Pixar

I finally got the chance to watch WALL-E last weekend ( It's hard to find time to watch movies when you've got two little kids. We almost never go to a movie theater, and it's even hard to find the time to watch a movie on DVD. We had the WALL-E DVD for 3 weeks before I even got a chance to watch it ( and I had to watch it over a 3 day period ) ). Now that I've finally seen all 9 Pixar films, I thought I'd have a little fun by ranking the 9 movies from best to worst.

Keep in mind that "worst" is a relative term here. I thoroughly enjoyed all the Pixar movies. However, some were better than others, and it will be fun to debate which Pixar movies were the best. Yes, I said "debate". I'm expecting a little feedback here. If you're reading this I'd very much like you to leave a comment with your own Pixar movie rankings. If you have you own blog, I'd encourage you to dedicate one of your own blog post to the subject. I'd really like to collect opinions from a bunch of people, and tally up the results.

OK, on to the rankings ( WARNINGS: Lots of spoilers below, so skip the comments for a movie if you haven't seen it yet ):

1) Monsters, Inc.
I think I like this one the best because of how creative the basic premise is. Long before Pixar came along, I'd seen stories about talking toys, talking animals, talking cars, superheroes, and robots with human emotions. However, I loved the way this movie took the whole "monster in the bedroom" concept, and expanded it into a story about an alternate monster universe which is powered by children's screams. Great concept, and great execution. The film was cast perfectly - I can't imagine anybody but Billy Crystal and John Goodman in those roles ( I've also always been a been a big Jennifer Tilly fan ( OK, I admit it - I've always considered her to be REALLY hot ), so it was nice to hear her distinctive voice as the medusa character Celia ). Finally, as a parent, the Sully/Boo dynamic really touched my heart. Every time I watch it, I get a little bit choked up when Sully enters Boo's room at the end.

2) Toy Story
Not much to say here. I think this movie pretty much speaks for itself. The only thing I will address is the Toy Story vs. Toy Story 2 debate. A lot of people feel that Toy Story 2 was the superior movie. I know lots of folks loved the "When She Loved Me" song, and the whole "what happens to toys when kids outgrow them" angle from Toy Story 2, but I liked the themes from Toy Story just a little bit better. I loved Buzz' existential crisis when he realizes that he's a toy, and I love what the movie has to say about jealousy and friendship. In any case, you really can't go wrong with either Toy Story or Toy Story 2. There really isn't a lot of room that separates these two movies, though there is just enough room between them to slip in ...

3) Finding Nemo
I'll admit that the only reason I've ranked this movie so high is that I'm a Dad. People who aren't parents might not rank this movie quite as high. However, I am a Dad, and this movie made me cry - so there you go.

4) Toy Story 2
See my comments on Toy Story above.
The only thing I'll add is that I really don't see much difference in the quality of the top 4 movies on my list. I think all 4 of them are fantastic, and depending on my mood on a given day, I could rank them in a completely different order. I think these 4 movies are a cut about the other 5. I think there's a big drop between 4 and 5 on this list. I also think the movies I ranked 5 through 7 are of roughly equal quality, and then there is another drop-off before we get to movies 8 and 9 on the list.

5) Cars
I'm a bit biased about this one, because for a long time, my son Michael loved everything about cars ( now he's into math instead ). Long before he could speak in sentences, he could identify almost any car he saw on the street by company and model ( "Chevy Corvette", "Ford Mustang", "Honda Civic", etc. ). He could identify every car logo before he was 3, and could even identify a BWM or a Mercedes ( without seeing the logos ) just based on the shape of the grill. "Cars" was the first movie I ever took Michael to see, so it will always have a special place in my heart ( Plus, I like the "winning isn't everything" message. I always get a little choked up when I watch Lightning McQueen push The King over the finish line. ).

6) WALL-E
I still can't get the song "Put on your Sunday Clothes" out of my head ( and I mean that in a good way ), and I think the love story is really sweet. However, as an Engineer, there are a bunch of little things that bother me about this movie.

- WALL-E and EVE could make sounds in the vacuum of space.
- The Axiom was launched in 2105. I don't even think the most optimistic futurist could envision that we would have that kind of technology by 2105.
- The Axiom clearly employed some sort of artificial gravity field. You would think that if such a field was generated by the ship, the direction of that gravitational field would be relative to the ship. In other words, no matter which way the ship was oriented in space, you would think the artificial gravity field would pull things towards the floor ( towards the bottom of the ship ). Thus, it didn't really make a lot a sense that everyone and everything wound up sliding toward one side of the ship, just because Auto turned the wheel and tilted the ship relative to the space around it.
- Speaking of the space around the ship, that nebula the ship is sitting in is way too small. I don't think such a small quantity of gas would have enough gravity to hold itself together.
- Why the heck was the Axiom is some nebula light years away from the earth? If the original plan was to return to earth in 5 years, why did it need to be docked so far away?
- Considering that the 5-year cruise turned into a 700 year cruise, where did the Axiom get supplies from when supplies inevitably ran out? They couldn't have packed enough supplies for 700 years. Perhaps that's why the Axiom was out in deep space. Perhaps the Axiom needed to keep searching for food/water ( or at least the raw materials to synthesize food/water ). However, there are plenty of raw materials available in the Solar System, so I'm still not sure why they needed to be so far from earth ( especially if you were sending probes to Earth rather frequently ).
- Speaking of the probes, why the heck did Auto even bother to wake up the Captain to tell him that a probe had returned positive? Auto had known for 695 years that returning to Earth was no longer part of his directive. With that in mind, you would think that Auto would have arranged to have the plant disposed of and EVE's memory erased long before waking up the Captain. Considering that Auto's directive was to make sure that the Axiom never returned to earth, there's really no good reason for Auto to let the Captain know that a probe returned positive. Actually, there's no reason to even send the probes to earth, other than for show. You would think that Auto would have arranged to have any positive samples disposed of long before any human knew about it.
- Considering the frequent dust storms, and the fact that the oceans had all dried up, it didn't really look like the earth was ready to support much life at the end of the movie. It looked like it would have taken at least several thousands years for the earth to recover significantly ( hundreds of millions of years for things like fish and sea turtles to evolve again ). I really don't see how the Axiom folks could have survived on earth ( unless they spent a few thousands more years in the docked Axiom while the earth recovered - but where would they get supplies for the Axiom? ).

All that being said, I really did love WALL-E, just not enough to rank it in the top 5.

7) Ratatouille
Cute, but not great. It was certainly entertaining, but I just wasn't feeling the "anybody can cook" message. Perhaps I'll like this movie more as I improve my cooking skills.

8) The Incredibles
I remember enjoying this movie when I watched it, but after it was over, I really couldn't think of a single moment that stood out. In my opinion, this movie is kinda like a Twinkie - enjoyable, but essentially empty calories.

9) A Bug's Life
DreamWorks coulda made this. In fact, DreamWorks did make this movie ( Ants ), and they made it better.