Ranking the Pixar Movies

I'll admit it; I'm a sucker for Pixar movies.  They're nearly perfect in every way, even though they're so simple on the surface (plots center on fish, toys, bugs, trash, and cars).  But maybe that's why they're so successful; because we can all understand and enjoy them regardless of age.  Their combined 11 Oscar wins only validate their greatness.

They're so good and timelesss that if we survive the looming 2012 apocalypse I can guarantee that twenty years from now, I'm going to dust off the old DVD player and pop in Monsters Inc. and enjoy it with my children. 

Pixar has rolled out a dozen films over the past decade and a half, and almost all of them have been top notch movies that satisfy critics and audiences alike.  Although its budgets have swelled from $30 million for 1995's Toy Story to a blockbuster-like $200 million for Toy Story 3 and Cars 2, they're worth every invested penny because these movies are more bankable than Will Smith.  They rake in cash faster than an experienced card counter at a blackjack table in Vegas, never failing to hit the $360 million benchmark for worldwide gross.  Simply put, these flicks put lots of butts in those cushy movie theatre seats.

Quick tangent.  Interestingly, the studio's first half dozen films except for Finding Nemo came out in November as holiday season movies, whereas the last half dozen have premiered during the late spring/early summer and have competed with (and often surpassed) the summer blockbusters.  I'm guessing Pixar could release a movie during the slowest weekend of the year (usually the one closest to New Year's) and still own the box office.

But how would you rank them?  Subjectively, this task appeared nearly impossible at the beginning.  I mean, how in the world do you pick between Finding Nemo and WALL-E?  It's like choosing between your children.  These movies all have great characters, meaningful lessons, and Randy Newman's music, yet they are also unique and maintain strong senses of identity. They are just so darn good, I needed a little help from some movie websties to put them in order.  I conducted my ratings by summing up IMDb ratings (converted to 100 points to give them equal weight), Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes, and while some rankings were easy to predict I found others to be quite surprising.

12. Cars 2 (2011)
IMDb 65/100
MC 57/100
RT 38/100
Total=160
Pretty obvious.  The disappointing sequel bombed with critics and audiences, and no amount of Oscar recognition can save it from itself.  It is easily the worst Pixar film to date (but still not a bad movie) and will hopefully discourage the company from thinking about a Cars 3.  This one felt less like a Pixar movie and more like a James Bond flick, and if I wanted to see Daniel Craig kicking some butt this summer I would have waited for Cowboys and Aliens, right?  I'm not sure if less Owen Wilson was a good thing or a bad thing, but I do know that there was way too much Larry the Cable Guy.  The world just didn't need a second Cars movie, just like we don't need five pound cheeseburgers, segways and houses with nine bathrooms.  But I digress....

11. Cars (2006)
IMDb 74
MC 73
RT 74
Total=221
Intriguing premise set it on the fast track to greatness before it was likely derailed by Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) acting like a total jerk (imagine a completely watered-down Ricky Bobby) until the last act of the movie.  We don't watch Pixar movies to see friendless, selfish, egotistical meanies treat everyone like crap. Cars was the only Pixar film that failed to win the "Best Animated Feature" Oscar between 2000 and 2011, so that should tell you something, too.  I'm actually surprised it scored so well with critics and audiences considering it had been widely regarded as Pixar's worst movie until Cars 2 came along.

10. A Bug's Life (1998)
IMDb 73
MC 77
RT 91
Total=241
Pixar waited three years to make its second movie and didn't fall very short of the high bar it had set for itself.  Don't confuse this with Antz, which is very similar but different enough to stand on its own.  For instance, the ants in this one look round and blue whereas the ones in Antz are brown and thin.  As good as this movie was, I think I like the animated short (where the old guy plays chess with himself) attached to it even more.  I can't for the life of me figure out how Cars has a higher rating on IMDb.

9. Monster's Inc. (2001)
IMDb 80 (#242 all-time)
MC 78
RT 95
Total=253
We learned that the monsters lurking in the nooks and crannies of our closets aren't as scary as we think they are.  A valuable lesson, to be sure, for the millions of frightened tikes out there.  But how could you be scared of a diminuitive green cyclopse named Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal) or a blue furry bear called Sulley (John Goodman)? 

8. Toy Story 2 (1999)
IMDb 80
MC 88
RT 100
Total=268
Pixar dipped into the sequel pool with its third movie (seems early for a company with so much creative juice) and scored big time.  A surprising lack of Oscar recognition hurts this film in the rankings, but Seinfeld's Newman character is classic in the role of an overweight slob of a toy collector trying to make a quick buck by shipping Woody to a Japanese museum.  Toy exploitation is no laughing matter, though, especially when it involves our favorite talking playthings.

7. The Incredibles (2004)
IMDb 81 (#209)
MC 90
RT 97
Total=268
Tie goes to the higher IMDb rating here.  The first Pixar movie with humans (albeit ones with superpowers, because let's face it--regular humans are just plain boring) as main characters.  You could tell Cars 2 was trying to replicate the secret agent feel of this one but ended up missing the mark.  Plus this one had Samuel L. Jackson in it, so you know it's good.  I'm just glad director Brad Bird got the recognition he deserved five years earlier for The Iron Giant, another animated masterpiece.

6. Finding Nemo (2003)
IMDb 82 (#169)
MC 89
RT 98
Total=269
A smash hit that threatened to gross one billion dollars, this fan favorite was so vibrant and colorful; in my opinion it has the most impressive visuals of all the Pixar productions.  Nemo may have been a little fish swimming in a big ocean, but Pixar was firmly establishing itself as the Hammerhead shark in the animated movie tank at the Hollywood aquarium (see what I did there?).  Barely beats Toy Story 2 and the Incredibles, but the higher IMDb rating tells the story here.

5. Up (2009)
IMDb 83 (#100)
MC 88
RT 98
Total=269
Another tie!  Once again I use the IMDb rating to give this one the edge, and the fact that it was nominated for Best Picture doesn't hurt either.  I think this is Pixar's saddest movie, but you gotta love the dogs with the talking collars and Kevin, the gigantic bird with an even bigger sweet tooth. The ornery old guy balances well with the sweet little kid, and by the end they develop great chemistry as the father and son the other never had. The 3-D was a nice touch, too.

4. Ratatouille (2007)
IMDb 81 (#187)
MC 96
RT 96
Total=273
Patton Oswalt's movie career never took off, but he stayed relevant in Hollywood by playing an underdog French rat with a gift for cooking.  With a little help from a bumbling garbage boy, he becomes a renowned chef in Brad Bird's second turn with Pixar.  Moral of the story, as always; it's who you know. For the record, I think this is ranked too high, but my stats don't lie (and yes. that rhymed).

3. Toy Story (1995)
IMDb 82  (#139)
MC 92
RT 100
Total=274
Pixar's impressive feature film debut takes home the bronze.  I will always hold a special place in my heart for this one because it was the first movie I ever saw in a theatre (I was three at the time).  After thrilling us with Pizza Planet, the Claw, and attempted escapes from the sadistic next-door neighbor Sid (somewhere between Darth Vader and the shark from Jaws on the pure evil scale), this one taught us to reach for the stars in our journey to infinity and beyond.  It also helped Tom Hanks solidify the apex of his career during the mid-90s after Forrest Gump and Apollo 13.

2. WALL-E (2008)
IMDb 85 (#51)
MC 94
RT 96
Total=275
Gas prices approached five bucks a gallon in the summer of 2008 and called more attention to environmental/energy issues, so this movie came out at the perfect time.  Dialogue was scarce in a movie where the two main characters (a trash compactor and robot) can hardly speak, so WALL-E relied on its stunning visuals, creative concept, and interesting vision of the future (to briefly summarize, we're all fat and live on a spaceship resort in the bowels of outer space) to carry the day.  Nothing wrong with silver, WALL-E.

1. Toy Story 3 (2010)
IMDb 86 (#36)
MC 92
RT 99
Total=277
Was there really any doubt? One of the best movies ever.  Period. I laughed, I (nearly-movies never make me tear up but this one came dangerously close) cried, and I felt like my childhood had come full circle because Andy is going off to college and so am I.  It eclipsed a billion dollars worldwide during the same summer we got our collective minds blown by Inception.  Toy Story 3 is my favorite Pixar movie and deserved to win the gold.  Its masterful use of 3-D was just icing on the cake.