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Best and Worst Pixar Films

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by Alma, Jul 3, 2015.

  1. Alma

    Alma Well-Known Member

    With Inside Out getting some of the "best Pixar movie ever" praises, and the fact that a lot of people on here love and/or actively dislike those movies, I figured a whole thread, taking stock of the Pixar film library at this point, would be useful.

    So here's a way of tackling this without having to remember every single one.

    What are your top 3-5 Pixar movies?

    Which Pixar movie do you not like/hate?

    Here's the full list of Pixar films.

    Here's how they performed at the box office.

    My top 3:

    The Incredibles - I prefer it to every superhero movie made, period.

    WALL-E - Dismissive of future humanity, I suppose, but otherwise very sweet, and visually stunning. You know those heart-soaring moments? WALL-E had several of those for me in the first half-hour.

    Ratatouille - The smallest scale Pixar film, which I like. Its ambition - this is true of Brad Bird's work - is examine motivation, talent, creativity.

    Two I didn't like:

    Toy Story 3 - I just found it unnecessarily dark. Prison camps, death by burning...strange, almost inappropriate echoes of historical events. Whatever the movie's virtues are, I found myself asking "what the fuck is this?" a couple times. There's personifying toys, and there's putting personified toys through something close to existential horror and it's like, enough.

    Monsters University - Tedious and contrived stuff that, given a million different ways to conceive higher education in an animated realm - even to the point of idealism - more or less dumps on college because of what I suspect were the creators' so-so or poor collegiate experiences.
     
  2. Vombatus

    Vombatus Well-Known Member

    I know you are concentrating on released feature films, but my favorite will always be the short film Luxo Jr. featuring two mechanical lamps and a ball. I saw that in 1987 and immediately knew the world of animation had changed. It's only two minutes long, but the light and shadow effects were outstanding, as well as the humanizing of the lamps.

    Luxo Jr. - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    I knew right then to pay attention to Pixar and invest in it. But it was private at the time, and I missed the boat when they went public and became part of Disney. Missed opportunities...

     
  3. outofplace

    outofplace Well-Known Member

    I was also surprised by how dark they went with Toy Story 3. I didn't dislike it, but felt it was an odd choice. Then again, you have to remember, these are often movies for adults that appeal to kids. There are some dark moments in many of the Pixar movies, though Toy Story 3 did go fairly far with it.

    Incredibles is also in my top three. Excellent movie. Lots of fun. But also some darkness to it, especially when Mr. Incredible finds the computer file with all the heroes being killed.

    Finding Nemo and Monsters, Inc. are the others in my top 3, but Toy Story and WALL-E could easily be in there.

    Monsters University is in my bottom 3 along with Cars. I'm betting Cars 2 would be there as well, but I never saw it. Aside from the one amazing sequence with the couple at the beginning, Up wasn't great, either. But man, that sequence is fantastic.
     
  4. outofplace

    outofplace Well-Known Member

    This is a good point. I love Pixar's short films, including the one before Inside Out.
     
  5. bigpern23

    bigpern23 Well-Known Member

    I'm surprised at the dislike for Monsters U here. It's arguably my favorite Pixar movie. The absurd armchair psychoanalysis from Alma aside, I thought the movie was quite funny ("I can't go back to jail!") and I enjoyed seeing the beginnings of Sully and Mike's friendship. The references to Monsters Inc. were also enjoyable.

    Brave is also among my top five (virtually tied with MU) and the Incredibles was awesome as well. Toy Story and Toy Story 2 round out the group.
     
    JC likes this.
  6. StaggerLee

    StaggerLee Well-Known Member

    My top five:

    1. Toy Story (hard to beat the original; and honestly who here didn't believe their toys came alive when they weren't home?)
    2. Finding Nemo (it's a dad thing)
    3. The Incredibles
    4. Monsters, Inc.
    5. UP (not the most popular Pixar movie, but I love it)

    My bottom three (really like them all, but if I had to list three):

    1. Toy Story 3 (just took a very good storyline and made it too dark)
    2. WALL-E (heartwarming and all, but sadly I get lost in the lack of dialogue)
    3. Brave (really wanted to like it, couldn't get into it)


    I do agree that a couple of the shorts would make my top 5 list. Loved Luxo Jr. and Geri's Game and For the Birds.
     
    expendable likes this.
  7. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    Excellent thread. I'm only going to do three.

    1. Toy Story (what Stagger said)
    2. The Incredibles (the one that hits the most adult levels, narrowly edging "Up")
    3. Cars

    Worst

    1. Cars 2 -- your basic lame sequel
    2. WALL-E -- lots of filmmaker arrogance in that first 30 minutes, sorry, I know I'm uncultured
    3. Brave
     
    Ace and StaggerLee like this.
  8. expendable

    expendable Well-Known Member

    Thanks for saving me all that typing. I agree with your list 100 percent.
     
    StaggerLee likes this.
  9. BurnsWhenIPee

    BurnsWhenIPee Well-Known Member

    BEST
    1. Up: The only one of these that made me cry. Outstanding movie, IMO.
    2. Incredibles
    3. Monsters, Inc.

    WORST
    1. Wall-E. Hated this movie. Definitely what LTL said.
    2. Toy Story 3. Like Wall-E, I couldn't see why everyone in the world fell in love with it.
    3. Cars 2

    Aside from Wall-E and Toy Story 3, I'd be happy to watch pretty much anything they've put out on a given evening. Their batting average is a pretty impressive one.
     
    StaggerLee likes this.
  10. StaggerLee

    StaggerLee Well-Known Member

    Monsters U barely misses my Top 5, and only because I'm a softie and Up gets me every time. But as far as sequels go, it's my favorite Pixar sequel (just ahead of Toy Story 2). Like you said, I loved the prequel part of it, going back in time to see how Mike became Mike and Sully became Sully. And as Pixar loves to do, some good subtle adult humor to keep my wife interested.

    We'll just have to agree to disagree on Brave. LOL
     
    bigpern23 likes this.
  11. expendable

    expendable Well-Known Member

    Finding Nemo came out when my oldest was two or three. We bought a portable DVD player for a trip to Florida. I heard Nemo seven times before I insisted that her mother drive, and allow me to watch the eighth run through. It was like seeing the movie version of a book. Priceless memory.
     
    bigpern23 likes this.
  12. DeskMonkey1

    DeskMonkey1 Active Member

    I like Toy Story 3 but my wife and I watched and decided our then toddler would not be allowed to watch it.

    Only for the babysitter to show it to her. A little girl who loved monkeys was suddenly afraid of them and it took a lot of bullshit from my wife and I to convince her the scary monkey wasn't scary. ("he was confused, honey, see how they are all friends at the end?"
     
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