Quickly, the list:
- Toy Story
- A Bug's Life
- Toy Story 2
- Monsters, Inc.
- Finding Nemo
- The Incredibles
- Cars
- Ratatouille
- Wall-E
- Up
- Toy Story 3
- Cars 2
- Brave
- Monsters University
- Inside Out
- The Good Dinosaur
- Finding Dory
- Cars 3
- Coco
- Incredibles 2
It has long been my contention that in 2010 with the release of Toy Story 3 Pixar began a long slide off of the top of the mountain of being the greatest animation film maker in the world, a title reclaimed by Disney. Tangled was also released that year, and while Tangled isn't as good as Toy Story 3, it is far closer to the original Golden Age of the '30s for Disney in terms of look and design, and it marked a reversal of their earlier efforts.
Meet the Robinson's (2007) and Bolt (2008) aren't bad, really, but it's obvious that Disney is playing catch-up in terms of digital animation and storytelling. I mean, dang, compare those two with Pixar's two from the same years: Ratatouille and Wall-E.
Wreck-It Ralph came out the same year as Brave, in 2012, and it appeared the gap between Disney's in-house digital animation group and Pixar had finally disappeared. Frozen's 2013 smash-hit brought more shine to Disney than the prequel Monsters University brought to Pixar in that same year, and by now the eclipse has complete.
Pixar's best two films between 2013 and 2018, Inside Out (I didn't like it as much as many other people) and Coco (I may love it more than many other people) compare favorably, if not being better than, Disney's two best films during that same timeframe: Zootopia and Moana.
If I were to rank those four, it would look like:
- Distant 4th: Inside Out
- Tie for Second: Moana
- Tie: Coco
- First: Zootopia
I may be torn in my feelings about Frozen, but between Wreck-It Ralph, Zootopia, and Moana, Disney has fully reclaimed the mantle, despite the excellence of Coco.
And here we're only talking about two animation producers and a single distributor! What a time to be alive!
Anyway, back to my desire to talk more about Pixar...
A Brief Note about the Cars Trilogy
I've always felt that the worst Pixar movie between Toy Story and Toy Story 3, a fifteen year era that saw 11 movie releases and the absolute height of Pixar's dominance, was Cars. And over the summer when I was inspired to do this listy-shenanigans post by other writers similarly minded listy-shenanigans, nearly all of them had the Cars sequels near the bottom of the list, as in the worst of the worst.
I have yet to see Cars 2. Cassius loved Cars so much that he eventually broke the DVD and now I haven't seen that installment for a few months. BUT, Cars 3 is on Netflix and has replaced the original as the Boy's go-to talking Car movie. I can say that I've seen the first and third movies recently.
I, too, would rank them near the bottom of any Pixar ranking, but in a vacuum, both movies fit on a continuum, bookending the main car, Lightning McQueen's, lifecycle from star rookie to flailing elder, and are pretty good as a pair.
Hearing that Cars 2 is a spy spoof starring mostly 'Mater, the tow-truck voiced by Larry the Cable Guy, with maybe some racing on the Euro circuit, I could see this movie filling the 20th spot on a list, with the first and third, taken together, represent a salvage of the talking-car theme to possibly higher up the list.
Other Brief Notes
I'd like to mention later some thoughts on Brave, Inside Out, and The Good Dinosaur. Also I'd like to voice my disappointment with Finding Dory's setting at the Morro Bay Aquarium (a fictional place) while not actually showing Morro Rock at anytime during the film's running time.
So...how would you rank the movies? Would your ranking be in terms of best or in terms of favorite? Are those the same for you guys? My list may look something like this, but it could change with the weather...(I'm only going with five)
- Finding Nemo
- Ratatouille
- Toy Story 3
- Coco
- Wall-E
What about Monsters, Inc and Up? And the OG Toy Story?
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