Ranking every Pixar Movie

 

Made rankings for Disney and Dreamworks. Pixar has 30 theatrical movies out. It was the time. 

So this is a list I can easily imagine stepping on peoples feelings. Pixar Movies pretty well known for tugging at the heartstrings and movies that I felt strongly for I can imagine left others fairly neutral, and vice versa your favorite movie might not play that highly here. With things that are meant to appeal on that personal emotional level, that kinda variance is a little bit inevitable. I definitely thinks that speaks to Pixar's success as a company that a good half the films on this list I felt an anxiousness about ranking low because I know that it means a substantial amount to others. I think the movies at the very bottom and very top of my ranking are fairly conventional choices but there will be probably a few placements that will raise eyebrows and some things you probably think are too low. All I can say is... pre-emptive sorry. 

Of the 30 Pixar movies, I saw the first 10 as a child before stopping, so if you're wondering where my nostalgia stops, it's the first 10. I don't think it super sways me, but it's possible, the first 10 do tend somewhat high in my ranking. You tell me after reading. 

Spoilers for the movies below

30: Lightyear

Lightyear is a movie that I think is not just bad, but also hits on a lot of things I personally don't like that much. I am not that into the Toy Story films in general, I am not that into time travel stories, I don't like movies that just switch what movie they are halfway through. And that's not taking into account all the problems on a technical level, the bland characterization problems, the limp humor, the dull aesthetics, and probably most pressing of all to me, the major plot problems. The plot is easily the biggest problem, in that it makes no sense. This goes from the smallest things such as the characters rolling another character having their suit inflated to get out of a room, then arbitrarily saying it's not working and going back, to the bigger stuff. So Past Buzz meets Future Buzz and Future Buzz says "I never met past me" before immediately saying that his plan is to go back to stop them from every crash landing into the planet. Do you see the problem? He JUST got evidence, outright confirmation, that if he changes something in the past, it doesn't actually stop this future from existing, it just creates a new timeline. I understand the theme of this film is about letting go of past mistakes and trying to progress forward with the fortunate consequences of such, but this has the OPPOSITE effect, because you're saying that if Future Buzz went back to the past, you wouldn't be wiping out the people of this timeline, you'd just be making a new timeline. You've erased the thematic point of the film with your incoherent plot. This is like the exact thing you don't want to do to appeal to me.

Fun fact I did initially have this film at 29 when I was ranking this film because the theme I think is a good one, it's something I can imagine really appealing to me as one that's meaningful, evocative, important. But how good can you say a film's theme is, if the film implements and expresses that theme poorly? It's like a film having a great premise that it executes plot-wise poorly, or an awesome character design wasted on a bad character personality. For me it sorta helps it but in another way kind of makes it worse, because on some level it makes the faults more evident. I think this is my least favorite Pixar film because it's not just bad, it's bad in a way that personally irks me. 

29: Cars 2

Initially the last place film on this ranking, Cars 2 is a much maligned film, and I definitely don't hate it or anything but I am far from singing its praises. One of the things I like in films is characters acting smart and one of the things that bother me is characters acting stupid to make the plot work. Cars 2 is a really big culprit of this. The biggest culprit of course is the protagonist Mater who is just the stereotype of the ignorant American hillbilly the entire film. I am supposed to feel bad that people don't accept Mater for who he is, when he continually makes an ** of himself and causes problems for his friends. Everyone else also has a lesser level of stupidity. These professional spy cars have to constantly misinterpret everything Mater does to allow for the continued nonsensical plot of them thinking he's a spy. The climax entirely revolves around extremely forced dialogue and actions to create a continuing misconception. ((Warning) You don't understand, I'M the bomb! (Affectionate) That's right Mater, you ARE the bomb " But honestly that's not even the worst part. The worst part is the weird way this film treats women, or female cars or whatever. Sally the love interest car from the first film is part of the rivalry of Lightning and this Italian car he's beefing with, with both trying to act like Sally likes them better as part of their rivalry, which I just think is gross, and the lady spy car is shown to be Mater's girlfriend at the end without any setup as if it's just sorta assumed he gets the girl by being the main character. I'm not usually very prissy about that kinda thing, but for some reason it really hit me wrong this film. 

This film used to be my bottom place, I had it below Lightyear because Lightyear at least had ideas I respected. But Lightyear's ideas... like just cause it had ideas doesn't super help it when it uses those ideas so poorly. Meanwhile Cars 2 like... it's annoying but some of the spy sequences are pretty alright. Also I'm not much of an aesthetic person but Cars 2 has much better visuals then Lightyear, which is saying something when Lightyear is space themed which is one of my favorites, but Cars 2 does genuinely have some pretty nice to look at visuals with the global locations like Japan and Italy. 

28: Toy Story 4

Not really into the Toy Story films and Toy Story 4 is easily the worst, assuming you don't count Lightyear. The plot and premise are actually weird enough to tell you what the premise is. Broadly Bonnie takes her toys on a road trip where Woody has to decide if wants to stay with Bonny or join Bo Peep and become a lost toy. Despite my lack of investment in the Toy Story series I actually recognize just how little this makes sense with anything else in the entire film series to this point. The point of a toy is to be played with. Toys like being played with. Toys like their owners and care about them above all else. That is key to the wholesome toys vibes Toy Story has. Being a Lost Toy should have no appeal, not that it seems very appealing as is. Beyond the premise problem however the film's pacing and plot felt wrong to me. The entire first third is decided to explaining why Forky is Bonnie's most favoritest toy, even though that's something that can be explained in 30 seconds and also not that important to the rest of the movie. They also keep going back and forth between the antique shop and the carnival which helps neither the pacing nor the plotting. Well at least the characterization is good? Nah, most of the characters from the first three films are underutilized. Woody as mentioned seems to have forgotten why a toy is. Buzz is reduced to a running gag where plays one of the canned lights he came with thinking it's conscious. 

With that said, there is something I can give the film. There are a few funny jokes in there. For most of the film Woody is trying to teach Forky simple words like "toy" meanwhile when they get to the Carnival Forky somehow knows what "carousel" is already, much to Woody's chagrin. There's also stuff like some of Bunny and Ducky's moments like suddenly attacking the old woman who wanted to grab them. That surprise factor can be funny. I put it above Cars 2 because Cars 2 felt insulting to my intelligence to watch at times whereas Toy Story 4 moreso just felt like a first draft. It was broadly incoherent but it didn't have anything that actively made me feel any notable negative emotion and occasionally gave something I liked. 

27: The Good Dinosaur

There's a pretty big gap between the bottom 3 movies and the Good Dinosaur. I don't really dislike the Good Dinosaur, I just find it kinda dull. The premise is what if Dinosaurs didn't go extinct, but this apparently means Dinosaurs would engage in stone age baseline technology while savage humans are occasionally kept like pets. Okay. The story has a pretty bog standard hero's journey center with Arlo losing his father, feeling like it's his and Spot's fault, and eventually getting braver. The scene of the spirit of his father encouraging him is emotional enough but it's very standard. Sorry this will probably be by a good margin the shortest section but this film left me very uninspired. 

It's way above Toy Story 4, both have pacing problems in a sense, but Toy Story 4 alternates between boring and cringe while The Good Dinosaur alternates between boring and mildly entertaining. I could easily see why someone could like this film, much more then the bottom 3. 

26: Brave

So you know how Lightyear is imo a bad movie that has things that personally annoy me. Brave is like, it's a bad movie that has things that are personal appeals for me so it's kind of a weird one. I said Mulan is my favorite Theatrical Disney movie and Brave, at least early on, is like the worst version of that same story. Like I know it's selfish for Merida to not want to marry any of the unappealing princes even if it saves her clan, but IDK the whole I will shoot for my own hand in marriage I thought was kinda cool and I know if I was a little girl watching I'd be super excited for. Also the climax being about the love between Merida and her mom hit me pretty well. 

I am definitely not blind to the problems. There's a lot of antics humor, particularly with Merida's little brothers and with characters phrasing things weirdly or acting poorly to instigate conflict, like the Queen stupidly following Merida into the ripped tapestry despite everyone in her clan being on the constant lookout to kill bears and the Queen having been turned into a Bear. Merida and her's mother conflict early on is hard to watch. A lot of people say Brave was Disney trying to basically do Disney's normal formula and they're not as good as it, and yeah I can see that. I don't think it's out of the Bottom 5 but I do think it's at the top of that list. If I'm comparing it to the Good Dinosaur, I definitely think it has more problems in its basic plotting and its humor, but there's more good as well. I overall went off vibes and just if I had to give a defense for either film I'd rather do this one, if only cause I could remember what happened in it. 

25: Hoppers

I was disappointed in this one. I heard good things, I had to wait for it to come out hearing that it was underratedly fun and....nah. I didn't really like it. Like it's trying to be a zany-ier comedy then most of hte other Pixar Films but I don't think the style fits them very well. This ie one of those movies where the characters act stupid for the plot to work, and in particular the main villain's downfall where Titus randomly powermad declares that he won't stop at just destroying the humans but all the other animal kingdoms for literally no reason causing the other animal kingdoms to turn on him is a real pet peeve type moment. I get it, it's a cartoon movie, sometimes peoples deficiencies are exaggerated for comedy but this isn't even exaggerated for comedy, this is just the bad guy beating himself for the plot. 

My bigger problem though is actually with the theme, mostly in that it expresses them which just seems kinda blatantly untrue. The thing Mabel's grandmother told her is that "it's hard to feel angry when you feel like you're part of something bigger" and that's a part of the resolution. The problem is not only is that actually untrue, the film shows why it's untrue. Mabel's character is that she's an activist type who is trying to protect nature. She definitely believes she's part of something bigger and she's introduced as constantly angry about it. This is spelled out in the text. I could see there be an interesting exploration of the nuance of being part of something bigger but it's not in the film and as written what we see is a good example of the opposite of the theme. In real life the angriest people often feel there is a cause, a bigger they are part of that motivates their actions. I think it's more competent then Brave in most technical ways, but in some ways I almost prefer Brave as Brave is the kind of troubled I don't mind as much while Hoppers hits some of my real pet peeves, that said Brave also had some of the same and I decided that Hoppers being decently funny was enough to give it the edge. 

24: Elio

Elio is a sci fi story about a kid who lost his parents and feeling alone teaming up with Grigon, the son of the alien warlord Glordon in order to stop Glordon from killing a bunch of other aliens. Much like was there the problem of theme in Hoppers there's one major problem I have with Elio. Elio himself for the first long section is just SO unlikeable. I understand, he lost his parents, he is in grieving, he doesn't want to live with his aunt Olga. But this is emotionally painful for her to and he constantly makes thing very hard for her without regret. It might be realistic but it's painful to watch. The comparison that came to mind immediately was Lilo and Stitch but while Lilo also made things hard for Nani for similar reasons, Lilo's actions all felt like much more attempting childish and immature attempts to make friends despite her loneliness and inability to know how. Elio on the other hand gets downright mean when he says Olga isn't family to him. Not the cliche "you're not my real mom", downright not family. Also it's a liar revealed plot if that matters to you because for plot reasons the other aliens think that Elio is the leader of Earth and the whole movie you know at some point they're going to figure out and have the typical scene.

The better part of the movie for me is definition the stuff with Grigon and Glordon. Parental Love is definitely one of my favorite themes in fiction and the scene of Glordon accepting his son was the highlight of the film for me. Grigon himself is a fairly likeable deuteragonist. The more sci-fi elements are fun, I have a fondness for space just as an aesthetic. If I'm comparing it to Hoppers then both have one big problem I didn't like and a pretty good deuteragonist but Elio's just a bit better all around. I likes it aesthetic more, I prefer the bad stuff being at the beginning of the movie rather then at the climax, and the good parts of the movie hit a bit better.

23: A Bug's Life

A Bug's Life is a movie about Flik the put upon independent thinking ant in an ant colony accidentally causing them to be at risk from being killed by their oppressive grasshopper overlords and so going to gather warriors to defend them, accidentally getting a bunch of circus bugs instead. So a Bug's Life has a reputation as the most "fine" Pixar movie. I'm sure it has its fans, but Pixar Movies tend to draw for better or worse strong emotional responses from people and a Bug's Life doesn't really. Its characters are fine. Its themes are there. It doesn't have any plot holes per se though it is a liar revealed story. The liar revealed stuff and the characters having to be artificially dumb are probably the worst parts of the film though as far a kid's film is concerned, they are not the worst. The best part I think is the villain, Hopper which is also not a controversial film. He's a fairly intimidating and compelling villain, not the best in Pixar's catalogue but good.

Everything about this film feels very temperate in both its good and bad qualities. It's fine, and if I was to compare it to the films lower I'd say it feels much more stable then all of them. The characters motivations all make sense, there's nothing that I strongly disliked, though some part of me wishes it was a bit more ambitious. Compared to Elio which is a much more up and down film for me it is close, but I put a Bug's Life ahead mostly on vibes tbh. Like I could go either way it just sort of felt more right to put the movies that I considered more flawed together right under the movie that feels just basically fine. 

22: Onward:

Onward was another movie that I felt overeall just sorta fine about but that had personal appeals I liked more then a Bug's Life. The plot is that it takes place in a world of fantasy creatures but who primarily use modern technology with magic kinda lost the old days. However a pair of brothers Ian and Barley get a chance to perform a rare resurrection spell to return their father, only to mess up the spell and have a day to road trip and find a gem to complete the spell. The best I can describe this film is that it overall felt very chill to me. 

I liked both brothers pretty well and the sacrifice Ian makes for Barley at the end was a good emotional moment. Generally speaking I found the emotional bits in the movie to be the best parts, but outside those parts it was not the most exciting film. In particular I found the humor to be fine but kinda unmemorable outside of the joke the trailer wore to pieces. It also has D&D references if you're into that. The emotional parts were itself enough to put it above a Bug's Life. 

21: Incredibles 2

Incredibles 2 is the sequel to the original Incredibles where superheroes have to go back into hiding as the villain Screenslaver wants to ruin the reputations of superheroes. So this film probably should be lower. There are plenty of people who will tell you all about the problems this film has, and yeah they are certainly there. The hard status reset at  the start of the film is frustrating down to even wiping Tony's memories of Violet. The theme of family is vastly underplayed compared to the last film with Helen doing most of the superheroics and Bob mostly doing antics humor taking care of Jack-Jack and the other kids. Evelyn's plan is famously broken as she helps rebuild the reputation of supers that were already outlawed to try and disgrace them when they were already disgraced. The list goes on. I LOVE Brad Bird as a director, but this is definitely and far and away his weakest film.

So why is it not lower? I'll be honest, it's MOSTLY just cause I love superheroes. The superhero set pieces in this film still get me really excited to see. The superhero tropes are fun to see. Like the sequence of Helen stopping the runaway train, the most cliche type of superhero act, for whatever reason I just don't get tired of stuff like that. And the fight with Frozone trying to protect Dash and Violet from Screenslaver's brainwashed minions was really cool. Beyond that even if the plot is pretty nonsense, I do still like the characters pretty well. IDK it probably should be lower but this is my list and even the worst Brad Bird film I get excited for. 

20: Toy Story 3:

So if Incredibles 2 is a film I think will be much higher on my list then most, Toy Story 3 is a film that I think will be much lower on my list then most. So the plot of this one is that most of Andy's toys are accidentally given to a Daycare and that Woody has to convince them it was a mistake and rescue them from the Daycare. I've mentioned before that I don't gel with the Toy Story franchise that much. There's a bunch of things about this film that just don't gel with me. It can get kinda gross at times, the Spanish Buzz bit I didn't find especially funny, the whole thing is centered on a misunderstanding. I hear people say that Lotso is such a great villain and while he's not bad I don't really see it. His motivation is fundamentally based on the same misunderstanding as what happens to Andy's toys. I get why people consider this film very near to them but to me it's a pretty classic example of the Pixar Film Staple of having one amazing scene that hard carries a movie that is otherwise nowhere near as good at that scene. 

Yes the ending is great and it did get some emotion from me even if toys aren't a particular weak spot for me emotionally. And if I'm comparing it to just the Incredibles 2, then Toy Story 3 has the advantages of the things I dislike about it being a more "not my kind of thing" type flaws rather then "this is actually kind of a problem with the movie" type things. But I don't think this film is higher then Top 20 for me because the ending can only pull it so high. 

19: Luca

The plot of Luca focuses on two young sea monster boys who, like all sea monsters, become human looking on land, wanting to travel the world try to win a vespa alongside a human girl from the nearby town of Portorosso that hates sea monsters. It's a deliberately smaller film with lower stakes nad a more casual almost slice of life feel which I'll be honest, is not super my vibe. I also got frustrated at times with with Alberto one of the two boys who when he finds out that Luca is growing apart from him deliberately reveals his monster form to Giulia so as to re-isolate the two of them and the general cliches in the film. On the other hand I enjoyed Luca and especially Giulia pretty well and I mean at its heart its mostly just a film about acceptance and all that wholesome jazz. 

It's a film that kinda strikes me a lot like Onward to be honest, and I probably should have put them next to each other, as both are films that I had liked well enough and had some spikes of enjoyment at times. Heck I'd even say Luca had more problems to me. But like I mentioned that Incredibles 2 and Toy Story 3 are films are films I felt were very flawed that still incited excitement to me. Luca is the opposite for me, a film that doesn't excite me but feels quite unflawed. The former is definitely more memorable but the latter is definitely which I'd rewatch if I was to rewatch one. 

18: Monsters University

The plot of Monsters University is that Mike a. zowski goes to university and wants to be a scarer, a monster who's job is to scare. He is unscary but tries really hard and has a rivalry with Sully who is naturally very scary but doesn't try at all in a "hard work vs talent" type thing. A lot of people bring up that this film contradicts the original. I don't really care that much especially cause it's a contradiction that seems relatively minor to me. It's mentioned that in the original Mike and Sully met in the Fourth Grade and here they meet in University. That seems prettyyyyyy minor to me. If anything my bigger problem is that if you've seen the original you already how the characters will progress, that Mike and Sully will end the film as best friends and Randall who starts out as Mike's friend will end as their enemy. Not that it's super hard to predict, even more then Luca this film can be pretty cliche, sticking to the formula a lot of going to college type movies do. 

I will say however, that the climax and the theme are both really interesting cool. In the climax Mike and Sully are in the human world and Sully has to do the seeming impossible feat of scaring not children but adults, something feared by the monsters. Mike actually helps Sully do so in a really cool scene. The theme is also pretty unique and the least cliche part of this. Sometimes your dream isn't the right dream for you and even if you know Mike isn't going to be a scarer from the first film, I just appreciate that thematically the film is saying something I haven't seen a hundred times. Comparing it to Luca they're both relatively small movies that are easy to watch if predictable, but the climax put MU above for me. 

17: Cars

People seem quite down on the original Cars which surprises me. It's certainly not the best Pixar film but it's also far from the worst in my humble opinion. The plot is that Racecar Lightning McQueen accidentally gets trapped in small town Radiator Springs on his way to his championship race. He accidentally caused damage to the town coming in so he has to fix it before he's allowed to leave. My general perception is that the first half of this film is not so good but the second half was quite fun so it's more so in the middle of the ranking for me. Even the first half of the film wasn't that bad. It's mostly just that Lightning McQueen is a rather unlikeable protagonist to start and that there's a lot of coincidences to get the film premise to work, neither of which were too bad for me. And I did vibe pretty well with a lot of the things in the latter half. Not like immensely or anything but the sweet friendship between Lightning and Mater, the Doc Hudson story, Lightning giving up the literal victory to help the King complete his last race, I hear the last one is also cliche though just selfishly I haven't seen... any sports movies I don't think outside things in these big marathons so I am just not used to it.

It's possible I have this film too highly ranked cause I went in with low expectations from the reception I heard of it. I thought it was fine overall, a bit of a rough start but with a fun back half. Comparing it to monsters University they feel fairly similar with a rise in quality nearer to the end. Cars rise in quality lasted for longer, basically the second half of the film as opposed to just the climax, but it did have a rockier start. I think Cars edges it out a little, just from some sporadic other details. Like I like the side cast in Cars more then in Monsters University. 

16: Elemental

Elemental is about a world of living elements. The Fire Element Ember is being pressed into running her father's shop even though she secretly doesn't want to and even though Fires are looks down upon by the other Elements she has a forbidden secret romance with the Water Element Wade. Honestly, maybe this film should be higher. I know it's not the best received but it honestly had a ton of things I liked. I know fantasy racism and forbidden love story are super super tired, but if I am honest I can be a bit of a basic b*tch for cutesy love stories. Like that is one cliche that doesn't really bother me, and seeing the cutesy romantic scenes still makes me heart flutter a little. I thought both the leads and their families were fun and when Ember's dad is like "Ember, this shop was never the dream. YOU were the dream. You were always the dream." Mannnnnnnnnnn 😭

On the other hand, the forbidden romance cliches are here and they can be indeed painful. The worst scene is definitely the part where Wade tries to confess their love in front of Ember's family and Ember rejects him, causing him to be hurt and betrayed while also ruining the event and having her family angry at her, like just a storm of everything going wrong. I never get the appeal of these scenes. Of the films I could describe here as "kinda cliche", Elemental ranks the highest mostly cause it's a love story with familial themes which are my kinda cliches. Compared to Cars it certainly made me cringe more with unpleasantness but it evoked way stronger emotion from me as well. If you asked me which I'd prefer to rewatch right now it would definitely be Elemental. 

15: Toy Story

The First Pixar Film. This film is about Woody, a cowboy toy that used to be Andy's favorite being replaced by Buzz Lightyear the Space Ranger toy. The two accidentally get marooned and have to find their way back to Andy's. So even though I've mentioned before that I'm not super invested in the Toy Story series, and this is more then halfway up the list, I imagine people still might be shocked at how low this is. I've seen people say this is the best Pixar film and that seems crazy to me but whatever, taste is subjective. Going into the film, I think the plot of this film and the themes underlying it are pretty good. Woody and Buzz are for the most part very fun leads, and the film is obviously one of the most inventive and influential in Pixar's catalogue, if not the most as the pioneer of their style. 

I do have a kind of moderate level fault with the film, namely the way that Buzz is completely ignorant for most of the film that he is, in fact, a toy. I am not someone who questions all the things about film premises, and there's things about this film I just accept as part of the premise. If Buzz initially thought he was the real Buzz Lightyear but quickly came to understand he was a toy, I'd get it. But no we're expected to believe that for days, despite him being told repeatedly he's a toy, despite the fact that he's very clearly a toy, and no one lying to him about it, he just doesn't notice? Like there's a fairly lengthy scene of him being sad when he discovers that he's a toy that keeps him and Woody from being rescued and I just feel like "well yeah obviously."

That said that's probably my biggest fault with the film. I think other then that the main duo has a fun dynamic and the theming of Woody's fear of replacement is compelling drama, especially when Woody means to knock Buzz down a crevice and accidentally knocks him outside leading to the rest of the toys thinking he's a murderer. Comparing it to Elemental, I mean it's hard to say that Toy Story doesn't win. Toy Story for as much as I am not invested in it as a series, is an influential classic. Elemental is not, it's just a movie that kinda vibed with me. 

14: Monster's Inc

Monster's Inc takes place in a world where Monsters live in a parallel world they power through scaring children. Sully is a prime scarer but accidentally lets a human child they call Boo into the Monster World and strive to return her. I think Monster's Inc is definitely one of the weaker of the original Pixar films. It has a lot of antics humor. There's a scene where Mike is taking out his girlfriend that's sort of the example I think of when I think of antics humor and also why I don't like it. There's clearly some appeal these scenes have for people that I just don't get cause I find all that stuff in this film to be painful.

However everything else about this film is pretty good. I like the main characters Sully and Mike pretty well, and their relation with Boo is very heartwarming. It has honestly one of the BEST Pixar Villains in Waternoose both threatening and compelling. The ending of them going in and out of doors all over the world is also a very fun and inventive ending. Somewhat similar to Cars it's a film I think really gets better as it goes. Comparing it to Toy Story, I feel like its faults were similar in potency, but it felt more creative, and it had a more compelling climax and emotional moments

13: Coco

Coco is another of the Pixar Films similar to Monster's Inc and Cars where I feel like it gets better at it goes, though at a more extreme level. The premise is that the music loving boy Miguel in a family who disdains music being trapped in the land of Dead and trying to get the help of his great-great-grandfather to help him return and convince the family to let him play music. If it wasn't for how the film starts, this film would pretty easily be in the top 10. However the start of the film is quite unpleasant. The family acts so toxic to poor Miguel. Just because the great-great-grandfather, as far as they knew, abandoned them to play music, they've completely outlawed it and moreover when they find out that Miguel has been sneaking off to play music they smash his beloved guitar in front of him. I get that they need to be against his music playing for the film's plot to work but I didn't think it had to be this intense and painful to get the point across. 

That said once it gets to the land of the Dead, the film picks up and the ending is great! The climax where Miguel revitalizes his great grandma with her father's song and guitar allowing him to save Hector and restore the family was super sweet and the ending bit showing one year later with the restored Ofrenda. I felt the plot of the film felt artificial at times but the emotional and character bits of the film were really good. Comparing it to Monster's Inc, it's a film where there's even more extreme gap between the best and worst parts. This toxicity of this film is more painful then the antics humor of Monsters Inc cause it's much more realistic, but the emotional bits are much more complex in their emotions. That said if I was comparing their more average parts, I feel like this film has a style I like more as well. Both are kids movies obviously but Monsters Inc feels a bit more childish in style, with honestly kinda silly looking monsters and a childish style. Coco has style and the real world historical-religious background to draw from and lean back on.

12: Inside Out 2

So in Inside Out 2 Riley is entering high school and going away to hockey camp with her best friends only to find out that that they will be going to a different High School. The development in her later adolescence causes the emergence of a few new emotions: Anxiety, Envy, Embarrassment, and Ennui to appear and causes conflict with the original emotions. So like Coco this is a film with a great ending but a part that was kinda hard to watch, though instead of the start, it's moreso the middle of the film. After Anxiety exiling the older emotions she drives Riley to break down as she is driven to desperately try to impress Val her senior and idol. On the other hand the climax is a brilliantly evocative expression of a panic attack as Anxiety becomes a whirling blur all about the control panel the net result being as well staying huddled in one place, trying to do everything and control everything at once leading to a net paralysis and Joy helping Anxiety let go of control, that they emotions are made to help Riley not determine her. 

What I think pushes Inside Out 2 up this high is the complexity in its goodness. There are a ton of good minor points across the film. One I particularly like is that after Riley has her panic attack her friends that she's neglected all film come to her side are immediately forgiving the importance of the situation being more important then any drama. The film's climax hinges on accepting nuance and complexity as Riley reconstitutes her sense of self as no longer purely good or not enough but instead complicated as any human being is. Something like Elemental or Coco have a big emotional appeal at times, but they are simple appeals, while Inside Out 2's appeal is a more complex blend. 

11: Finding Dory:

This film is about Dory, the amnesiac fish from the first film looking to be reunited with her parents. Both films in this series really impressed, I didn't think I'd like this film as much as I would and it's held back a little by a climax that goes over the top silly for me with the sea creatures driving a truck and smashing it into the ocean, as well as Marlin and Nemo not having that much to do. That said I thought the stuff with Little Dory were as adorable as they were heartwrenching and the scenes showing her fighting her short term memory less and eventually finding her parents were very sweet and lovely. I found it to be a very uplifting movie to watch even for Pixar's usual catalogue. 

In that way it's kinda the opposite to Inside Out 2. Where Inside Out 2 is good because it's complex, Finding Dory is good because it's simple. Both are good when they maximize that potential. Both also have a little bit of a problem of not knowing what to do with all their characters, albeit for Inside Out 2 this is moreso just cause it has so many. Between the two though the harder parts of IO2 was harder to watch then Finding Dory 2. 

10: Up

Up is one of those Pixar movies that gets accused of being hard carried by one scene, and... yeah kinda. The plot of this one is that Carl Frederickson dreamed of living in the adventurous South America with his wife who tragically passed. Determined to make that dream a reality he attaches balloons to his to fly it there but accidentally picks up young Russel, the two going on an adventure there. The first scene where we see Mr. and Mrs. Frederickson's life together is definitely the hard-hitting scene that contextualizes the rest of the movie but the rest isn't bad. I like Russel and I think Dug the dog they encounter who can speak due to his collar is adorable. A lot of this film I think is very well constructed even if it doesn't hit me personally super hard. The themes of choosing life and the future over the past and possessions, the emotion of seeing someone or something you idolized turning out to be what you wanted, I get all that and I think it's pretty well done. 

I do take issue with one particular scene. Muntz sets his dogs to capture the bird he promised Russel they'd return to her babies and at the same time starts a fire on Mr. Frederickson's house. He picks the house over the bird trying to save it. This is what causes his second act friendship breakup scene with Russel and Dug and the narrative treats him as being selfish and wrong for doing so. I get what's symbolized here, that he's choosing clinging to the past and to the inanimate over the living present, possessions over people and all that. But that has to make sense in universe, and in universe there was no way Carl would have been able to stop all of Muntz dogs' especially not with Muntz ALSO there. Yeah it's unfortunate that they were going to lose Kevin (the bird) but it doesn't make sense for him to lose his house trying to stop something he genuinely can't. IDK the logic of that scene and him being blamed for it kinda bothered me. 

Anyway comparing it to Finding Dory, both are films that are carried by a couple really great scenes. I think Finding Dory has more of them but I also think it feels a bit more meandering. There's a lot of characters some of which don't have that much to do and the plot kinda goes back and forth. Up I think is a lot more focused of a film and I prefer that. 

9: Cars 3

Broadly considered the best Cars film and definitely inclined to agree. The plot of this is Lightning McQueen getting older, struggling against feeling obsolete compared to the newer cars and his fading fame. This film feels like a big jump from the last two films in the series, having an immediately compelling plot and theme it expresses in more evocative ways then just telling the viewer. We see signs of Lightning's fading popularity and capacity more then we're told it and it makes his worries feel much more powerful. I don't mind the big ending twist where Cruz takes over for Lightning and he becomes her new trainer. It felt like a good passing the torch moment to me, though I do wish that Sterling had remained a more nuanced character then an out and out villain. Not having a villain would have kept the true antagonist of the film being internal to Lightning and would have felt more powerful.

Comparing the two sequels Finding Dory to Cars 3 I think both have very interesting and emotionally stirring parts but I think Finding Dory's faults are a lot more... IDK they feel more glaring. Like yes I would have preferred Sterling to have remained more nuanced, but that feels more ironically nuanced a critique then Finding Dory going jumping the shark at the end. Like I think all the right elements are in Cars 3 and it's moreso a matter of balancing.

Up and Cars 3 are both very solid I think, though they both lose a bit of steam (pun intended) a bit nearer to the end, and have their best parts near the start. I do think that my problem with Up prior was I think more substantial because it really effects how you're supposed to emotionally interpret like the last third of the movie or so whereas Cars 3 I don't love that Sterling became more villainous, but that's moreso changing a nuance rather then the emotional beat itself. 

I do have to say, now we're getting into the heavy hitters for me. The A Tiers.

8: Toy Story 2

Easily the best of the Toy Story movies and the best sequel. Toy Story 2 involves Woody getting stolen at a yard sale by a collector of rare toys to go in a museum and his friends going to get him back while he works out whether he wants to keep being played with or go in a museum. Honestly the worst I can say about this movie is that the aesthetic isn't really my vibe. But the writing in this one I think is great. I LOVE Jesse, easily my favorite Toy Story characters and I wish the sequels did more with her. I like the new Toys a good amount. I think their interactions with Woody are fine. And I think they also used the old toys well. The Two Buzzes having Buzz deal with a version of himself like he was at the start of the first film was both funny and clever. I thought the Barbie scene in the toy store was really fun and Al the toy collector is a funny villain. It's not the deepest film on the list which is why it's the weakest of the A Tiers for me but it's heartfelt and funny and compelling.  

Comparing it to Cars 3, Cars 3 might have better themes and implementation of said themes which is the most important part of a fictional series to me, but like Toy Story 2 is better in almost every regard. I think it has better characterization, better plot, better pacing and I think it marks the beginning of like a new tier. 

7: Ratatouille 

This film is about a rat who wants to be a cook inspired by the famous chef August Gusteau who sneaks into a kitchen and forms an unlikely friendship with the unknowing son of Gusteau, Alfredo Linguini who can't cook. Remy directs him so that the two can cook together. Ratatouille is a film I really wanted to put in my top 5 and almost did but there's one scene I can't shake that I really dislike. If not for that, this would easily be multiple places higher. I think this film overall is great which is not surprising as it's another Brad Bird film. I like Remy and Linguini both as individuals and as a pair, a man who can't cook and a rat who can working together to be able to cook. I love the critic and his scene at the end commenting on openness to the new is the obvious highlight of the film everyone talks about, and yeah with good reason it's great. It's a great scene that teaches an important moral. I don't think the film NEEDED Skinner as a secondary villain, but he's fine. I REALLY like Colette, a female chef in that kitchen who is trying to prove herself in the male dominated industry and who is professional but intense, feeling like a really well balanced and compelling character. 

The one scene I don't like is Colette storms out and thinks Linguini has been horribly rude to her and moreover somewhat diminished her achievements she's worked so far. Linguini tries to explain that he's being controlled by a rat but can't get the words out so instead... he just kisses her. This doesn't read as romantic, this reads as sexual harassment and if I was Colette I would be horrified and furious. I don't get her response in this scene or how this solves anything that just happened. I really don't like this scene and without it this would definitely be in my Top 5. The fact that something that it happens and I still put the movie here I think shows I really do enjoy the rest of it. 

Comparing it to Toy Story 2, I mean Toy Story 2 doesn't have anything big and glaring as a problem like that, but I think Ratatouille has nearly the same level of charm and fun, while also being richer in thematic depth.

6: Finding Nemo

Finding Nemo is about a clownfish named Marlin who loses his love and all but one of their babies to a Barracuda. As a result Marlin becomes extremely overprotective of his son Nemo and in a fit of childish rebellion Nemo actually gets captured causing Marlin to go across the ocean to try and find his son. When I started this I had seen Finding Nemo when I was young and I remember liking it, but it wasn't like a favorite or anything. So I went into this I went in thinking "this will probably be pretty good." You forget just how good this film is. Marlin and Dory are both great and Marlin's determination makes for such a compelling motivation as you know and as the film slowly teaches him that his overprotectiveness is what caused his problem and that he has to learn to trust again. There's a lot of side characters in this movie and I think they're for the most pretty good, not exception but fun.

If I had any complaint it would be the stock misunderstanding scene where Marlin thinks Nemo is dead for plot reasons (Nemo was pretending to be dead to get flushed and Marlin happens to see him the moment he's pretending) which feels like artificial drama. Still that's a pretty small complaint overall, this film has tons of great scenes drawing from real ocean life and a great main duo. If I was comparing it to Ratatouile I don't think Finding Nemo has any one scene as good as Anton's review from Ratatouile and it has a higher average quality of character, but I do think the one bad scene in Finding Nemo is much less irksome to me then the one bad scene in Ratatouile, and I think the MAIN duo of Marlin and Dory we spend most of our time with are more compelling then MAIN duo of Remi and Linguini just personally. 

5: Turning Red

I hear this one is controversial, but just personally I thought this film was great! I'll be honest, part of it is that I connected to it. The film is about Mei Lee who's family had a spell put on them that upon reaching puberty if they experience any emotion that's too strong they turn into a giant red panda. I can kinda get why people don't like this film. It can rather in your face with its youthful slang-y way of speaking, it's over the top expressions and presentation mixed with the subject matter of puberty which some people find uncomfortable. With that said I found the mix rather charming. I LOVE Mei and her friends. They all have fun personalities and cute fun friendships. I like that the film gets unabashedly girly at times, how it's really peppy and charming. It was not at all a shock to me to hear the film's fandom has some overlap with Tokyo Mew Mew's cause that was definitely the kind of energy I got. The film can get uncomfortable at times, mostly due to Mei's mother Ming Lee who is a strict and overbearing mother presented in the film over's the top style but I did even find that part kind of compelling. I have known mothers like Ming Lee, Mei Lee's struggle to define herself apart from her mother's wishes is hard but compelling. 

And eveything about the climax is just incredible compelling and I really loved it. I get that others might be getting sick about everything has themes of generational trauma but I just really connected to this one and everything from the other Lee Family Women using their pandas to bring Ming back into the circle and then going inside her and 😭Comparing it to Finding Nemo the two actually have a fairly similar theme of an overbearing parent but I felt like even with Tyler being kind of a drag on the plot in Turning Red the average character quality was just so high, I loved all of Mei's friends and their relationships with each other, and I found Mei and Ming's relationship very compelling and dynamic in a way that Marlin and Nemo's doesn't get too since they're not around each other most of the film. 

4: The Incredibles

4 Words. Brad Bird Superhero Movie. In a world where superheroes are outlawed due to liability and damages, one of the greatest superheroes of his day, Mr. Incredible is living a dreary mundane existence when he gets a mysterious message asking him to come out of retirement for a secret mission. Great film, just a ton of fun all the way through. Brad Bird films (Incredibles, Ratatouille, The Iron Giant, Tomorrowland, Ghost Protocol) are often about individualism and anti-conformity/collectivism, the great individual misunderstood by society, and I very much appreciate them through that lens. The film's script is tight with fast pacing, fun dialogue and action, and engaging plot twists. Everything is so stylish in this film, I love the classic superhero aesthetic, the familial themes as the thing that Bob considered dreary and mundane is what saves him and helps him save the city. I love every major character in the film including Syndrome, probably my favorite Pixar villain able to hit the trifecta of threatening, entertaining, compelling. And really the central point is that I love both superheroes and familial themes and this film combines them together. 

Comparing it to Turning Red is actually pretty easily. It's not quite as emotional or personal to me, but the arguments in Incredibles pale in discomfort of Ming blaming Mei's friends for being bad influences on her. Like both are great but Turning Red I would definitely have to be in the mood for while Incredibles is just always a fun flick.

And now we get to the Top 3 and we go BEYOND A Tier. These are the three S Tier Pixar Films for me. All three of which I considered for being the number 1 movie on the list. It kills me to put any lowest but of them I would say 3 is...

3: Soul

Soul is about a man named Joe Gardner who is a middle school band teacher and aspires to be more and is just about to get his big break before falling into a coma from an accident. With the help of a soul named 22 who doesn't want to be born, he tries to return to his body. Soul is fantastic, and despite it being in the top 3, I really wanna put it higher. Soul at its best is the best of any Pixar film. The theme of the film about how there's no "purpose" to a soul, that you don't live life at some unspecified point, you're always living it is a very sophisticated and mature theme and it's presented absolutely beautiful. I know some people critique the film for having "too many diversions" but to me they're sort of the point, about living in each moment rather then imagining life will "begin" when something happens. The thing is compared to the other films in the Top 3 it does have a bit more that... it's not that I would say were bad, but I didn't like as much. I thought the villain of the film felt kinddddd of unnecessary and there's a LITTLE bit of the body swap reputational damage type thing when 22 accidentally ends up in Joe's body. I really can't stand that kind of body swap reputational damage though it's fairly subdued and brief in this film. I really enjoy how 22 starts to understand why living is beautiful from living through Joe's body, the life Joe was so quick to write off. This is a film that fills me the drive to celebrate just being alive. 

Comparing it to the Incredibles, both of them are great, I'd even go so far as to say there's more I dislike in Soul by a small bit. But Incredibles is great in a very conventional way for me. It's a got good theme and fun writing and compelling characters and an interesting plot and an aesthetic that appeals to me. It doesn't inspire me after I watch it to embrace life like Soul does. Much as I love Incredibles, my favorite Brad Bird movie is The Iron Giant and Soul is in THAT tier for me, the difference between a film that captivates me and a film that I really like. 

2: Inside Out

Inside Out is about the anthropomorphized emotions in 11 year old Riley's head as she moves across the country and Joy and Sadness, her repressed emotions quest to return after they are accidentally sucked out of the mind's headquarters. There's a number of Pixar Movies that are held up by one great scene, but the thing about Inside Out is that it has 3-4 top tier scenes like that which no other film can lay claim to. And it's not like the rest of the film is worse then average. I'd say most of Inside Out is a creative fun adventure on the better side of Pixar's usual with several top tier scenes pulling up further. Joy coming to understand the purpose of sadness, Bing-Bong's heroic sacrifice, and the Riley finally expressing her sadness to her parents are all scenes that compete with the best scene in any other Pixar film. Even outside the best scenes though the film is full of clever little scenes. I love how the other three emotions there try to mimic Joy and each times it comes out wrong like when Disgust tries to mimic Joy it comes as sarcastic or the way when we see inside the cool girl Riley has been worried to talk her emotions are just as messed up and worried about looking cool.

Soul vs Inside Out was probably THE single hardest conflict of these two, written and directed by the same person interestingly enough (Pete Docter.) Befitting their subject matters they are a film of the soul and the mind. Soul is more worldly and mature and its appeal is invigorating the spirit. Inside Out is more psychologically interesting and clearly allegorical scenes. The two have gone back and forth a lot in my mind. Right now I put Inside Out a bit higher because I feel like it's a bit more... cohesive? Like I don't think the very diversions in Soul are bad, they are part of the theme, that's not what I'm talking about. I think Soul's good and bad are more extreme then Inside Out which is more consistent but I think the faults in Soul also kinda feel out of place. Like the villain in Soul or some of the way conflict is presented between Joe and 22 near the end feels like it doesn't fully mesh with the mature atmosphere I really love about the film. Meanwhile while Inside Out also has flaws, they feel like the kinds of flaws you might expect the film to have. For instance early they're emphasizing how terrible the new place Riley is moving into is and they really exaggerate it to gild the lilly in a way that stretches disbelief, like when they go to a pizza place that only sells pizza with broccoli on it. I think that exaggeration is too much, but it's a flaw that I get where the writer was coming from, I get what it's doing in the movie whereas with Soul there's a couple things that I just feel like take me out of it a little. 

1: Wall-E

 You know before I started rewatching every Pixar film to rank them, Wall-E was my favorite. Inside Out and Soul both have it a run for its money, but I still think it's my favorite. In the future where the Earth has become a giant junkyard and man has fled to the stars, a trashbot named Wall-E diligently works piling garbage when he finds a plant, a strange oddity in this world. When a life scouting robot Eve comes to Earth to see if it's capable of life again, she and Wall-E will become involved in the process of returning humanity to the Earth. You know I think some people consider one of the Pixar movies that's held up by a great scene, namely the part before they get to the Axiom, or even moreso the silent part before Eve shows up. I do NOT agree with that. Not only do they only get to the Axiom like a third into the movie but I think the worst part of the film is the very start before Eve gets there. I think the starts with watching some adorable robot antics and it goes UP from there. From there we get Eve showing up and the start of their little adorable robot romance and then when Eve shuts down and Wall-E takes care of her without knowing, that's a really emotional trigger for me, people caring for others without the other ever knowing. Then we have them being transported to the Axiom with some honestly gorgeous space scenes, one of my favorite aesthetics. And then we actually get there and we get a ton of great things both in the middle and later third of the film. You have Auto and his computer like directive to keep the ship in space. You have Mo and the humor of his single minded pursuit to clean the dirty tracks Wall-E is leaving. You have Wall-E's drive to be helpful to Eve, the captain's joy learning about Earth. And the climax I think is genuinely underratedly. The scene of the captain actually learning to walk again, standing through pure willpower to the 2001 a space odyssey music is to me an amazing moment of sci-fi storytelling and Wall-E's sacrifice to try and hold the cubicle to receive the plant in. But the best scene in the movie is the "define dance" scene. Wall-E and Eve are in space, Wall-E using a fire extinguisher and Eve using her natural propulsion to zip around each other. Meanwhile the Captain is learning about Earth and asking the computer to define "dance" with the definition being put over the two cutesy robots playfully zipping around each other, a scene that expresses an innocent and beautiful joy expressed in a way humans wouldn't recognize by ourselves. I get that for some people the environmentalist message in the film is preachy but for me it's not really even about that, it's about the beauty of people coming together in love and connection. The people in Wall-E live isolated lives lazing about doing nothing and staring at their own screen unaware of the world around them. It's in fostering connection that people are able to stop Auto and allow humans to rebuild the Earth and their future together. 

I don't think that the Define Dance scene is quite as good as Joe's epiphany or Joy understanding Sadness' purpose but Wall-E does have less I disliked then either of the prior two. The bigger reason it's my number 1 though. Soul and Inside Out were both movies whose message was something I kinda already know. I know that we should value life and every moment as much as a hypothetical future, I know that we have a need to express the truth about our emotions even if unpretty. In many ways I was watching the films happy and agreeing, but just agreeing. Wall-E is a film that I use to temper my own natural inclination. I am in real life very introverted to the point of being mildly asocial. I believe in a radical individualism and a radical futurism. But Wall-E's dystopia, one in which humans have come purely atomized individuals taken care of entirely by machines is to me the most realistic dystopia for that reason. It's realistic and natural enough seeming to me that part of me even wonders if that would really even be a dystopia, if that's not the goal. But I understand that the movie is in part trying to temper that very feeling, that it is trying to teach that even a paradise without want if it is also without love and connection degrades the human condition regardless of if any technical coercion occurs. 

Pixar as a Film Company reminds me of Mangaka group Clamp. What both are able to do and gets them such acclaim is to find the magic in the mundane, to help one recontextualize the things you take for granted and the meaning that they have. But where Clamp does so by asking us to see as ourselves people or things from a different angles, Pixar asks us to see from that thing's perspective. Everything from their worst films to their best films are about taking mundane objects, animals, or phenomena and trying to express the world through that perspective. 

I wanna say we live in a time where empathy is low. Where people don't tend to consider the thoughts and feelings of others spurred on by the internet and polarization. But it's possible that we're seeing something that was always there, a certain part of the human experience that finds it hard to see through the eyes of another. But when I think of Pixar as a company, I think of the contrary tendency, the human tendency to see humanity in everything, to see people in the Moon, in clouds, in tea leaves, the ability of the human to agency in all things. This belief, dismissed as superstitious, to me seems a tool humans learn to understand and grow in connection. 

Einstein said "A person starts to live when he can live himself." Pixar's films are by genre children's film but are famously films that adults enjoy as well and I think it is because of this tendency above all, this human drive to see through the eyes of others. And if you didn't have that drive you certainly wouldn't be reading through this ranking right now, trying to see these movies through my eyes. As such I hope you enjoyed your little stay inside my universe.