Ranking All of Pixar's Films: From 'Toy Story' to 'Inside Out'

#4

Toy Story

Dir. John Lasseter

These final four slots were an impossible challenge to rank, and if you ask me tomorrow, I might give you a different ordering. We are getting into some of my all time favorite movies with these. Toy Story is Pixar’s first feature outing, and you can tell John Lasseter and the whole Pixar crew had been itching to tell this story for a long time. But this is stuff you already know. There is a reason this film, I think, can now be considered a classic and has spawned two sequels and a third on the way. Woody and Buzz learning to accept each other is a wonderful buddy film story, and Tom Hanks and Tim Allen are perfectly suited to these characters. What struck me most about watching it this time was how beautifully lit this film looks. All of the light looks like it would come from a natural source, and even with twenty-year old animation, it’s still beautiful.

#3

Toy Story 3

Dir. Lee Unkrich

I have never cried harder in a movie than I did watching Toy Story 3 for the first time, and it is not just because of my nostalgic attachment to these characters. Long-time Pixar guy but first-time director Lee Unkrich was not afraid to up the stakes of this story as far as they could go, making the payoff for them all the more satisfying. A ding many place on this film is it takes many story beats from Toy Story 2, and while that is true, I think this film executes those far better. Lotso is a much more compelling and intimidating villain than the Prospector and a toy’s journey for when a kid gets too old is taken to its logical and heart-wrenching conclusion. And the thing is, my tears at the end of this movie did not just happen the first time but every viewing. Even with that, this is probably the funniest of the three Toy Story films as well. A very rare instance where the third film in the series is the best.

#2

Up

Dir. Pete Docter

I think Pete Docter might be my favorite Pixar director. Lasseter is the structuralist, Stanton is about a small connection in a big world, and Bird is the visual technician. Docter, though, is the big-hearted comic, and I respond immensely to his sensibility. He knows exactly how to follow up a funny moment with a gut punch of emotion, and it never feels like they are from two different films. The highly-regarded “Married Life” sequence is rightfully lauded, but his ability to follow that up with Carl Fredricksen (Ed Asner) hilariously cracking his back and slowly descending the stairs in an electric chair shows just how in control Docter is of Up‘s tone. This is another instance of Pixar getting a child character exactly right. Russell (Jordan Nagai) is hilarious, and his backstory with him needing a new father figure really tugs at you in a way that never feels forced. This is one of those movies where the slightest misstep could make everything crash and burn, but it never does.

#1

WallÂ·E

Dir. Andrew Stanton

You may or may not have picked up on the trend Pixar has of teaming up an unlikely duo. Right from the start with Woody and Buzz to Marlin and Dory to Remy and Linguini to even Lightning McQueen and Mater, Pixar has the amazing ability to form a central relationship you really come to care about. However, none of these duos are a romantic pair, which is what Andrew Stanton tackles with what I think is the studio’s true masterpiece: WALL•E.

Yes, we could sit here and talk about the breathtaking visuals, the well-crafted set pieces, the luscious and exciting Thomas Newman score, and the ability to convey story through action, but the real reason this film works as amazingly as it does is because you care so much about WALL•E and EVE falling in love. The famous “space dance” sequence is so beautiful not just because of its computer-generated rendering but because Stanton and company have done their jobs building to that moment. Every time I watch this movie, which is fairly often, I tear up in that scene and the finale. Pile on to that the science-fiction ideas it’s exploring, the immense amount of comedy, and, of course, how unbelievable this film looks, and I think Pixar has crafted something that will stand for a long, long time with WALL•E.

So, there you have it. The “correct” ranking of Pixar’s first fifteen films. I may have had some negative things to say about some, but from Monsters University up, they are grade “B” and higher films. To recap: