and appreciate the things we love. There’s societal pressure on people of all different ages and genders to keep their emotions in check, but since this movie came out I have not only allowed myself to be sad more often but I've allowed myself to be sad with other people, which has led to beautiful experiences and a deepening of relationships for which I truly believe I have Pixar to thank.
Leave a comment if you agree! And follow this blog for an awesome new article every other week!