RelatedBefitting its characters, Cars 3 feels more assembled than gracefully created, and its distinctly episodic nature holds it back. But it’s the rare movie whose protagonist learns that winning at all costs isn’t the only thing. Consider it the computer-animated version of a classic sports film like Bull Durham.
Though it was a tough task, we ranked Pixar's best movies. Acquired by Disney, Pixar films kicked off their lengthy list with Toy Story in 1995.
— Emily VanDerWerff Pixar Animation Studios/Walt Disney Pictures 20. The Good Dinosaur (2015)Even now, five years after its release, The Good Dinosaur can make a claim to being the most beautiful Pixar movie. Its photorealistic backdrops provide a gorgeous canvas for a story of a talking dinosaur and a silent human child trying to make their way across the American West to the dinosaur’s home. RelatedThe problem stems from how obvious it is that the story is cobbled together from the elements of other, better stories. Pixar made its name by taking wild scenarios that could only happen in animation — toys wake up, bugs have a secret society, there are monsters in the closet, etc. — and grounding them in old-fashioned, classic Hollywood storytelling.
But The Good Dinosaur (which went through a ) doesn’t have much to add to the old tropes it’s updating. — EV Pixar Animation Studios/Walt Disney Pictures 19. Cars (2006)My 2-year-old nephew’s favorite movie — before he saw Toy Story, that is — was Cars. But then he saw Toy Story and he stopped talking about Cars (to my brother’s chagrin, since my brother loves cars, and Cars).
I have to side with my nephew on this one. Cars is an absolutely fine movie, and it has a sweet affection for small-town, forgotten life by way of Radiator Springs. But Cars fails to match the ambition of some of its Pixar cousins, instead coming across as relaxed to the point of low stakes. And once you’ve seen any one of the studio’s other films, your love for Cars will most likely become but a passing phase. —Alex Abad-Santos Pixar Animation Studios/Walt Disney Pictures 18.
Finding Dory (2016)Over the years, Pixar — or more specifically director-screenwriter Andrew Stanton — has perfected the basic studio sequel formula of repeating the previous movie’s plot without making it feel like more of the same. Prime example: Finding Dory doesn’t have much to add to the original story of Finding Nemo, but it does have the great reveal that Dory really can talk to whales!
Yes, that’s a small way to move things forward, but a fun one nonetheless.The themes at the heart of Finding Nemo are still present in this film; there’s still an emphasis on the importance of found family, the unique challenges and delights of navigating life with a neuroatypical brain, and the vast and stunning splendor of the ocean. But Finding Dory diminishes Nemo’s philosophy of perseverance and communal kindness a bit, drowned out by a plot whose daring rescues frequently verge into the extravagant and often undermine the urgency of Dory’s quest to find her parents. That said, it’s still a fun kids’ movie, it’s still Pixar, and wow, the ocean: pretty cool, huh?
— AR Pixar Animation Studios/Walt Disney Pictures 17. A Bug’s Life (1998)A Bug’s Life is something of a sophomore slump for Pixar. The studio’s follow-up to Toy Story was one of two animated movies about insects to hit theaters within months of each other, dampening some of the excitement around it. (The movie’s competitor, Dreamworks’ Antz, came out first.) That was a strange move on both studios’ parts: Ants and grasshoppers aren’t the most endearing or marketable main characters. But few (if any) of the characters from A Bug’s Life are likely to rank among Pixar fans’ favorites.The film culls from an old Aesop fable, The Ant and the Grasshopper, to tell a story that feels much folkier than Pixar’s more modern fare: Flik is an inventor who wants to help save his home from invading grasshoppers in an effort to prove his worth to his suspicious neighbors. Instead of recruiting real fighters, he collects a traveling circus group of other bugs and tries to pass them off as the saviors his fellow ants are looking for.
An amusing premise, but ultimately not one that really sticks.There’s still some value in watching A Bug’s Life, if only just to see how much Pixar’s animation and storytelling have evolved in the years since. And the movie does have some unique touches, like an explicitly romantic ending and a villain, the terrifying Hopper, that straight-up dies.
Otherwise, A Bug’s Life is but a quirky footnote in Pixar’s catalog. —Allegra Frank Pixar Animation Studios/Walt Disney Pictures 16. Monsters University (2013)One of Pixar’s lesser follow-ups is this college-set prequel, which fails to leave as much of an impression as the film it’s based on.
Mike Wazowski and his future BFF James P. “Sulley” Sullivan are college freshmen who, as we know from Monsters, Inc., are about to become lifelong pals. The stakes are low as a result, and in the end, it’s not all that interesting or exciting to watch their friendship develop. The college setting doesn’t really expand on the world of Monsters Inc., and watching these characters flail as their younger selves hardly adds to a story already defined best by its humor.To the movie’s credit, there is a nice theme of learning to make peace with yourself when you fall short of achieving your dreams. Mike wants to be an accomplished scarer of humans, just like Sulley is — and again, we already know that isn’t to be. But when he realizes it’s not quite in the cards for him, he chases another passion instead. It’s not necessarily the most uplifting message from Pixar, but it plays out nicely (and realistically) enough.
—AF Pixar 15. (2020)Onward takes place in a world that was once enchanted, but where the magic has faded away. The plot cleverly employs the structure of a campaign you might play in a fantasy role-playing game such as Dungeons & Dragons, with heroes, a quest, a number of obstacles and monsters, puzzles, spells, and some surprises thrown in here and there. The Tolkien-lite elements are mixed with more banal workaday realities. Set in a world populated by creatures like elves and centaurs and cyclopes — who live in the suburbs, where stray unicorns sometimes paw through the garbage — it’s both magical and hilariously ordinary.Written and directed by ’s Dan Scanlon, Onward is gentle and fun. No, it’s not.
But it’s better than most of the entertainment aimed at children that studios churn out these days. It doesn’t move at a frantic pace. It isn’t loud and grating or reliant on musical numbers that will eventually drive loving parents out of their ever-loving minds. It’s just a movie that has a big organizing concept — and it’s also got a heart. Onward gives a glimpse of Pixar’s likely future, but it still retains a spark of that old-time Pixar magic.
— Alissa Wilkinson.