01. WALL?E - This isn't just my favorite Pixar movie, it's my second-favorite movie of all time (second only to the inimitable Cary Grant classic His Girl Friday, because Howard Hawks IMNSHO is the greatest filmmaker who ever lived). Everything about WALL?E is ridiculously, impossibly great. Its brilliant, epic love story, laced with wonderful callbacks to the era of silent cinema (a film geek like myself is drawn to that sort of thing), its lovely use of symbolism, and its wonderful protagonist. As odd as this sounds, I recommend this to anyone studying classical theater, as well, since the pantomime of the robots is invaluable material for anyone looking to communicate the meaning of classical theatre to modern audiences unfamiliar with the language.
02. Toy Story 3 - What can I say? This is the movie that did the impossible, not just delivering a fitting ending to the series that started it all, but also remaining a for-the-whole-family story WITHOUT chickening out or backing down from its premise or the issues it addresses. This movie was inevitably going to be held to unfairly high standards... and it passed them with flying colors.
03. The Incredibles - It's a cross between Watchmen and Kingdom Come, the two antitheses of superhero symbology, wrapped up in an exciting and moving thrill ride. It's an action movie for kids that both feels like a genuine action movie and a genuine kids' movie all at the same time. I'm surprised they haven't made a Saturday morning cartoon series of this yet; the potential for long-form storytelling in that medium is woefully underrated and forgotten, and if anyone can revitalize it, Pixar can.
04. Brave - Pixar's first movie with a female lead was automatically going to get brownie points from me, and their first entry into the Princess Canon is suitably awesome. The movie got docked by many critics for structural issues, primarily coming from massive script revisions halfway through, but overall I thought it held together remarkably well, thematically and storywise, and for all the talk about rewrites, I couldn't see where the stitches were (yes, the villain felt somewhat underdeveloped, but I didn't think it was a major docking point).
05. Up - They were always going to have a tough time following up on WALL?E, and when I heard the premise for this movie, I thought, "Wait, what? This is going to be a full movie, not a short?" But lo and behold, they did great, going from a setup so tragic I'm amazed anyone had the nerve to put it in a kids' movie, to an adventure epic reminiscent of the same Conan-Doyle-esque pulp serials that inspired Indiana Jones (though thankfully light on any references to Indiana Jones itself), and with some bonus references to the glory days of Looney Tunes thrown in.
06. Finding Nemo - This is probably the one that I've seen the most times. More so than even Toy Story 2 before it, I credit this with starting the trend of tearjerkers, and I'm a sucker for a good tearjerker. The montage of the rumors of Marlin's adventure passing through the ocean never fail to astound, and Ellen DeGeneres delivers an inimitable performance as the sort of character who, in a movie by a lesser studio, would probably have been grating and annoying.
07. Ratatouille - A thinly veiled allegory for Pixar's takeover and revitalization of the Disney corporate empire, wrapped up in a movie with epic nods to the history of French cinema, and technical-advised by some of the greatest chefs in the world. What's more to say?
08. Toy Story 2 - It seems rather far down the list from its third chapter, but that's just evidence of how much Pixar is set above the pack. While its high quality is still not exceptional by Pixar standards, it deserves credit for showing that sequels, even sequels to wildly popular children's movies, didn't have to be tired rehashes, and instead could blaze new trails. It also set the groundwork for its sequel, and believe me, it set the bar high.
09. Cars 2 - This movie isn't really that bad, but it had to follow on the heels of the one-two-three knockout lineup of WALL?E, Up and Toy Story 3, and it suffered for it at the hands of critics. Complaints were that it wasn't really "about" anything, which for one thing is not true, and for another thing wouldn't have been that bad even if it was, since the messages of its prequel were a load of baloney (see below). But it is an inoffensive and charming film in its own right.
11. Toy Story - Ah yes, the movie that started it all. When this thing hit theaters, it was something new, something revolutionary, and though I was too young to fully appreciate how different it was, I loved it. In retrospect, however, despite the excellent writing, its philosophical ideas seem a bit stale and "safe" compared with the moving themes of its sequels.
10. A Bugs Life - Disclaimer: I've only seen this one once, and that was a while ago, so maybe I'm misremembering. But while the references to The Seven Samurai were epic, I found the movie as a whole somewhat forgettable.
12. Monsters, Inc - This movie probably had the cleverest and most unique PREMISE of any of the Pixar movies, but the actual movie misfires and winds up a bit of a mess, with many of the gags dragging on far too long, trying way too hard, and relying on the kind of grating idiot-ball-induced slapstick that seems a bit beneath Pixar. I loved it the first time I saw it, but Mike Wazowski grates on me more and more with each viewing.
13. Cars - While probably a superior movie to Monsters, Inc. (and actually not bad in its own right), Cars nevertheless gets something of a cognitive bias from me. I am wary and weary of the romanticism of small-town Americana, due to my general disdain for the Pastoral glamorization [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_You_Like_It] and hero-worship (and I know, I'm not "supposed" to say that, it makes me an insensitive yuppie, but it's true [http://exiledonline.com/conscience-of-a-radical-corey-robin%E2%80%99s-the-reactionary-mind/]). In spite of this, it's still a decent film, evidence that Pixar's worst is still better than many others' best.
Also, Incredibles should be higher on people's list. Or I expected it to be anyway. Actually, Incredibles is one of my favorite superhero films, let alone pixar films.
