Rank and File: Pixar Movies - Part 4

I may be going insane. I knew that ranking the Pixar movies would be a challenge, but I had no idea of the amount of psychological torture it was going to inflict on Tiffany and me. All my suppositions and expectations of how the movies would shake out are being flipped around, and it's just like that feeling when you think there's one more stair, but find yourself stepping down on empty space. Well, at least one of them performed like I thought it would. That's a comfort, at least.

Cars (2006)

Though I naturally will have by the end of this project, I haven't actually seen all of the Pixar movies. I missed two of them. But of the ones I've seen, I can say that I don't think any of them are out-and-out bad. They all have something to recommend them. That said, some of them definitely don't even come close to stacking up to the others, and here we have a prime example. Cars is the story of a hotshot racecar who is thoughtless and egocentric, until he gets detained in a small, forgotten town on old Route 66 and learns to slow down and smell the roses, as it were.

It's got some clever parts to it, but this is the sole Pixar movie to date that I'd be fine with never seeing again. It relies too heavily on pop culture references. It's the first "gendered" Pixar movie, which isn't a good sign; all the previous entries could appeal to a general audience, but Cars is squarely aimed at just the boys. Following up the comic characters of Dory and Edna Mode with Larry the Cable Guy as Mater is almost painful. And if you'll allow me some personal bias, as you'll see in the movie below, I may be judging a bit unfairly based on the interest I have in the subject matter. I find car racing enormously boring, so the track scenes didn't hold much appeal. Assigning a ranking to the other Pixar movies has been excruciating. This one was a breeze.

Funnily enough, as disappointing as the feature was, the short that preceded it, One Man Band, was fantastic. It's a wordless tale of two street musicians vying for the single coin a little girl carries. She can't decide who to tip, and their competition quickly spirals out of control. It was a ton of fun, and easily vaulted to the top of the rankings.

Current Feature Rankings:

#1: Finding Nemo (2003)
#2: The Incredibles (2004)
#3: Toy Story 2 (1999)
#4: Monsters, Inc. (2001)
#5: Toy Story (1995)
#6: A Bug's Life (1998)
#7: Cars (2006)

Current Short Rankings:

#1: One Man Band (paired with Cars)
#2: Geri's Game (paired with A Bug's Life)
#3: Boundin' (paired with The Incredibles)
#4: For the Birds (paired with Monsters, Inc.)
#5: Knick Knack (paired with Finding Nemo)
#6: Luxo Jr. (paired with Toy Story 2)
#7: Tin Toy (paired with Toy Story)

Ratatouille (2007)

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. I just don't understand. As I said in Part 3, I had some preconceptions about these movies going in. I didn't even question that The Incredibles would be #1 on my list, and while I remember liking Ratatouille just fine, it didn't conjure up any especially fond associations. So what's changed? I don't know, but this time around, it struck me square in the heart.

Ratatouille follows Remy, a rat who's got a superior sense of smell, and puts it to work on cooking, which is his grand passion. He teams up with a bumbling human who needs the assistance, and together, the two of them secretly run the kitchen at a fancy French restaurant, trying to overcome obstacles like scheming chefs and a snooty food critic. Remy's rat family distrusts humans, and the humans are disgusted by rats, so bridging the two worlds is no small feat.

While there's plenty of love shared between Remy, his family, and his human best friend, nothing socked me in the emotions more than the scene of the food critic being transported back to his childhood by taking a single bite of food prepared with care and his subsequent restaurant review. I'm wholly disinterested in car racing, but cooking is my biggest hobby, so I understood exactly how the character felt, and what experiencing extraordinary food can do to you.

I don't think this had a big effect on how successful I think Cars and Ratatouille are as movies, but it would be unfair not to mention it. So yes, The Incredibles does a magnificent job of telling a fairly standard action/superhero story, but Ratatouille made me bawl with some animated eggplant.

The short was great, too. Lifted is essentially a DMV test for a young alien, who isn't doing too well at abducting a sleeping human from his bed. The test proctor is merciless in his grading, but offers his kindness when the young alien takes his failure pretty hard. He probably shouldn't have; some people just shouldn't be on the road. Er... In the air.

Current Feature Rankings:

#1: Finding Nemo (2003)
#2: Ratatouille (2007)
#3: The Incredibles (2004)
#4: Toy Story 2 (1999)
#5: Monsters, Inc. (2001)
#6: Toy Story (1995)
#7: A Bug's Life (1998)
#8: Cars (2006)

Current Short Rankings:

#1: One Man Band (paired with Cars)
#2: Geri's Game (paired with A Bug's Life)
#3: Lifted (paired with Ratatouille)
#4: Boundin' (paired with The Incredibles)
#5: For the Birds (paired with Monsters, Inc.)
#6: Knick Knack (paired with Finding Nemo)
#7: Luxo Jr. (paired with Toy Story 2)
#8: Tin Toy (paired with Toy Story)