Pixar Flicks

This blog entry was prompted by the blog of a friend who composed his entry after checking a professional blogger. Knowing my disdain for the blogosphere, I’m not sure if the third generation of a blogged idea makes it worse due to quality lost in reproduction, or better due to distance from the original idea. Either way, it’s still a blog. Bummer, that.


I wouldn’t have guessed Pixar’s Brave was their 13th film. Tenth, maybe? Sure, if I sat down and considered their output – thanks, Sporcle – I could’ve eventually listed them all. Rating them? A much larger task. I won’t create arbitrary numbers for characters, world building, music, etc. like Adam Quigley (http://www.slashfilm.com/author/adam-quigley/), as his summaries are as subjective as anything I could create. Regardless of how he determined his final order, I disagree largely with his rankings, listed here:

13. Cars 2
12. Cars
11. Brave
10. A Bug’s Life
9. Toy Story 2
8. Finding Nemo
7. Toy Story 3
6. Monsters Inc.
5. Up
4. Wall-E
3. Ratatouille
2. Toy Story
1. The Incredibles

No.

He’s wrong.

It’s his opinion. But it’s still wrong. It reminded me of a debate I once had with a co-worker:

Her: What’s the best song ever?
Me: What kind of song? Best driving song? Dance song?
Her: No, just the best song ever.
Me: Wow. I don’t know. Maybe A Day in the Life, by the Beatles?
Her: How’s that go?
(I should’ve walked away at that point.)
Me: (singing) I heard the news today, oh boy.
Her: What about the chorus?
Me: Um… There really isn’t a chorus.
Her: How can the best song ever not have a chorus?
(I really should’ve walked away.)
Me: Okay. You tell me. What’s the best song ever?
Her: The Lady in Red.
Me: By Chris De Burgh?
Her: Yes.
Me: No. You’re wrong.
Her: I can’t be wrong. It’s my opinion.
Me: Then your opinion is wrong. If it was my opinion that I could fly, I would be wrong.
Her: You can’t say that.
Me: Your opinion is that The Lady in Red is the best song ever. The Lady in Red is not the best song ever. Therefore, using the transitive principle, I can conclusively say your opinion is wrong.

Quigley may not be as egregiously mistaken as my former co-worker, but he could still use some correction. Mine may not be the definitive list either, and you’re welcome to tear it apart accordingly. (One caveat: I haven’t yet seen Brave so I’ll leave it off my list.)

So many of Pixar’s movies are timeless; fifty years from now, people will watch them with the same wonder and reverence we experienced watching Snow White or Bambi. A few movies don’t meet that criteria and therefore must be ranked lower. Both Cars movies, Ratatouille, and The Incredibles? Sorry. While some of you possessed precious themes, brilliant characters and solid conflicts, in the end you fall into the realm of the merely great. Ergo:

12. Cars 2. Unlike the rest of Pixar’s creations, this movie doesn’t strive to explore beyond the constraints of standard genre movies. It’s a well-executed spy comedy, but there was no greater good.

11. Cars. I’ll admit I didn’t much care for this the first time I saw it. As I have three young boys, I’ve sat through it another (at least) twenty times, during which it grew on me. Even so, you shouldn’t be required to re-watch a movie to appreciate it. I admire the theme how winning can be defined differently than coming in first, but I fear Mater may do to the Cars movies what Robin Williams did to Aladdin.

10. Ratatouille. Another off-beat offering which suffers the difficulty of a French real world. Dastardly villain? Check. Mistaken identity? Check. Those provide fantastic gags, but Pixar sets higher standards than gags. Possibly the smallest scale for a Pixar film, and maybe that’s the hang up. A fun movie, but not one with a big wow-factor.

9. The Incredibles. Conversely, the wow-factor of this was ramped up to heroic proportions. What does it mean that this falls near the top of my list of superhero movies (along with X-Men, Spider-Man 2, and The Dark Knight) but near the bottom of Pixar’s films? While Syndrome provides a stellar antagonist – complete with believable backstory, Mirage left much to be desired. Perhaps her name was a clue that we weren’t sure what to do with her, but she provided a Deux Ex Machina. Foul. You can do better, Pixar. Also, this felt like the set up for a Saturday morning cartoon series. Thankfully, that has thus far been unfulfilled.

The rest are movies I will share time and time again with my children and my children’s children (who hopefully won’t be born for at least another fifteen years).

8. A Bug’s Life. I enjoyed this immensely – the ragtag band of circus performers as motivation for the underdog to rise? What’s not to love? Strangely, I find this is usually the forgotten Pixar film. How, then, can it be timeless? It’s a fable: the ant and the grasshopper. Aesop’s stories are still circulated regularly.

7. Wall-E. I love everything up to the introduction of the humans. Suddenly, it becomes preachy. Were it not for the simplicity and intimacy of the two lead robots, I’d have walked away disappointed. With their budding love, zero-gravity dance, and commitment to each other? Beautiful.

6. Toy Story 2. I still remember fearing the worst when I heard Pixar was doing a sequel. It’s cheating. No longer did they need to set up their own universe, then establish characters and define relationships, as our familiarity with Woody and Buzz took care of that. But what a backstory! The Roundup Gang provided an ingenius counterpart to the toys of Andy’s room. I don’t believe – like many do – that this sequel surpassed the original, but I won’t rob it of its greatness.

5. Up. Another movie with an extended portion sans dialogue more powerful than any words could express. I can’t recall any other ten minutes of film doing a better job of detailing a life-long relationship. A thousand balloons! Talking, flying dogs! The bird! What utter whimsy! If you can’t enjoy this movie, something’s deeply wrong with you.

4. Finding Nemo. A road movie plus an escape movie equals the loving bond of father and son? Wow. Somehow, they overcame the too-often-annoying device of short-term memory loss to make Dory endearing. Each vignette – sharks, turtles, the tank gang – created characters with depth and purpose beyond merely advancing the plot. Every detail mattered, and Pixar didn’t ignore any of them.

3. Toy Story. To call this innovative a massive understatement. I can’t imagine anyone else doing the voices. Not only did they introduce new technology, but their layers of storytelling are on par with any Oscar winner. Buzz’s moment when he discovers he can’t fly? Heartbreakingly real. (God bless Randy Newman.) And yet, not a hokey moment in the film.

2. Monsters Inc. Without question, this is my favorite Pixar movie. Flawless casting. Immense diversion. Tense conflict. Revolutionary – and logical – solution. Perfect closing line. So why isn’t it the best they’ve done?

1. Toy Story 3. To be fair, this is not a kid’s movie. If an adult leaves the theater with dry eyes, they’re inhuman. The only other film to tell the loss of youth so daringly is Peter Pan – my favorite Disney movie, by the way. It’s a sequel, yes, but the story is so genuine, I’m willing to forgive that blemish. Even with things that can last forever, we all move on. Innocence. Joy. Tragedy. Magic. This is how a movie is done.


Thanks to Adam Quigley and Michael Kelley for prompting these thoughts. There are, of course, other great animated movies. The Iron Giant, Peter Pan, Wallace and Gromit, Flushed Away, Despicable Me, Alice in Wonderland – I recall my concern when animation became easier and suddenly there was a glut of cartoon films. At first, it was justified. For every Finding Nemo, there’s a Shark’s Tale. So long as Pixar stays in business, I’m not going to worry.