For nearly 15 years, Pixar has had one successful computer animated movie after another. They’ve pretty much carried the legacy of quality Disney animated films (especially since Disney themselves hasn’t been doing that in a long while). I’m a huge Pixar fan because of their works, and in honor of Wall-E being recently released in theaters, I’m going to list the Pixar films in order of my least to most favorite.

Now, keep in mind that even though the ones on the bottom of my list aren’t my favorite, that doesn’t mean I don’t like them. Heck no, I like all Pixar movies. It’s just that some I like better than others, that’s all. Well with that out of the way, let’s get started.

9. A Bug’s Life
Pixar’s second movie is on the bottom of my favorites list. It just felt a little more generic and paled in comparison to Toy Story. Plus it’s also the only Pixar movie I don’t own on DVD yet. But that doesn’t mean I don’t like it. It’s still a fun and charming movie, and sometimes when it’s on the Disney Channel, I’ll sit and watch it for a while, if not all the way through. And the two little pill bug acrobats were funny.

I’m sure that many people on the Internet have talked about this before, but A Bug’s Life has made me wonder if DreamWorks copies Pixar on their movies. For instance, right before A Bug’s Life, we had Antz. After Finding Nemo we had Shark Tale (which was a horrible movie). It’s stretching it a bit, but DreamWorks has a Robots movie to kind of go with Wall-E (the Robots movie also sucked). I’m sure that DreamWorks isn’t REALLY copying Pixar or vice versa, but it does kind of seem suspicious sometimes, doesn’t it? Oh well, I really don’t think about stuff like that too much. I just have fun watching the movies.

8. Ratatouille
Again, even though Ratatouille is at the bottom of my list, it’s still a great movie. I guess I don’t like it as much because it’s hard to identify with a rat, and I don’t have a huge passion for cooking like Remy does. However, if you love cooking, than Ratatouille should be one of your favorite movies! It’s certainly a very clever movie, and definitely has a more ‘adult’ theme than any of the other Pixar films.

I have the Ratatouille DVD, and one of my favorite things on it is the short film: “Your Friend the Rat.” It has Remy and his brother talking about the history of rats, and it’s both funny and informative at the same time. For instance, did you know the Black Plague wasn’t caused by rats, but by fleas living on the rats? The short film also has the 1960’s art style of some of Disney’s other educational films, like Plunk, Toot, Boom, and…uh…well I forget what that film was called, but it’s the one that has the caveman playing musical instruments. You know, I’m surprised that they haven’t made a Cooking Mama style Ratatouille game yet. Or maybe they did, I really don’t play Pixar video games much.

7. The Incredibles
The only reason why this is more towards the bottom of my list is because I’m not really that big into superheroes and comic books much. But this is definitely the most action-packed of all the Pixar movies (probably one of the reasons for the PG rating). I also like the family themes in the movie, they implemented that fairly well, too. And I also like the stylized look of the characters. They didn’t try to make them look like humans (some adult characters are shorter than the kids), and I think the film benefitted because of the style.

The DVD of The Incredibles had some of the best special features of any of the Pixar DVDs. Bios of all sorts of superheroes, and the funny short film from the perspective of the babysitter who watched The Incredibles’ baby Jack-Jack while they were on their adventure (Jack-Jack is awesome). But the funniest of all was the short film about the ‘animated’ adventures of Mr. Incredible that was a spoof of Clutch Cargo! You know, the old ‘cartoon’ which had stills of drawings of people and their mouths were real people’s lips (like the painting at the beginning of SpongeBob).

6. Wall-E
The placement of Wall-E on my list isn’t set in stone. As I just saw this movie a week or so ago, I’ll need some more time to think about it and mill it over and compare with other Pixar movies before I really decide how much I like Wall-E. By the time I get the Wall-E DVD, it may be higher or lower on my list (most likely higher, though).

Since Wall-E is still out in theaters, I won’t talk about it too much here. It’s basically a charming and simple love story between two robots, but the adventure they go on to save the human race and the planet has kind of an environmental message, too. I really liked the lack of dialogue in the beginning of the movie. It gave the film an artsy feel to it, and I like artsy animation stuff. Plus it also gave room for a lot of physical comedy, which I also enjoy.

When I took the family to see Wall-E, me and Jeff both loved it. But I don’t think my mom liked it as much. She said she didn’t like how everyone in the movie was fat from depending on machines too much. And she also didn’t like how they shoved the environmental message down your throat. I guess I can kind of agree with her on that last part. Remember back in the early 90’s when every form of kids’ entertainment, from movies, cartoons, and even some video games had a ‘save the planet’ message (FernGully, Captain Planet, Super Widget, etc.)? I got so tired of that it made me want to DESTROY the environment! (Well, not really)

Of course, the main reason why I liked Wall-E is because I like cute helpful little robot characters. Like Tron Bonne’s Servebots from the Mega Man Legends games. I love those little guys. Those are some of the best and funniest characters Capcom ever created. You know who else Wall-E reminds me of? (and this is an insult to Wall-E, really) Anyone remember “Johnny 5” from the Short Circuit movie? When I was little I thought that movie was so funny. But a couple of years ago I found the Short Circuit DVD in the $2 DVD bin at Wal-Mart, and after watching it I was like, “Holy crap, this movie is awful. Was that supposed to be funny?” I must’ve had horrible tastes as a kid. Wall-E is a million times better than that.

One last thing about Wall-E. When we went to see it, the theater was PACKED with kids. But when the movie started, I didn’t hear a peep out of any of them. Why was that? They were captivated by the movie, and I think Pixar has that effect on kids. And me, too! Fun sci-fi from Pixar (I don’t think Disney really has very many sci-fi movies, do they?)

5. Monsters Inc.
Monsters Inc. is a good example of a movie on this list that I had to think about for a while before putting it so high up. When I first saw Monsters Inc. in theaters, I didn’t like it as much. But after milling it over and watching it again when the DVD was released, I realized it was a much more beautiful film than what I first gave it credit for. A few months before Monsters Inc. was in theaters, the CG film: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within came out. It claimed to have realistic looking humans and animation, but a little CG toddler girl who sang nonsense songs while on the potty ended up being a more believable character than anyone in that Final Fantasy flop. I also liked the commentary by Pixar employees’ kids during the Mike’s New Car short on the DVD.

4. Cars
Cars really probably doesn’t deserve to be so high up on my list. It didn’t really have any groundbreaking animation, and the story wasn’t very original either. And the DVD of Cars had the most disappointing selection of extras of any Pixar DVD (though the Easter Egg of the Cars version of the Boundin’ short was quirky weird fun). I think it’s the four-year-old kid in me who liked Cars so much. I’ve always been fascinated by personification with cars, and therefore intrigued by such things as the old Tex Avery taxi cab cartoon, the Putt Putt video games from Humongous, and even Herbie the Love Bug and Knight Rider. Plus I have a lot of relatives who kind of act like Mater the tow truck.

My favorite complaint about Cars is when I read that one of the reasons why someone didn’t like the movie was because there were no humans in the film, and yet the cars and buildings had human sized doors and rear view mirrors and such. Oh brother! I can’t believe how popular Cars is in the toy aisle, though. The Cars section at Wal-Mart is as big as the Hot Wheels section!

I do have the Cars video game for Xbox 360. Found it real cheap after I first got my 360 (has it really been almost a year?). At that time, I was really enjoying Ridge Racer 6. And after playing Cars at E3 and remembering that it played halfway decent for a kids game, I decided to pick it up. It’s still a neat racing game for kids, but it ain’t no Ridge Racer. And driving around Radiator Springs trying to find the next race is about as fun as, well, driving in the desert.

Guido was awesome in the movie, though. “Pit Stop.”

3. Toy Story
Pixar’s first full length CG animated movie. Actually I think it was THE first full length animated movie period! Groundbreaking on so many levels, and a timeless classic, I could probably write a whole blog on Toy Story and its sequel alone. I should probably watch Toy Story again just to see how more than ten years has treated it and see if it aged well. I have the big Toy Box DVD set with Toy Story, the sequel, and a whole ‘nuther DVD full of special bonus features and stuff.

Toy Story is probably one of the best things out of Disney of all time. It also amazes me how some made up toy characters were so beloved that kids wanted REAL toys out of them. I remember tons of Buzz Lightyears being sold, and kids even wanted Woody, too. You can still find Toy Story action figures even today! “To Infinity…And Beyond!” is still a recognizable movie quote.

Too bad the video game of Toy Story sucked. This was back in the 16-bit days, and Donkey Kong Country with its pre-rendered graphics was king of the jungle. They tried a similar approach with Toy Story and failed.

2. Toy Story 2
Usually sequels aren’t as good as the original, but in this case, Toy Story 2 is just as good, if not a little better, than the first one. Just as funny, timeless, and classic, with a great message, too. In the first movie, my favorite character was Mr. Potato Head (I bet Hasbro loved how it helped boost sales of the spud). But in the sequel, I liked the T-Rex because he became a video game addict, which I think some of us can identify with.

Toy Story 2 also had a lot of hilarious gags that made fun of itself and other stuff. I loved how they brought back ‘clueless’ Buzz Lightyear. And as you may know, Pixar had a tradition to do ‘outtakes’ at the end of the credits, and the outtakes in Toy Story 2 are some of my favorites. I especially loved it when Mrs. Potato Head was packing stuff into her husband’s butt (boy that doesn’t sound too good, does it), and she packed all sorts of random stuff (“Here’s a dime…call me.”).

Speaking of outtakes, one of my most memorable video games (for many reasons), is Pac-Man World on the PSOne. I knew some of the developers of that game, and the levels and cutscenes were inspired by their trips to Disneyland, and Pixar’s films. In fact, you could unlock Pac-Man World outtakes in the game that were really funny.

And now, my number one favorite Pixar film is (drum roll, please)…

1. Finding Nemo
Yup, it’s my favorite one. It’s the most visually stunning of all the Pixar films, in my opinion. Everyone says CG water is hard to do, and yet Pixar made a whole movie about water and it looks gorgeous. If I had a big screen TV and a Blu-Ray player, I think Finding Nemo would be the first Blu-Ray disc I’d get! (is Finding Nemo out on Blu-Ray?) The DVD of Finding Nemo has lots of great stuff on it, at least. I also really like the story, and there are good lessons for both adults and kids. And the characters are fun, too. I’m not really a big Ellen fan, but she did such a good job with her character in this one. As did the others. I’d like to see a series about Nemo and his friends going on adventures and learning lessons along the way, but I imagine that would cheapen things. Finding Nemo also had my most favorite of all Pixar gags: the “Mine! Mine!” seagulls. I guess the only thing I don’t like about Finding Nemo is that when kids think of Nemo, they’ll always think of a clownfish instead of Winsor McKay’s artistic comic strip from the early 1900’s.

Bonus Shorts
As an extra treat, I thought I’d talk a little about my favorite Pixar shorts. I like them all, really, except for maybe Jerri’s Game and One Man Band. But my favorite Pixar short is probably For The Birds (if you blink, you’ll miss ’em in Cars). I also like Tin Toy and Lifted. And the new Presto short before Wall-E for its Looney Tunes style slapstick. And it also reminded me of Portal (anyone else thought Eve looked like a turret from Portal, too?).

And that’s all I have for now. What are your favorite Pixar films?

Tags: Misc