Top ten Pixar movies

By Jake Skubish

10. Onward

Onward was released March 6, 2020, a week before movie theaters shut down for the rest of the year. And with Pixar’s marquee showcase Soul yet to come later in the year, many critics dismissed Onward as an appetizer before the main course. It’s a shame, because the film is far more inventive than many of the bland sequels that make up Pixar’s lower tier. Tom Holland and Chris Pratt provide excellent voice performances as a pair of brothers seeking a magic spell to revive their late father for a day; Pratt in particular makes this one of Pixar’s funniest installments. Onward is elevated by a final sequence that is nearly as emotionally devastating as the romance sequence in Up.

9./8. Toy Story 4 & Toy Story 3

Toy Story is Pixar’s signature franchise, but I’ve always felt like the studio never quite knew what to do with it—there are well-crafted characters, boundless world-building possibilities, and … then a need to fill in a 90-minute plot. The first two installments are solid, but 3 and 4 solve this predicament in unique ways. Toy Story 3 is smart to dive full-on into genre as a prison break movie, leading to the most exciting action of the franchise and its most touching moment, as the toys stop running and accept their fate. Toy Story 4 goes the opposite direction, throwing out the rules altogether in a madcap adventure that delightfully goes all over the place.

Toy Story 3 and Toy Story 4 also share a couple other advantages over the first two Toy Story films. First, they are visually rich in ways the films of the 90s just couldn’t be. And second, they give ample screen time to Jessie and Bo Peep; the women in Woody’s life are far more interesting than the cowboy himself.

7. Soul

Without question, Pixar’s most visually inventive movie. Soul trades the industrial, rigid images of Inside Out for a world far more luscious and free-flowing. It features some of the studio’s most striking shots (e.g., the ramp to the Great Beyond) and some of its most advanced technology (the streets of New York, and the interior of Joe’s apartment, look astonishingly real). Soul crescendos into a touching montage about the importance of enjoying the little things in life that’s one of the smartest moments of the Pixar gamut. Unfortunately, I found myself respecting the moment far more than I was moved by it; for a movie about feeling the beauty of the world, the conceptual complexity of the plot can get in the way of simply enjoying what’s on screen.

6. The Incredibles

Pixar’s best action movie. Director Brad Bird wisely abandons plot for long stretches of The Incredibles in favor of thrilling action sequences; the final battle is great, and the airplane crash onto the island is the best action scene in Pixar history. As Buddy, Jason Lee voices a villain far more dynamic than any Marvel has trotted out. But Holly Hunter steals the show as Elastigirl, one of the truly great voice performances in a Pixar film.

5. Monsters, Inc.

Monsters, Inc. is Pixar’s funniest movie, fitting for a film about the value of comedy and laughter. The best laugh-out-loud moments naturally come from Billy Crystal as Mike Wazowski, but there are standouts deep into the cast list. Between Crystal, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, James Coburn, Jennifer Tilly, and others, Monsters, Inc. might be the most well-rounded voice cast of any Pixar film. It’s director Pete Docter’s (Soul, Inside Out) best, because he allows the concepts to serve the story rather than having the concepts be the story.

4. Ratatouille

Pixar’s movies routinely deal with ideas about art and creativity, but none more directly than Ratatouille. The kitchen serves as a gateway to a story about the beauty of creating something all your own, and the idea is backed up by the savory visual flourishes of the movie itself; somehow, an animated dish might be the most enticing food I’ve ever seen on screen. Ratatouille culminates in one of Pixar’s greatest moments: food critic Anton Ego’s speech about the value of criticism. Rather than setting criticism and creation in opposition, it celebrates both. “The world is often unkind to new talent, new creations,” Ego says. “Not everyone can become a great artist; but a great artist can come from anywhere.” It’s as close as a mission statement Pixar has ever come for its own movies: we are telling original stories, and that in itself is meaningful.

3. coco

At the end of Coco, Miguel is scrambling to revive his great-grandmother’s memory of her father before he passes from the afterlife for good. He reminds her about his life and shows her a picture of her father, but no dice: she still doesn’t remember. When I saw Coco in theaters, a man sitting in my row yelled at the screen during this scene: “Play her the song you idiot!” He was obviously right: Miguel clearly needed to play Coco a rendition of “Remember Me,” and director Lee Unkrich was building up to that moment. You know what’s coming. But the the thing is, it doesn’t matter: Miguel sings to Coco, and it’s the most tear-jerking moment in any Pixar movie. It’s an encapsulation of what these films are: predictable and thematically straightforward, yes, but emotionally nuanced and affective all the same. Pixar has made three truly great movies; Coco is one of them.

2. Wall-E

Twelve years on from its release, it’s remarkable how visually stunning WALL-E remains. The opening 35 minutes of the film are a masterclass in storytelling with almost no dialogue; unlike Up, though, WALL-E maintains the intrigue after a stellar opening act. There’s a lot to love about the film thematically, from human complacency toward environmental degradation to the need for life to go on. But the best of WALL-E is in the romance between WALL-E and EVE. It’s the best relationship in any Pixar movie, and one of the best romances in movie history, period.

1. Finding Nemo

Many of the other movies on this list highlight pieces of the Pixar charm: visual wonder, engaging action sequences, great voice performances, emotional climaxes. Finding Nemo effortlessly brings them all together and pretty easily takes the top spot among Pixar's films. The ocean is a vibrant backdrop, but rather than needing to dig through conceptual explanations director Andrew Stanton simply rides the wave. (Rewatching Pixar’s films this week, I noticed that within nearly every movie there is a video that directly explains what’s happening: commercials for Woody and Buzz in Toy Story, footage from an Ernesto De La Cruz movie in Coco, a training video for the afterlife in Soul, an explainer video for the ship in WALL-E, a documentary about the chef Gusteau in Ratatouille … I could go on. Finding Nemo is one of the few that doesn’t need it.)

The pacing in Nemo cooks, whipping from one sequence to the next, each advancing the movie thematically and plot-wise without ever needing to pause for us to catch up. It benefits from having two competing plots (Nemo’s attempted escape and Marlin’s attempted rescue) that keep things moving in a way other Pixar’s movies don’t. The music from Thomas Newman (Randy’s cousin) is also an absolute marvel.

The heart of Finding Nemo, though, is in its two central relationships: between Marlin and Nemo and between Marlin and Dory. Both are emotionally rich and, because they are developed thoroughly, lead to profound payoffs in the film’s finale. More than any other Pixar movie, everything in Nemo serves the story; it’s never “about” anything, yet by the end it’s about everything. It wouldn’t be possible without the voice work of Albert Brooks as Marlin, the single best performance in any Pixar movie. Finding Nemo is a masterpiece, and it will be hard to unseat it from the top spot.