The Pixar was up until couple of years back consider a company that can do no wrong. And than Cars 2 happened. Nevertheless Pixar provided us with some of the best animated movies ever made. When I saw the first trailer for their movie Inside Out it really made me think about their entire lineup of movies, which led me to write this article. So without further ado lets start with the list.
14. Cars 2
The thing with Pixar movies is that you could say even for their weakest movie that is still pretty decent. This was true until Cars 2 came out. This is the only Pixar movie I consider bad, and I am usually lenient on animated movies. Sure the animation is great, but that is pretty much the only good thing I could say about this movie. And the amount of bad car puns in this movie is just jarring. And the whole shift of Mater now being a main character of the film, and him playing a spy was really a poor choice.
13. Cars
Amongst the all early Pixar movies this one received the worst reception from both critics and general public. And more than any Pixar movie this one felt like the most product placement oriented. Come to think about it this is the only Pixar film that doesn't have any humans, and doesn't even acknowledge the existence of humans, which felt kind of weird to me. The story in this one is pretty generic. Its plot bears a striking resemblance to that of Doc Hollywood. One of this biggest reasons for both Cars movies being at the bottom o my list is the fact that it doesn't have a single character I really like or that particularly funny. Mater was supposed to be the most comedic character but they went overboard with him, and quite frankly made him annoying (at least for me).
12. Monsters University
You could say that there is a general rule that prequels don't work. Aside from X-Men First class and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly I can't think of any other prequel I can say that is great (Godfather 2 was both a prequel and a sequel to first one). And this is also true of MU. When I've heard that they were making this movie, especially since it came after Cars 2 and Brave (which I felt was just decent), this one spelled disaster. The idea of following Mike and Sulley through their college years didn't seem for me like a good idea from the get-go. While the final movie wasn't all that bad, it also didn't come up near to Pixar standards that all of us were used to. There were definitely some really funny jokes and some interesting visual things happening on screen, but the hold college thing started to grow tired really fast. The fact that there were so many college movies clichés in this one managed to make this movie not as enjoyable as it could have been.
11. Brave
Brave is one of those movies I expected to be amazing. It didn't quite live up to my expectations, but nevertheless it was still an enjoyable movie. The whole empowered female aspect made this movie somewhat more mature than some of their previous work. There were also some interesting twist and turns that genuinely surprised me. Also the ending is particularly well done. However the tone in this movie is very uneven. It jumps back and and fort between some serious and some joyful stuff. While this mix might and have worked in some other movies I feel that it didn't really work all that well in this one. With certain tweaks this could have been one of the Pixar classics, that being said this is still a good movie.
10. Monsters, Inc
I didn't really
enjoy this movie first time when I saw it, I was watching it in bits
and pieces and I felt overall that it wasn't that funny. Watching it
later I've learned to appreciate it. John Goodman and Billy Crystal did one of the best voice-work jobs I've seen in an animated movie. The back and fort between Mike and Sulley throughout the entire movie was really fun. Premise for this movie was interesting enough but I feel they've could have gone much further with the whole thing. Watching it years later made me realize an interesting think about all Pixar movies in general - none of them have all that memorable villains (aside from Latzo from Toy Story 3). This is particularly true for this film At the end of the day I've enjoyed the jokes and those few heartfelt moments that were in this movie.
When people talk about Pixar movies that they feel are weak this one usually comes to mind. This is mainly because of the fact that most of the Pixar movies were considered amazing (at least until Cars 2 came out). Another unfortunate thing that was going against this movie was the fact that Dreamworks released the same year their movie called Antz. It was easy to draw the comparison between the two, and it was general consensus that Antz was a better movie. While I do agree that Antz is a better movie (only slightly), I still feel that this is a great movie. This was also the first 3D feature length movie that I saw in theaters (I was too young for original Toy Story which I actually saw a year after A Bug's Life). So you can imagine that my mind was blown at the time. It is been a while since I saw this movie, and I guess that my feeling could change about it. But for the nostalgic reasons it deserves number 9 spot on my list.
7. Toy Story
I can only imagine the way in which people minds were blown when this movie came out back in 1995. However as I said above this wasn't the first 3D animated, so I didn't have that excitement of unknown watching this movie. But still this movie really impressed me. This movie definitely deserves a special place in film history since it revolutionized animated movies genre. A great movie and a true classic. However I still feel that Pixar manage to improve their craft over the years and they manage to make well 8 better ones (in my opinion).
8. Toy Story 2
This
is I feel the breaking point for my list where from now on each of the
following me can be considered amazing (in my book at least). I remember
that when there were talks about a Toy Story sequel it was supposed to
be a direct-to-DVD. However since the whole project ended up costing
more than anticipated and I guess better than anticipated it was theatrically released. While the first Toy Story movie was great and a true animated classic I feel this one really improved upon its predecessor. There are not that many trilogies that get better with each movie (only LOTR comes to mind). I know saying that Toy Story 2 is better than one its a bit controversial. I feel that storytelling was better and jokes worked better in this one. I may be alone in this, but hey that is my opinion.
Ratatouille work on so many levels. The mixture of action, romance and family drama all work very well. This movie really made me think about how inventive can computer animated movies can be. This movie with introduction of food critic Anton Ego (wonderfully voiced by Peter O'Toole) even makes some serious statements about the creation of art. While the premise of this movie, with a rat wanting to become a world famous chef, seems pretty silly. Brad Bird actually made it make sense and he made it somewhat grounded in reality. This is movie that I feel will better work with adults, although kids will enjoy it a lot too.
5. The Incredibles
This
is one of the better superhero movies period, and amongst the animated
ones it is the very best. I know that this is personal favorite of a lot
of people, but for me it missed a few tender moments to really get in
that position. This one is arguably the most mature Pixar movie both
story and joke wise. This is I feel how Fantastic Four movies should
have been like. The way in which this entire movie is constructed is simply impeccable. The whole introduction of a superhero family that tries
to live a normal life in spite of their superpowers was really well
made. And the entire sequence of them coming back to being superheroes
was real fun. Third act I feel could have worked better with a better
fleshed out villain, but that didn't really tarnished my overall
enjoyment of this movie.
The first 15 minutes of this movie are pure genius. In those first 15 minutes we get to see the pretty much the entire life of Carl and Ellie chronicled in a very beautiful way. The way in which that segment ends almost put me to tears. After that we get to Carl going on a great adventure that involves a boyscout, talking dogs, a weird bird and a whole bunch of craziness. From the point when Carl decides to embark on this adventure basically hilarity ensues. Aside from that opening scene there were also a couple of great scenes that provided me with some great memories - introduction of Dug, the talking dog, comes to mind.
There are good ways and bad ways to end a trilogy and then there is Toy Story 3 which provided us with one of the best endings a trilogy can have. All of the new characters introduced in this one were really good with Ken and Latzo being the two standouts. Sure the story is take on The Great Escape, but it is very well done. When we put that The Great Escape comparison aside this movie had some really enjoyable scenes. The way in which Latzo's back-story was presented was just wonderfully done. The ending however has to be my favorite part of this movie, since it actually made me tear up.
2. WALL-E
The idea of making an animated movie with almost no dialog, seems like a hard task. We all know how kids can get restless at times, so making a quiet movie, with reliance on just visual gags and visual storytelling seems like a really hard sell. However if someone can pull this of that is Pixar. Wall-E is one of those movies that works almost on every level. It is funny, it manages to stay interesting all the way through. It is also in a way a topical movie since it points the finger at certain things that are bad about capitalism (consumerism in particular). It also raises awareness about the environment. And I got to admit, Wall-E is probably one of the cutest animated characters.
1. Finding Nemo
I was really debating how to rank movies from 6 to 2, but what is going to be my number 1 was never put in question. And that movie is Finding Nemo. I can't really point out what really makes this movie better than others on my list. I guess it has a lot to do with my personal preferences and my general interest in sea life. Generally speaking I like movies that have a great traveling adventure as its centerpiece. One thing I particularly liked in this movie were all the side character. They were all in their own way quite interesting. Ellen DeGeneres was simply amazing as Dory in this one. Lets just hope that they can pull the same magic with Finding Dory.
Over the last couple of movies it seem that Pixar is losing their mojo. After a streak of amazing movie their last three weren't up to those high standards. Since they didn't have a movie in 2014, they will actually have two in 2015. Inside Out looks like the movie that could be one of their classics. Lets just hope that I'm not wrong on this one.
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