Ranking (most of) the Pixar films. Updated Sept 2018

Pixar has had a pretty amazing run of high quality animated films with a few minor bumps along the way. A couple nights ago I watched  the soon to be Academy Award winning Coco which is Pixar's 19th film. Pixar has slowly moved into representing lead characters who are minorities (Coco's characters are all Mexican) and women (Brave was the first Pixar film with a female "human" lead character).  While representation has increased, the last few years have been a little rough for the company as they have abandoned creating a lot of unique original stories for sure to be money making sequels. Below is the list of how I would rank most of their films (because frankly there are a couple I am not going to bother with).

Ranking the Pixar Films

N/A Cars 2 and 3 and Monster University.

I watch a lot of movies, so I am not going to waste my time watching sequels to films that originally underwhelmed me. That being said.....

17  Cars: While it is shiny and colorful,  it seems to only exists to sell toys to little boys and girls. Paul Newman's character is the one bit of heart in a film that needs more of it. 

16. Monster's Inc: That year was the year of monster animated films and Shrek deservedly wins the Oscar and is the better movie. I liked the idea of this film being about a young girl who befriends the monsters in her room that she is initially afraid of. But it depends a lot on Billy Crystal's schtick and for me a little Billy Chrystal schtick goes a long way. 

15.  The Good Dinosaur: This is one that everyone forgets exists. 2015 was the only year ever that Pixar released two original non sequel films. One was Inside Out. This one had the unenviable task of following that film. It isn't a bad film. The animation is good, but the story about a dinosaur is thin and had been done better years ago with the non Disney Pixar film The Land Before Time. 

14. Finding Dory: Dory, voiced by Ellen Degeneres, was the scene stealing sidecick in Finding Nemo. So why not give that character the lead of a movie? It was amazingly successful, but usually the sidekick is a sidekick for a reason and that is the case here. It is missing a lot of the heart and feels of the original 

13. A Bug's Life: We waited a few years after Toy Story for another Pixar movie. The world of insects was an interesting choice to animate , and this was ultimately an entertaining movie but it is also pretty forgettable. 

12. Wall-E- I know ! I know! People who love Wall-E, love it. And I certainly admire the film for its purpose and for getting much less kid friendly than the films that preceded it. But perhaps I have a child's attention span because I was pretty bored overall by this mostly dialogue free story. 

11. Brave: I was very excited for Merida and her red wavy hair to be the star of the first female character led Pixar film. But aside from that, the story is just good but also expected when i wanted it to be and expected it to be great for what was supposed to be a pioneer for the company.

10. The Incredibles 2- while still a very entertaining movie, this doesn’t feel special anymore after years and years of comic book movies.  What was fresh and new with the original just feels typical now.  

9. Coco: The top 9, for me, are definitely at a much higher level of quality than the bottom 7, so some may think Coco is a bit low here. It was a fun entertaining colorful historical animated film with a really lovely ending. I enjoyed it a lot, and I appreciate the diversity brought by this films, but  that
should tell you that the top 8 of this list is pretty amazing. 

8. Up: Up has one of the very best scenes of any Pixar film or maybe even any film in general with its opening scene. However, the rest of the film had to live up to that and while the story about a young boy's friendship with an elderly man is enjoyable, it never quite lives up to that first scene. 

7. Toy Story 3: When it was announced that in Toy Story 3, Andy would be going off to college and was going to give up his toys, I was expecting a heartbreaker. And for many people it was. But perhaps I am dead inside, but I wanted a little but more emotional heft. I wish this was the last time they were going to the Toy Story because they had a great run. But alas Toy Story 4 is on its way. 

6. Finding Nemo:  Many Pixar films have explored the relationships between the younger generation and the older generation, and Finding Nemo may do that the best and deepest while still being entertaining for the kids. 

5. The Incredibles: Pixar does its own version of comic book movies, and its characters are more interesting and the movie itself is more entertaining that most anything that Marvel and DC puts out on the screen. 

4. Toy Story: Don't faint. Usually this one is everyone's number one and that is partly because it is the first, and everyone remembers the first time they saw this and experienced Pixar's game changing animation. I won't even argue that it isn't great and that it isn't a classic. But we are getting to Sophie's choice here and #4 in a list of mostly great movies is nothing to sneeze about. 

3. Ratatouille: This is the one I love more than most people who make these lists. It is also the one I should hate. If there is anything in this world I am afraid of it is a rodent, and if there is anything that disgusts me is the idea of a rat in the kitchen. So Pixar is genius to get me to love a rat who lives to be a chef. Peter O'Toole's character is also a gem and Patton Oswalt is great as Remy the rat. This has to be near the top of all food themed films as well. 

2. Toy Story 2: Most purists will always say that the original Toy Story is the best, but for me Toy Story 2 is the rare sequel that outdoes the original . This film introduced a much needed main female character that didn't play into stereotypes in Jesse the cowgirl. She also happens to be one of the best characters Pixar created thanks to Joan Cusack's voice work, and the heart breaking scene where her kid dumps her to the tune of one of the most underrated movie songs "When She Loved Me" by Sarah Mclachlan. This one also introduces audiences to Stinky Pete, and  I can thanks this movie for giving me one of my favorite nicknames for kids I know and my pets. 

1. Inside Out: Most people think only a Toy Story movie can be at the top of one of these lists. But Inside Out blew me away with its ambition of being about what is going on in a child's mind. And unlike Wall-E which was also very ambitious this one actually pulls off being a funny and heart breaking movie thanks especially to its perfectly cast "feeling" characters lead by Amy Poehler.  Honestly, in the end for me there wasn't even a debate. Inside Out is the best Pixar movie made so far and also one of the best films ever made period.