Commentary
Pixar: The Good, The Bad and Cars, Part 1
Sometimes you take on endeavors that turn out to be difficult. It might not be life altering, but tough nonetheless. For me it was writing this commentary where I rate the top Pixar flicks.
I would liken it to being asked to pick your favorite child. Each has its own aspects that make them special and to narrow it down to the best of the best is a tough task. But one I take on.
So sit back, get yourself a little popcorn and enjoy what I believe are the top Pixar flicks thus far.
10. Cars (2006)
To be a Pixar offering and only garner a fresh rating at rottentomatoes.com (plug!) of only 75 percent, should tell you all you need to know about Cars. It might have an All-Star cast of actors lending their voices, but the story is boring and easily ranks as the worst film the company has put out.
This surprises me with John Lasseter being the director and co-screenwriter, but even the best have a horrible outing from time to time.
9. A Bug’s Life (1998)
While the movie is a charming little story about an inventive little ant named Flik and his journey to right the wrong his inventions have delivered on the colony, it just didn’t have the same magic Toy Story had.
I think the movie suffered from being too long, and as evident in the times my kid have watched it, it’s not good enough to hold a child’s interest or an adult for that matter.
8. Monsters, Inc. (2001)
This movie really benefited from the voice talent of John Goodman and Billy Crystal. The story revolves around Sulley (Goodman) and Mike (Crystal) and their adventures to return a little girl after she followed Sulley back to Monstropolis.
It shows Pixar’s strength when a film as good as Monster’s Inc. drops all the way to No. 8 on my list. In another cruel turn, the film lost out to Shrek for Best Animated Feature at the 2001 Oscars, a fact that should turn the stomach of any moviegoer.
7. Ratatouille (2007)
A little rat that wants to become a chef. That’s Ratatouille in a nutshell. I feel bad that it fell to No. 7 on my list because in fact, I really liked the film. It’s charming, smart and very different from what Pixar had done before.
The main difference for me was the fact the film had an art house feel to it. Meaning, it’s played not as an animated film, but as a very good film that just happened to have animated characters as its leads. Very smart and very creative.
6. The Incredibles (2004)
This story about a family of superheroes really blew me away when it first opened. I usually didn’t make my way to the theater to catch animated flicks, but I loved the premise and I’m a sucker for Holly Hunter and Craig T. Nelson – and not necessarily in that order.
I was another success for the company because as with all its films, it felt fresh and had all the elements for a great family movie.
Stay tuned for Part 2, coming soon!
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Caine Gardner, Caine Gardner. Caine Gardner said: What ranks as the best Pixar flick? Visit The Film Yap to find out. http://bit.ly/9KZXZ8 [...]
The best that Larry the Cable Guy can hope for is to pick up Tom Arnold’s scraps from the ABC Family original-movie table.
You’re not seeing Paul Thomas Anderson or Quentin Tarantino writing a role for Larry the Cable Guy ten years down the line that gives him a career revival and critical accolades?
One thing we can all agree on about "Cars": It is the best movie with which Larry the Cable Guy will ever be associated.
I actually joked with Caine that he should do this as "The Worst of Pixar" and rank them as thus, counting down to the worst.
Austin, with the Cars world, I always thought it was the closest Pixar came to the DreamWorks/Sony/everyone else style of animation with borderline pop culture references (the "pinstriping tattoo," which I thought was really lame, and Larry the Cable Guy’s entire existence in the film). I also get your point with regard to the Cars world. How could they build a building without thumbs or even hands? These are relatively small points, but when you’re working with Pixar you have to scrutinize it more closely since everything is so good.
It’s also funny to watch the early trailers for "Cars" and see their original ideas for the look of the cars. You can make out Lightning McQueen and a bunch of the others, but they’re much less detailed and have a different look.
See I’ll go as far as to say Cars is a bad movie. I caught the same similarities with Doc Hollywood but what didn’t work for me was that I never believed its world. Toys, animals, fish and robots all make sense with their contained worlds and even when they branch out. But cars still doesn’t work for me. Why do they have eyes in their windshields? It’s too artificial and needs humans to fully exist.
But Cars still has a bunch of fans and it is the highest selling Pixar merchandise. Their toys have sold more than Buzz and Woody. Thus, Cars 2 will be coming out next year.
The rest of your list is spiffy so far. I really liked Ratatouille in theatres and I think that one would crack my top 5. I hope we share the same #1.
Honestly, I think "Finding Nemo" and "Cars" have been the two weakest creatively, even if they were the most financially popular. They just took the fewest chances, and, for me anyway, their pokey pacing did them in (relatively speaking because, again, neither is a bad movie). Good observation on Pixar plots, but I think they excel at finding the complicated, but accessible, subtext beyond the surface appeal.
"Cars" is easily the weakest Pixar movie. It wasn’t a bad movie, but neither was it especially great, especially considering its contemporaries in Pixar.
Also agree that The Incredibles is worthy of Top 5 and even Top 3.
Something I’ve noticed about Pixar is they’re not above aping plots from existing films. Cars is a complete retread of the plot of "Doc Hollywood," down to the court-ordered time working in a small town, then learning that small towns have their own charm and worth. The original germ of "Toy Story" came from an 80s TV special called "The Christmas Toy," where animatronic toys came to life when their owners weren’t around, and if they were caught moving around and talking, they were frozen. I believe the plot of that was that the toys were anxious about new toys coming in for Christmas because that meant the old toys wouldn’t be the favorites anymore.
Also The incredibles is very similar to the Fantastic Four (even the powers overlap somewhat with the stretchy and invisible characters, though really any superhero-based movie is going to be derivative of another in some way).
Thank you for seconding my stance that "Cars" is the worst of the Pixar movies. Most people think I’m crazy when I say that. I have a hard time believing Pixar will ever put out anything straight-up bad, but, as evidenced by the fact that you STILL see merchandising everywhere, "Cars" seemed like a racing-phenomenon tie-in first and a kid-friendly nostalgic movie second. As you say, though, for what I would consider a two-and-a-half-star movie to be a studio’s worst is not a bad track record. I can get behind this bottom five, although I’d swap "The Incredibles" with "Finding Nemo" for a place in the top five.