It’s 4am now and I’m behind schedule so to be brief: I love Pixar. I enjoy every single Pixar movie I’ve ever seen (besides Cars 2) at least on some level. There are good Pixar films and there are REALLY good Pixar films. Over the past 20 years, Pixar has put out 20 feature films, and the margin of quality ranges pretty drastically.
Since Pixar films operate on a completely different level from your typical ‘critically acclaimed’ films, I figured I’d use a different metric.
Here are my criteria: great writing, lovable characters, re-watchability, well-crafted narrative, wow factor.
Great Writing at it’s best, bridges the gap between child and adult humor and understanding.
Lovable Characters at their best, are flawed and multi-dimensional and yet still beg to be rooted for, for one reason or another, much like actual people.
Re-Watchabiltiy is pretty obviously defined by its name, it’s how effective all the pieces are upon multiple viewings.
Narratively, the plot should be pretty cohesive considering many adults have to watch it, but not overly complex. For me, a well-crafted narrative is what makes something re-watchable above all else.
A wow factor is kind of intangible, it’s that feeling you get when you know that what you’re watching is touching your soul or reaching you on a profound level for any number of reasons.
Wow, that wasn’t brief at all. Did I mention it was 4am?
Anyway, each film get’s a 1-10 rating for each of the 5 criteria, and the score dictates it’s ranking. Here we go, OH, AND LET ME REITERATE, THESE ARE JUST MY OPINIONS, I, IN NO WAY, CLAIM TO KNOW MORE THAN ANYONE ELSE, although I do feel I have better taste than a lot of people. (That might not mean you).
20) Cars 2
Score, 20/50. This is uninspired garbage. It made decently likable characters much less likable, suffered from a really stupid plot, and overall, I wish it didn’t exist.
19) The Good Dinosaur
Score, 27/50. So this is a pretty amazing looking film (Pixar’s best-looking film until Coco imo) with some pretty cute (albeit 1 dimensional) lead characters with a stupid plot and overall pretty boring.
18) Cars 3
Score, 27.5. I really just don’t like this franchise much, but after a terrible, like, truly terrible outing in Cars 2, this was a slight step up. And it looked FANTASTIC.
17) Monsters University
Score, 29.5/50. Tons and tons of college jokes. Seriously, about 7 billion. Sully and Mike became caricatures of themselves and this is the moment my childhood died.
16) Brave
Score, 32/50. Congrats on having a super badass female lead. Too bad there isn’t that much else very funny or entertaining about it though. It kind of drowns out in the overall quality of some of Pixar’s follow-ups.
15) Cars
Score, 32.5/50
So the first time you watch it the characters are slightly charming. This also features the best plot of the entire franchise (if that’s not an indicator of how much of a trash pile this franchise is, I don’t think I’ve taught you anything).
14) Up
Score, 33/50. I know a lot of people will hate me for this, but having a ridiculously idiotic and hard-to-follow plot and annoying characters don’t make up for one of the greatest introductions of all time, and certainly some of the best 1 minutes in all of Pixar. It just doesn’t work that way sadly.
13) Finding Dory
Score, 36.5/50. I’m honestly surprised at how high this ended up. I guess having a bunch of charming random characters pop up to distract us from the fact that there’s virtually no plot or character growth isn’t so bad after all. Chalk this up as a slightly uninspired sequel with some pretty entertaining parts.
12) Toy Story
Score, 37.5/50. Props for being the stepping stone to an INSTITUTION, and also for being much much better during my childhood.
11) Bugs Life
Score, 38/50. I think Bugs Life is one of the most underrated Pixar films. The pieces are all okay, but something about the final product just feels so special. I genuinely can watch this ANY DAY of the week, which is more than I can say for anything placed below it on this list.
10) WALL-E
Score, 40/50. We’re starting to enter ‘really genuinely high-quality film’ territory. Wall-E has grown on me more and more with each viewing (just 3, tbh), but I do firmly believe there’s a great lesson to be learned from this one, and it’s so DARN CUTE.
9) Incredibles 2
Score, 41.5/50. As much amazing fun as it was to see this in theatres after waiting 14 years!, it is a lot of bells and whistles and lacks some of the heart of 8-1 on this list. I did really enjoy it, and it could easily be top 5 upon more viewings (or if I were a bit younger when it was released).
8) Toy Story 3
Score, 42/50. The main flaw is it’s constant pandering to the millennials to feel so bad and ignore the flaws because of nostalgia and stuff.
7) Inside Out
Score, 43/50. An extremely well-crafted film and also biting social commentary, but it feels a bit too much like a PSA and therefore loses re-watchability points.
6) Incredibles
Score, 44.5/50. Can we just take a second and realize that Incredibles made us excited about a concept that’s been mainstream for about 75 years. In itself, ‘superheroes’ is one of the least fresh and outside-the-box concepts in all of Pixar, and yet, The Incredibles is still one of the most popular products and manages to make a powerful statement on the importance of family and trust that came out of NOWHERE.
5) Monsters Inc
Score, 45/50. What a twisted perspective on something incredibly universal and relevant to children. FEAR. Also, this is such a FUN movie to watch. Monster Inc holds up better than almost all of the Pixar films that came later and I believe 20 films from now, it should (and will be) be pretty firmly in the Top 10.
4) Coco
Score, 47.5/50. The only reason this isn’t higher is that I predicted the entire ending (and reveal) about 20 minutes into the thing and that still disappoints me to this day. Also, as gorgeous and well written, and culturally representative as it is, it’s not as easy to watch and immerse yourself in as some of the others. BUT MY GOD, THIS ONE REALLY CHANGED THE GAME.
3) Ratatouille
Score, 48/50
I’m not really sure what to say because nobody loves this film as much as I do. I think it features some of the best writing of any Pixar film, it has two of the most lovable losers for protagonists and has a nice slice of culture that wasn’t really present for Pixar at the time. Not to mention an extremely well-crafted narrative.
Bonus points for the badass video-game too.
2) Toy Story 2
Score, 48/50. Technically a tie score with Ratatouille, for all the same reasons also. I just went with my gut on this one. Toy Story 2 is one of the best sequels of all time and the major peak of all the characters we’ve grown to love over the last 20 years.
1) Finding Nemo
Score, 49/50. This one wasn’t even that hard for me. Finding Nemo has always been my favorite Pixar movie. I’ve seen it at least 25 times and I still love it as much as I did when I was 7 (the year it came out). Nemo would be the standard for Pixar films for years to come.
Finding Nemo was the first Pixar film to feature multiple, multi-dimension characters as well as a genuinely well-crafted plot. Ultimately, Finding Nemo is the best parts of Incredibles, Inside Out, Ratatouille, and even Coco: It told us a pretty simple story but in an amazingly powerful and fun way, it had an extreme looming lesson present but didn’t feel like PSA at all, it gave us not 2, but 3 (or even more) lovable losers who we REALLY WANTED TO SEE WIN, and it was freaking gorgeous to look at.
Obviously, there were some major decisions made during this list, but I really think I put ample thought into the placement of each film on this list (except Cars 2, that one was obvious) and I know that we will all disagree on lots of things about this, but that’s part of the fun of watching movies I think.
-JS
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