Recently, everyone’s favorite fish story, Finding Nemo, was thrown back into the box office ocean in all three dimensions. While I won’t be paying more money to see a movie I already saw years ago, I will take this opportunity to give Pixar the credit they deserve. Join me in celebrating this animation juggernaut as I go through what I think are the Top 5 Pixar Movies.
5. Toy Story
I actually debated clumping the Toy Story trilogy into one unit on this countdown, but that wouldn’t be doing this film justice. I saw this film on VHS 17 years ago as a young boy. By the way, can you believe that 1995 was 17 years ago? No matter how many years go by, the original Toy Story is still an amazing movie and genius marketing strategy.
The animation is outdated now, but still has charm. The characters are memorable, and the toys in the house next door are still terrifying and give children nightmares. What more could you want?
4. Finding Nemo
No surprise that Finding Nemo is here since it did convince me to make this list. The beginning is almost as depressing as the one in Up, but there is actually a true father-son bond here rather than a weird one between an old man and a young boy scout.
The animation is beautiful even to this day and almost good enough to swindle 3D money out of you. Somehow, Finding Nemo makes us care about fish and also has Ellen DeGeneres not voicing an annoying character. Well, not a really annoying character anyway.
3. WALL-E
As a man who enjoys good writing enough to try and survive off of it, I adore WALL-E. This film manages to be bursting with emotion and drama despite the fact that the main characters are a toaster and an iPhone 76. WALL-E can’t even talk, and we still care about it.
What the heck does the screenplay even look like for this movie? “SCENE 1: WALL-E rolls around and gathers garbage. SCENE 2: WALL-E gathers more junk. SCENE 3: WALL-E gathers garbage and rolls around. SCENE 4: WALL-E gathers trash in an extremely heartwarming manner.”
2. Toy Story 3
I could argue that this is one of the best movies ever made. It is currently the 8th highest grossing film of all time. It is the first animated film to make $1 billion worldwide. Besides making buckets of duckets, it is also masterfully written and blinds you with its beauty. The true genius of this film, however, is when it came out.
As I said, the first Toy Story came out when I was the same age as the main character. I was still the same age as the main character when Toy Story 3 came out. To be fair, the Harry Potter books beat Toy Story to the punch on this strategy. What Harry Potter didn’t do was also manage to make our parents overly emotional, as well.
I imagine most parents watched the original Toy Story with their kids like mine did. If so, watching Toy Story 3’s ending will make them cry. If they didn’t, the ending will still make them cry. Even if you had your tear ducts surgically removed, the ending of Toy Story 3 will make you cry from your ears or something. It is that good.
1. The Incredibles
I am well aware that The Incredibles being number one on this list is solely a personal opinion. Many will disagree with me, and that’s perfectly fine. Tell me what your top Pixar movie is down in the comments. I can always use more excuses to talk about Pixar.
Anyway, The Incredibles is one of my favorite movies because of its music, unique style, and incredibly well done characters. The sleek, exaggerated character designs fit perfectly with the film’s comic book world. The Incredible family is one of the most likeable and believable movie families I have ever seen.
The Incredibles is also unquestionably Pixar’s darkest movie. This film is darker than a wet match lying in the blackest shadow inside the abandoned writing room of a Twilight movie. The villain, Syndrome, is also expertly developed, and he has a good reason for being such a cold monster. Finally, SAMUEL! L! JACKSON! plays Frozone and doesn’t swear once. It must be seen to be believed.
These are the five movies I would personally rank as Pixar’s best. If you disagree, feel free to say so in the comments. That is the whole point of lists like this anyway. I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone’s top five is completely different. As long as we can all agree that Cars 2 was the worst by a mile.
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