We seem to achieved the consensus, or at least a majority, that The Incredibles is the best of Pixar.
Doing some not-too-scientific Excel analysis, here is the totals so far:
Score is average per vote:
The Incredibles - 7.86
Up - 7.52
Toy Story - 6.80
WALL-E - 6.55
Ratatouille - 6.47
Toy Story 2 - 6.45
Finding Nemo - 6.15
Monsters, Inc. - 6.00
A Bug’s Life - 4.26
Cars - 3.82
By total votes, indicating they’d been seen:
The Incredibles - 36
Toy Story - 35
WALL-E - 33
Finding Nemo - 33
Monsters, Inc. - 33
A Bug’s Life - 31
Ratatouille - 30
Toy Story 2 - 29
Cars - 28
Up - 25
So Up has been seen the least (not surprising), but when it was voted for, it was voted for highly.
The Incredibles was listed as the top movie on 18 lists, beating out the next three (almost four) movies combined.
I find the fact that Ratatouille is above Toy Story 2 appalling and a clear sign of the coming apocalypse.
My rankings:
- Toy Story
- Toy Story 2
- The Incredibles
- WALL-E
- Up
.
.
(big drop off)
.
. - Finding Nemo
- Monsters, Inc.
.
(medium drop off)
. - Cars
- A Bugs Life
.
.
.
(giant gaping chasm)
.
.
. - Ratatouille
Pretty good:
Toy Story 2
Not bad, but I haven’t had the urge to watch them a second time:
Toy Story
Monsters, Inc.
Finding Nemo
Got so bored I never finished watching:
The Incredibles
Ratatouille
WALL-E
Haven’t attempted to watch yet:
A Bug’s Life
Cars
Up
Just out of curiosity, what was it about “Ratatouille” that you found so distasteful? I’m not sure I’d rank it above “Toy Story 2” (although I find TS2’s Dreamworksian reliance on pop culture references annoying enough that I’d strongly consider it), but I thought “Ratatouille” was a lovely little story, well told, with some really strong characters (Remy and Anton Ego, especially) and absolutely gorgeous visuals. Certainly nothing offensive enough to merit the “giant gaping chasm” treatment.
Ratatouille just wasn’t for me.
I am not a foodie, & don’t like rats in the places I eat anyway.
Finding Nemo
Up
Toy Story 2
WALL-E
The Incredibles
Toy Story
Monsters, Inc.
Ratatouille
Cars
Haven’t seen:
A Bug’s Life
Agree that the first half of WALL-E is brilliant, the second half is not so great.
Toy Story
The Incredibles
WALL-E
Finding Nemo
Up
Monsters, Inc
Toy Story 2
A Bug’s Life
Ratatouille
Cars (the only one I have not seen and have absolutely no interest in seeing.)
Tie between The Incredibles and Up!
Finding Nemo very close second (third?)
Monsters, Inc
Toy Story
Toy Story 2
Cars
Ratatouille
Wall-E
Haven’t seen A Bug’s Life, and can’t say I have any desire to see it.
And frankly, the movies on the bottom of the list are by no means remotely bad movies; they just didn’t have the emotional resonance for me that the top movies did. The thing that makes my top-ranked movies seem so great to me is that they make it very clear that someone at Pixar truly, deeply, fundamentally understands the beating heart of family relationships.
-
Finding Nemo (This movie is absolutely hilarious and poignant. And it’s got so many nice little touches. Every scene helps underscore and detail Marlin’s crazy, tangled emotions, until they get all unwrapped in the end.)
-
Up (This one was very, very close to getting the No. 1 spot. There was just one scene that was off. Just one.)
-
Monsters Inc. (I really loved the chase scene in the door factory. That was brilliantly constructed. And the emotions between the two leads was surprisingly clever. I didn’t like how the larger conspiracy with Roz and Waternoose was sort of crammed in there, though.)
-
Ratatoullie (This one was tricky to rate, since taken individually, a lot of parts of this movie were merely good rather than amazing or powerful. And I didn’t like the relative lack of humor either. But what really put it up there was the breadth of the story. Say what you will about this movie, it is ambitious–it managed to fit two main plots (Remy’s rise to success, and the Anton Ego challenge) along with several subplots into a single movie. And it didn’t feel cramped! At least to me. Also, I’d be amiss if I didn’t mention this one scene, so small as to be missed easily. Near the beginning, Remy is explaining to his brother why he loves cooking so much. He eats a strawberry, and these new-age light patterns and a beat comes in. He eats another fruit, different patterns and beat. And then together, and they combine into something greater. I thought it was the best depiction of taste on-screen…ever.)
-
Toy Story 2 (Plotwise, I think this one’s better than the original. And again, very funny. And the characterization is so effective. And that one scene…heartbreaking. But I always thought that there was something distant about this movie. It might just be timing–I haven’t seen it in years.)
-
WALL-E (This one had so much potential. The emotional level that the robots could attain, the lack of dialogue, the beautiful yet eerie landscape… But they got careless. This movie came off as a preachy pro-green propaganda piece. I know that wasn’t their intention. I know Pixar officials have come out and said they hadn’t intended for it to look like that. But it did. And the addition of that moral really trivialized the greatness they had built in the first three-quarters (most people say half, but the fire extinguisher dance was too beautiful to be discarded) of the movie.)
-
Toy Story (There were a lot of good things in this movie. The atmosphere between all the toys was so incredibly natural. It was funny in a lot of places. But I didn’t like Woody. I think he really put himself over the line, and I have trouble accepting his redemption at the end.)
-
The Incredibles (Intellectually, I can understand why so many people like this movie. I see why it is lauded, I see the appeal, but it just didn’t click for me personally. I dunno.)
-
A Bug’s Life (Part of this is that I hate bugs. Part of it is that I never really sat down and watched the whole thing. Probably. I don’t remember much about this movie.)
Haven’t seen Cars, though I suspect it wouldn’t hit higher than 8.
I’m not either, and I liked it. I thought the themes were more universal than the food framework. But hey, de gustibus and all that.
And to someone earlier in the thread: Remy never talks, except to other rats. I remember that because I always hate it when animals can randomly talk to everyone, or to all animals except humans, for some reason.
-
Ratatouille (I can’t help it, I’m a foodie. Loved this one to death.)
-
The opening scenes of Up
-
The Incredibles
-
Wall-E
-
Finding Nemo
-
The rest of Up
-
Toy Story 2
-
Monsters, Inc
Haven’t seen the rest.
Note: I still really liked even the bottom of my list, Monsters, Inc. Pixar is just good at making movies.
I thought Up started absolutely brilliantly. Once the house is in the air, though, I really thought it got a bit pedestrian. I enjoyed it, but it didn’t stick.
The Home Runs
The Incredibles - There have been few characters I have been able to sympathize with as much as Bob Parr. His arc was absolutely moving. And the rest of the family was great as well. Add in good humor, fun action, and a fantastically evocative score and we have a winner.
Finding Nemo - What “Taken” wishes it had been. A great exploration into family relationships and the neuroses they engender.
Up - The single most moving 2 minutes of media I’ve seen this year. Then it slowly works into a payoff that the whole movie builds toward. There were a few bumps along the way, some scenes I wasn’t fond of, but as a whole it works brilliantly.
The Very Good
Toy Story - The story of two men (toys) driven to be the best father (figures) they can be. A touch long in the tooth at this point but still a solid entry.
Toy Story 2 - OK yes, the song was the emotional heart of the movie. But the other themes were also surprisingly adult and well executed.
Monsters, Inc. - Fun and moving.
The Merely Good
WALL-E - As others have said the first half is a tour-de-force. But I did find at least the captain to have a compelling story as well.
Ratatouille - I’m not a foodie, so it didn’t speak to me in that way. But again the family relationships were spot on. And the ending was a fun twist.
Cars - Utterly predictable and unsurprising. If you haven’t figured out exactly where all the main characters will end up within 2 minutes of their appearance, you’ve never seen a movie in your life. And it still manages to entertain. That is an accomplishment.
The Disappointment
A Bug’s Life - Yep, I’ve seen this before. And I’ve seen it done better. I don’t regret seeing it. But it doesn’t really rate with the others.
The animation in the movie is simply astounding, that much is true and I give it credit for that. But, Pixar as a rule sucks horribly with handling real human characters and it’s no more apparent than in this film where most of the main characters are human. The characterization of the male and female lead is so clumsy and artificial that it could have been a episode of Saved by the Bell. Take away the Pixar animation from this film and the story wouldn’t even hold up on Lifetime channel. Remy isn’t cute or in any way sympathetic. He likes to cook, fantastic, but where’s the drama and the peril? The story does absolutely nothing to put the rat into real danger and if he’s found out he goes back to his family in the sewer, big deal. Linguini isn’t a redeemable character, he’s terrible at his job and aside from being a relative of Gusteau has no business in the kitchen and I’m supposed to somehow be happy that he gets the girl and the restaurant? Nevermind the giant shoehorned deus ex machina in the middle.
I liked the scene with Ego’s flashback, it was nice, but aside from that and the excellent animation the story and characters are god awful. Even the story and relationships in Cars have more depth and substance and are more believable to boot.
Toy Story 2
Up
Monsters, Inc.
WALL-E
Ratatouille
The Incredibles
Finding Nemo
Toy Story
Cars
I have not seen A Bug’s Life
Probably prorated a little bit for recentness and turtle content lol
Finding Nemo
Up
WALL-E
Toy Story
Toy Story 2
Monsters, Inc.
A Bug’s Life
Cars
Saw but fell asleep, but probably up there with Monsters:
The Incredibles
Did not see:
Ratatouille
Toy Story
A Bug’s Life
Toy Story 2
Monsters, Inc.
Finding Nemo
The Incredibles
2. WALL-E
- Up
Haven’t seen: Cars, Ratatouille
The only ones I really liked were 1 and 2. WallE I mainly liked simply because they had the guts to tell this story. I really doubt it would have been greenlighted by a Hollywood company. Up is heading into one of my all-time favorites.
Finding Nemo wasn’t very good, imho. Ever since “Field of Dreams,” they realized they can take advantage of the 50something% of men who didn’t grow up with fathers. I call these movies “making men cry” films. It worked 20 years ago, but it got stale, fast.
Regardless of whether I liked any of the other films though, I really have to give Pixar a lot of credit for putting storytelling first, and even their worst films are incredibly better than the dreck put out by Hollywood now.
I divide Pixar films into two tiers and it’s hard for me to separate the six films in the first tier. Each of them is marvellous but also has a few flaws and in some of them action finale doesn’t quite do justice to what has gone before.
Incredibles
Toy Story 2
Up
Ratatouille
Wall-E
Finding Nemo
Toy Story
Monsters Inc
Cars
A Bug’s Life
The main problem with Toy Story is that IMO the limited technology got in the way of the story; for example the dog was horribly unconvincing. Otherwise I would include it in the top tier. Certainly it’s one of the most important and innovative films in the history of cinema. The other three films are quite enjoyable but little more.
The Incredibles
Toy Story
Toy Story 2
Ratatouille
A Bug’s Life
Monsters, Inc.
Haven’t seen :
Finding Nemo
Cars
WALL-E
Up