It's hard to rank Pixar films. Almost all the films are very high quality, so it's even more subjective than rankings usually are. It typically comes down to feels and Pixar knows feels.
My main qualm with this list is Toy Story 2 is way too low. It’s one of my favorite films of all time. Love vs. legacy. I don’t know how they can rank it 11th. Other than that, everybody’s mileage varies.
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A few notes to start. I still haven't seen Coco and I've only seen Ratatouille, The Good Dinosaur, Cars 3, and Finding Dory once.
18. Cars 2 - It's the worst. They made every wrong decision they possibly could have made. I've watched these way more times than I liked because my kids were in the sweet spot for this film in the years after it came out. They tried to make Mater the star and it didn't work. Much like Gilbert Godfrey and Iago from Aladdin, some actors and their animated characters only have a certain window. After that window closes, they just don't work. Same with Larry the Cable Guy and Mater. He's a fine sidekick.
The sloppy environmental angle was eye roll inducing.
I would have liked to see Cars 2 be Rocky III with cars. They kinda did that in Cars 3, but not really.
The big problem with the Cars franchise is they made Lightning McQueen a one note character and couldn't progress him beyond hot shot rookie. What made Cars work were the other racers, the race scenes and the town and townspeople of Radiator Springs.
A Rocky III take in Cars 2 would have made him a hot shot veteran dealing with a talented upstart challengers. Add in Chick Hicks in the Apollo role and you've got a great film.
17. The Good Dinosaur - It's a fine enough film, but boilerplate for Pixar. If I remember correctly, it was in the works for a long time and they changed it many times. I think they just decided they were never going to make it better and just released it.
16. Cars 3 - It's a solid film with likeable characters. I feel like the B team made this and so much of it could have been better.
As an aside, I think of Cars 2 and 3 in the same vein as Planes and Planes: Fire and Rescue. I'd rank them P:F&R, Cars 3 [gap], Planes [big gap], Cars 2. Got to give them credit though. They got a ton of mileage out of the Cars motif. Five films, Mater shorts as well as the merchandising.
Planes: Fire and Rescue is a legitimately good film. It's a wonderful tribute to first responders and people who transform their lives after surviving tough situations. I highly recommend just watching it if you have 80 minutes to spare. The "Thunderstruck" scene is one of my favorite scenes of any animated film. It is beautiful and badass.
(I'll add more to the rankings later)