thirty years, they have produced some of the finest cinema ever made. Let’s take a journey through this amazing company and look closer at each of their entries from best to…not the best.
1.
Wall-E
Wall-E is not only the greatest Pixar
film but one of the greatest acts of cinematic literature ever constructed. It
can read so many ways in so many contexts, but my favorite is as a romance of
literal star-crossed lovers who demonstrate, by their inanimate nature, the timeless
nature of the divine inspired gender archetypes.
2.
The Incredibles
The Incredibles is the great
antidote to the banality of the modern age, which hates heroes and celebrates
mediocrity. It is also one of the most pro-family films ever made.
3.
Toy Story
This was the first
computer generated feature film, and it was the perfect start to the medium.
Easily one of the tightest screenplays ever written, it also had the uncanny
ability to inject pathos into inanimate objects.
4.
Up
Up is a weird premise – a kids movie about
love and loss starring two
people over eighty. But it works, and
works wonderfully.
5.
Toy Story 3
Toy Story 3 is probably the
best close to a franchise ever made. My wife and I literally grew up with Andy,
and it was heartbreaking but also uplifting to see his story concluded.
6.
Inside Out
It’s difficult to express the mind in art,
but Inside Out comes as close as any piece of literature.
7.
Finding Nemo
This film was always good, but it has
gotten better as I’ve grown older and become a father many times over. Life is
rough, but you got to just keep swimming.
8.
Toy Story 2
The stakes for this film were quite high
as it was Pixar’s first sequel, but it was a home run, just as heartwarming as
the original and maybe a little funnier at times.
9.
Luca
Luca is the best “small film” Pixar has
made. It came out on Disney+ without fanfare but beautifully illustrated the
difficulties and joys of early friendship.
10.
Turning
Red
I was surprised how much I loved a film
that was essentially a parable for female teenage puberty. It was smart, funny,
sweet, and endlessly nostalgic.
11.
Monster’s Inc
This was Pete Doctor’s first film and,
while not his best, it showcased many of his strengths like an imaginative
universe and the experience of being a parent.
12.
Soul
Like Inside Out, Soul
brilliantly portrays a largely intangible reality. The small downside is that
it is a movie that is mostly uninteresting to children.
13.
Coco
While the film never dives very deep into
the theological aspects of the afterlife, it is a fun Orphean journey with
fantastic music.
14.
Cars 2
When Cars 2 premiered in 2011, it
was considered by many to be Pixar’s first flop. This is wrong on two accounts.
First, it made plenty of money. Second, it was really fun, a decent spy flick
with great humor. I still snicker every time I hear “Holly Shiftwell.”
15.
Cars
The Cars franchise is considered by
some to be the Black Sheep of the Pixar franchise. I disagree. It’s a fun
universe with plenty of fans, although it never reached the heights of Pixar
glory.
This film does a good job parody the
college existence, although it messes with the timeline of its original.
17.
A Bug’s Life
Pixar’s sophomore effort was underwhelming
compared to Toy Story but nonetheless revealed that Pixar was a force to
be reckoned with.
18.
Rataouille
Rataouille is a weird movie.
It has small moments I enjoy, but overall is poorly structured and odd. What’s
even more surprising are its five academy award nominations.
The Incredibles 2 had enormous
potential, which was largely squandered. It had plenty of good action like the
original but was lacking in structure and depth.
The Good Dinosaur is the least
remembered of all of Pixar’s films and to date the only one to lose money. It
has a few good moments but is mostly stale.
21.
Brave
Brave relied heavily on the “rebellious
teenager” trope well after it became tired. The mother-bear aspect was interesting
but never special.
22.
Onward
Onward was basically Bright for kids. It
had some fun moments but was always a bit sappy with a disappointing ending.
23.
Finding Dory
Finding Dory was the first of
Pixar’s unnecessary sequels. Dory wasn’t a strong enough character for her own
film, and it added nothing to the series.
24.
Cars 3
I can’t imagine why any child would find
this film interesting. They haven’t lived long enough for a mid-life crisis.
25.
Toy Story 4
I used to believe that Pixar, while their
films vary in quality, had never made an objectively bad movie. Toy Story 4
proved me wrong. The screenplay was messy, the humor boring, and the characters
poorly developed. Yet worst of all, it violated nearly every important theme
created in the original and had one of the worst endings in history to boot. It
is a terrible, terrible film.
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