30 years of Pixar movies: poll 1 (1995-2004)

I really should watch A Bug's Life. Maybe I'll watch ANTZ too.

The Incredibles. Brad Bird remains my favourite contemporary director of action sequences.

Imagine not voting for Toy Story 2.

Between Toy Story and Finding Nemo for me.

I thought The Incredibles was right wing propaganda? (I ain't seen it, lol) https://www.theguardian.com/news/blog/2004/dec/07/incredibleprop

Incredibles. Holly Hunter as Elastigirl wins my heart.

There's something about Woody that's a bit cloying. Maybe it's Tom Hanks. And I know Andy isn't the focus but I never really warmed to him.

TOY STORY for sure. probably pixar’s best feature of any era

TOY STORY for sure. probably pixar’s best feature of any era

Monsters Inc is the one that my daughters still quote back to me, so that one. Strong enough to survive even Billy Crystal's shtick.

of these, toy story 2

TS2 vs Nemo oh man idk

I very firmly believe that calling the Incredibles right-wing propaganda is the dumbest, most idiotic takeaway one could have from that movie.

the incredibles is absolutely not right wing propaganda wtf

Not voting for it, and it’s far from the best, but in 1998 I hadn’t seen Toy Story and only went to the theater to see A Bug’s Life because of Dave Foley’s participation, and then fell in love with Pixar.

I will never not be mad that the critical and popular consensus in 2001 was that goddamn Shrek was in any way superior to Monsters, Inc. That does seem to have corrected somewhat since then.

Agree with the comments upthread re: Woody. I love that the ostensible protagonist of that franchise is so unlikable a character.

Voted for Incredibles-- which, agreed, the notion that it's Ayn Rand agitprop is just the dumbest possible reading of any of it-- but five of these six are all some degree of essential, and even A Bug's Life is charming enough.

Monsters Inc. seems the most imaginative one. Will always love A Bug's Life for Tuck And Roll (yet I completely missed or just forgot they were voiced by Mike McShane).

Are they the sew bugs? They ruled.

Voted for Toy Story because it's great and is still so much the Pixar template. Was groundbreaking technically, obviously, massive leap for big-budget digital animation. (Still looks good 30 years later, too.) But the characters and gags and visual inventiveness are what power it, just so many smart ideas brought to what could have been a kind of lame concept.

I like all of the ones in this batch, no duds. Incredibles the other indisputable classic. I have a big soft spot for Monsters Inc. because my kids watched it so much when they were little, that's the one I have the most dialogue memorized from. Love the John Goodman-Billy Crystal pairing.

The Incredibles is bad not because of its politics but because it's just a bunch of dumb humans. I don't want to look at humans even if they have superpowers, boooring.

Monsters Inc, now we're talking!

I do think that is a loose flaw of The Incredibles, that it's one of the few Pixar films that could have been live action. Certainly of this batch.

The Incredibles is probably the best film on here, but I voted for Monsters Inc because it captures the anarchic spirit of classic cartoons better than any other Pixar

sorry guys but the "human" critique is deeply stupid. Among other reasons (do you apply this "logic" to anime? be serious), live-action superhero films are a grotesque cultural embarrassment compared to their equivalent in comics and animation, literally no Marvel movie comes anywhere close to being as good as the Incredibles

seriously considering FPing you both for making me contemplate the unholy prospect of live-action Elastigirl

Yes, don't give Disney any more bad ideas!

rob what are you on about, I hate those Marvel movies too, they also feature humans

ah I misread you and assumed you were saying the same thing as Josh, sorry!

I do like some films with humans in them - Casablanca, Vagabond, Clueless - but these would nonetheless still be better if they had a furry creature and an eyeball creature instead.

okay good, we agree in all ways then <3

Oh, the movie is sooooo much better than Marvel! Incredibles is great. Just I can see it as much less creative than most Pixar.

Ok, to the extent the Incredibles is working in a more recognizable aesthetic & generic cinematic mode (compared to the rest), I can see what you mean.

I feel a bit bad for Finding Nemo here. The story is a little simplistic, but it's an aesthetic triumph and packed with good jokes — they all are in this run, but I think Nemo's slightly sappy rep overshadows stuff like Dory's memory issues, the seagulls saying "mine" etc.

Dory is by far the best thing Ellen DeGeneres has ever done imo.

Incredibles! It remains my favorite Pixar film and perfect in every way.

Finding Nemo is absolutely gorgeous to look at, and a beautiful story.

I will never not be mad that the critical and popular consensus in 2001 was that goddamn Shrek was in any way superior to Monsters, Inc. That does seem to have corrected somewhat since then.

We showed my kid Shrek -- he wanted to watch it, something about having seen some Shrek memes and wanting to understand them. and he hated it. I'm glad, because Shrek 2 is so bad, i'd have had to leave the house when it was on. however, Monsters Inc is one he really liked a lot.

but i think his fave Pixar film is Finding Nemo.

Yeah glad to hear the kids are anti-Shreck. Still need to pick up that original children's story, from the images I've seen online it seems much cooler than the film.

Don't have kids, so voting Incredibles.

lmao this is a criticism of The Incredibles I can respect

(Argh sorry, that is re: Daniel_RF’s “no humans in movies” position)

Shrek (the movie) is bad Saturday morning TV.

Shrek is adequate but it really didn’t need to turn into a multimedia franchise

My son had a crush on Jessie the cowgirl when he was little. I used to think Toy Story 2 surpasses the original, and it has parts that do - I love the whole concept of the collector obsessed with 50s program tie-in toys, and I’m tearing up just thinking about the “When He Loved Me” sequence again - but the first one is so perfect end to end I can’t not vote for it.

When SHE Loved Me, can’t see to type through the tears

Supplementary poll question:

Is Toy Story a pun on:

a) Toy Store
b) Tokyo Story
c) neither
d) both

?

L.A. Story

Somehow I've seen all of these only once. Toy Story 2 easy, a very clear joyous memory still from seeing it in the theater on release. The first one takes a close second, and then I guess The Incredibles is a couple steps down but still very entertaining despite some incompletely-thought-out politics (it gets kinda Harrison Bergeron-y at the end). Monsters Inc. and Finding Nemo are both pretty good IIRC, but I've not had any inkling of ever rewatching them.

Next to those, A Bug's Life is "only" good - it it were by a rival studio, it'd be a standout effort at matching Pixar's success without really nailing any story beats or feelings profound enough to remember. Of course, the actual rival entry was Antz, which I've never had any inkling of watching, period.

between monsters inc and finding nemo for me, more to do with nostalgia than anything else.

this is a great run, A Bug's Life maybe one tier down from the others. but I have to go with the original Toy Story. easy to forget this sometimes but I was so blown away by the animation when it first came out, really nothing like it before

TS2, mainly for sentimental reasons. We were living in NoCal at the time and saw it on a fun weekend trip to SF, one of the first films to be projected digitally I believe?

P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney

4-5 perfect movies in here, but i am increasingly of the opinion that the incredibles is the best one and possibly the greatest superhero movie ever made

P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney

Not totally germane to this specific poll, but every time I remember Toy Story 4 happened I get angrier about it than the last time I remembered it.

5’s on the way!

Re-watched The Incredibles last night because this poll reminded me that my Disney+ subscription means I can watch any Pixar movie anytime I want. I had forgotten they made a sequel. Maybe I'll watch that one day.

couldn't stand the sequel

Voted Toy Story 2, even though I've seen it often enough at this point that I'm less enthusiastic about it than I have been in the past, the Incredibles is a close second, but Brad Bird has at least 2 movies that are better than Incredibles

xp
yeah the sequel, like all the sequels excluding Toy Story iirc, is a waste of time

The Toy Stories had no appeal to me before I finally watched them, then when I finally did I was genuinely amazed by how good they are, how much I liked them and how much they grabbed me - and it's almost the case that it gets even better with every sequel. The fourth just didn't have the strength of the third but I certainly have no reason to feel angry about it happening, I think it is an admirable entry in the series with two massive emotional moments in the end that I might only hate because merely thinking about them makes me tear up a little (in a good way, though!).

In regards to this poll, I wouldn't vote for A Bug's Life but all of the others are contenders. Disagree that Incredibles is better than any Marvel movie (big Marvel fan here), but there's definitely a lot of brilliance in the child-friendly take on Watchmen featuring the Fantastic Four. Still, I think I'll vote for Toy Story 2. Curious to see the results of the poll!

xpost i like inside out 2

Both Incredibles 2 and Inside Out 2 feel kinda like souped up remakes of the first film, but with one or two new concerns on their mind (evil smiling Silicon Valley types; puberty, anxiety, panic attacks) - enough that I didn't mind. I might feel differently if the originals had been really important to me, tho!

all this toy story 2 love when it nearly didn't happen...

To what extent was Lasseter quality control? He seemed important, but then again, Cars was his baby, right?

My daughter was just in a musical stage production of Finding Nemo. Needless to say, it did not exactly lend itself well to that format! (If you ever went to the Finding Nemo show at Disney, that was it - apparently it was such a success that they decided to start licensing it for performance. Also it was written by the Lopez team who did Frozen.) I did find it very amusing that a lot of pleasure in the movie derives from how cleverly they have assigned different anthropomorphic personality types to the different creatures (e.g., sea turtles are surfer dudes), and then the way they approximated those characters on stage was to have the kids essentially be those humans, bringing it full circle.

While I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, H.P., if you want to see an entire synchronized dance with a group of kids all chanting P. Sherman 42 Wallaby Way Sydney together, do seek it out. The best part though was they did these little interstitials out front when they needed to close the curtain for a set change: they had the 4 youngest kids in the show, probably age 7 or so. One was a tourist and the other 3 were gulls. The tourist would pull a baked good out of his bag, and the gulls would come over going "mine mine mine mine" and grab it from him, he would scowl, then all would leave the stage. The last time around the kid had a second baked good in the bag, which he pulled out after the gulls had left, triumphantly shouting, "MINE!"

The movie is so good. It's for kids, sure, not quite as all ages in its appeal as the Toy Storys, but I voted for it. Many many laugh out loud jokes, so clever, and so beautiful. And Albert Brooks!

To what extent was Lasseter quality control? He seemed important, but then again, Cars was his baby, right?

My kid just did a Nemo production. You’re not in Savannah, are you?

I realize there are gobs of kids doing this all over the country.

I liked Incredibles 2! But I adore anything Holly Hunter.

Write-in for Happiness (dir. T Solondz, 1998, 134mins)

xp Cow_Art, nope! Massachusetts. But these children's theater programs do seem to move through very similar repertoires. A couple years ago like 3 programs in our area were all doing Matilda at essentially the same time.

incredibles 2 was ok, def a major step down from the first though

Monsters Inc. The jokes are great, Sully and Mike are a believable pair, it has the best Disney song ("Put that thing back where it came from"), Sully's face at the end hoo boy

xpost Disney (and other companies) actually restricts a lot of school musical performances. They kind of rotate.

All the Toy Story talk reminds me that I never saw TS4, nor had any particular interest in it. I think I'll leave it that way.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Toy Story 2 is the best here, but Monsters Inc is the one I’d keep.

I should watch Incredibles again, but I always find it a little dull. I don’t like the Jason Lee character, and a lot of the jokes go clang for me.

Toy Story 2 is the best here, but Monsters Inc is the one I’d keep.

I should watch Incredibles again, but I always find it a little dull. I don’t like the Jason Lee character, and a lot of the jokes go clang for me.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

fair!

Not 100% I sure voted in my own poll – think I held back thinking I'd catch up with A Bug's Life before deadline!

Well here is the second poll anyway

30 years of Pixar movies: poll II (2005-2014)

Poor ‘A Bug’s Life’.

The ‘no capes’ sequence in The Incredibles is one of the best moments in Pixar’s catalogue.

Take the bugs out and this is a remarkably even poll, with all five contenders ending up getting between 10 and 20 votes. It's telling of the high quality of these films.
I'm somewhat surprised that the first Toy Story won this, from the comments I would have thought it might have been between Toy Story 2 or Incredibles with Monsters Inc following.

Never read the comments

Apparently John Lasseter was chatting to a Disney exec during the making of Toy Story, reassuring him that it was all going well, well enough that they were starting to plan on what they'd make next: actual skin and hair were still quite distant, but they had all these plans for a movie about insects...

... and the exec was Jeffrey Katzenberg, who left to found Dreamworks, which would hire the other vaguely comparable 3D animation studio, and whose second animated film was quiz-fodder Antz ("what is the only film to co-star Woody Allen and Sylvester Stallone?"). Oceans of bad blood between them, from the start.

I didn't know that aspect until I went to look up another (probably unfounded) story: that Microsoft had provided some help* to Dreamworks, because Steve Jobs had just returned to Apple, and it would be in Microsoft's interests for a Pixar flop to get him to split his attentions.

*looking back, it's not clear what this would be - Pixar already had the expertise, and Microsoft weren't exactly a beefy server farm.

Woody Allen and Sylvester Stallone had worked together previously—Stallone played a subway thug in one of Allen’s early comedies.

Yeah, and?

Okay, that's a bit curt, my apologies, but I said starring for a reason - by the time they were each starring in things, there were Woody-films and Sly-films and no overlap.