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Official thread about the movie you just saw

My quibbles are Wall-E, Up, and Ratatouille should move down a couple spots each, and Inside Out and Monsters Inc. should move up a couple spots. Everything outside of the top ten is probably right.
 
JuiceCrewAllStar said:
The Ringer ranks all 19 Pixar movies: https://www.theringer.com/movies/2018/6/12/17449968/pixar-movies-ranked

Ph, your thoughts?
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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)
 
I don't get the hate for The Good Dinosaur. I thought it was a decent flick. Certainly better than any of the Cars movies or A Bug's Life.
 
15. A Bug's Life - Nice optimistic film about dreams and ambition. Haven't watched it in a long time. It doesn't have the usual Pixar feels, but they were still working out the formula back then. It's a fun rewatchable movie even though it lacks depth.

14. Finding Dory - It was fine enough as a sequel to an excellent film. They avoided some of the pitfalls of Cars 2. Not a film I’d make an effort to watch again.

13. Brave - Good film. I like the description in the link. I wish they had kept the original name of The Bear and the Bow. Merida and her mom remind me of my tomboy wife and my traditional Cuban mother-in-law. I imagine if you have that kind of relationship, it has particular feels.

12. Ratatouille - I haven’t seen it enough to get the films and overall themes others seem to get from it. It was very good, but to me it was a story about family legacy and a cooking rat.
 
Here it starts to get tough:

11. The Incredibles - This film got the superhero genre right back when everybody was wondering if it could be done. This came out in 2004. Same year as Spiderman 2, one of the best and the same year as Catwoman, one of the worst. It’s the Fantastic Four film people still want to see. I watched it for the first time in many years with my youngest who had never seen it before. He loved it.

10. Cars - I’ll admit this is more personal. If it wasn’t for falling in love with me and my East Coast longings, my wife would be Sally. She’d go back to the Southwest and never leave. I’ve grown to have an affinity for this area as well. I never visited the Southwest until we met and now I’ve spent a lot of time in Flagstaff, Albuquerque, and Santa Fe. I get it. “Our Town” totally gives me feels. I love James Taylor. I’m very sympathetic to the plight of small towns like Radiator Springs. My hometown suffered a similar decline after the Highway 64 bypass opened when I was a teenager.

I also wish there were more racing scenes because those were extremely well done. It also had a great intro.

9. Monsters University - I wish I could put it higher. I love this movie so much. Obviously, it’s not often that I see my field represented in animated films. I understand why it doesn’t rank high for many people. In one or two viewings, it’s just a college movie with monsters. But it’s so much more. The first time I saw it, my baby son was acting up so I took him out and I had to miss the scene in which Mike takes his OK brothers to Monsters, Inc. This scene is the heart of the film. There are so many good messages about hard work and not resting on your laurels and not letting people tell you what you can and cannot do.

Way they merge the academic and social is great and pulls at my heartstrings as a professor. Sully is booted from the frat because he failed his first semester scare course. The Greek Scare Games were started by the Dean when she was a student. The final competition of the Scare Games was a harder version of the Scaring 101 final exam.

And the enduring message of the film is that you can make it in life without a four-year degree if you are willing to work hard, be an innovator, and find your gift. Everybody should give this film another viewing. If the message doesn’t hit you, all the great sight gags will.

8. Monsters, Inc. - This film showed just how creative Pixar could be. I don’t feel like I have to write a long description to defend it like I do for Monsters University. I’ll just add that the social commentary in this film is understated. It’s a wonderful take on corporate culture and the need for clean energy.

7. Up - I can’t think about this film for too long before tearing up. The beginning of this film is both brilliantly happy and brilliantly sad. If you haven’t seen this clip of drunk guys watching Up for the first time, do it.



The rest of the film is a lot of fun and it’s a wonderful tale that life is an adventure and it’s never too late to have more adventures. You really appreciate Russell and his personal challenge when you watch it more and piece together the passing references to his home life.
 
I laughed pretty hard a few times @ 'Tag' last night. Probably the funniest movie of the year so far, which isn't saying a whole hell of a lot.
 
The Incredibles 2 was a lot of fun. Great action sequences. Fantastic use of Elastigirl's powers throughout the film (reference intended). As you've probably guessed, Jack-Jack gets a lot of screen time and doesn't disappoint.

Let me finish my Pixar rankings:

6. Finding Nemo - Back when my wife was pregnant with our firstborn son, we were sitting on the couch watching a documentary on Pixar. I had never seen Finding Nemo before. The ride at Epcot was all I really knew about it. The documentary started describing the premise of the film and I just started crying. My wife asked me what was wrong and I sobbed, “I just don’t know what I’d do if someone took our son.”

9+ years later, that kid drives me up the damn wall and regularly gets on my last nerve. This film gives a lot of lessons on how to be a good dad. I feel like Marlin all the time trying to figure out when to do be strict and when to let go. I don’t get it right most of the time, but I’m trying.

I don’t need to see a third film in this universe, but if there’s a film when Marlin and Dory see Nemo go off and start his own family that would make my eyes water like a prep cook at The Beacon.

5. Inside Out - Talk about the parent feels. Geez. This film does a beautiful job of explaining emotions to us. There are so many beautiful moments. It’s the most emotionally heavy Pixar film. It has the heft of the beginning of Up and doesn’t let go. My kids used to watch this film all the time. About two years ago, my oldest realized what was going on when Riley ran away and he hasn’t watch it since. The whole thing was just too heavy for him.

4. Toy Story 3 - This is the first movie we saw in the theater with my son. The preschool scenes were right in his wheelhouse. It’s a fun prison break movie about mortality. Yeah, Pixar is good at what they do.

3. WALL-E - A lighthearted dystopian drama about two robots who fall in love in a quest to save humanity from itself. We’re on track to the future portrayed in WALL-E. I hope we heed the film’s many warnings.

2. Toy Story - One of the most important films of all time. It completely transformed animated films and raised the bar for storytelling across genres.

1. Toy Story 2 - It’s still my personal favorite after all these years. I didn’t know that until I made this list. The scene where Woody finds out his legacy always gets me. I'm not sure love vs. legacy translates to the human experience like it does for a toy. Doesn't really matter. Woody, Jessie, and the Prospector each have valid perspectives based on their experiences. Pixar excels at introducing a deep philosophical debate through the experiences of sympathetic characters. The Incredibles 2 does a good job of this as well.
 
There really isn't any reason to go see Tag if youve watched the trailer. Funny idea, but very limited. Go see it if you have a Movie Pass and you're bored.
 
Incredibles 2 was a lot of fun. Doesn't stay with you after you leave the theater, but enjoyable throughout and pretty funny.
 
A movie that does stay with you but isn't much fun - First Reformed. Excellent movie from a veteran writer/director (Paul Schrader, about to turn 72) that, though he isn't someone you think of for great movie creators, has an impressive filmography. Ethan Hawke is getting early Oscar buzz too, but you won't leave with a smile on your face.
 
Shooshmoo said:
Incredibles 2 was a lot of fun. Doesn't stay with you after you leave the theater, but enjoyable throughout and pretty funny.
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There was a good philosophical debate at the beginning that seemed interesting but it was mostly abandoned to advance the plot.

Highest grossing animated film release of all time. A+ Cinemascore.

I wonder how much Father's Day played into Disney's marketing strategy here. It's not traditionally a big movie weekend beyond just being a summer weekend. Pixar has been releasing films on Father's Day for years. Yet every ad focused on Mr. Incredible as a stay at home dad. Hard to say Disney did it on purpose, but I definitely think it helped prime the pump for Incredibles 2 to be a big Father's Day draw. Kind of like releasing Black Panther during Black History Month. A subtle nod to a target audience.
 
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Did people like Annihilation? We had several pauses/restarts while watching it which didn't do the experience any favors, but I thought it was pretty bad. Seems like it thought it was more interesting than it actually was
 
CDeacMan said:
Did people like Annihilation? We had several pauses/restarts while watching it which didn't do the experience any favors, but I thought it was pretty bad. Seems like it thought it was more interesting than it actually was
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I liked it but it took me a little while to get invested so I could see watching it at home being a hindrance to your enjoyment.
 
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