Comments | amurderofcows: Friday Night List #1

amurderofcows

Friday Night List #1

Nov 13, 2009 20:58

Pixar's ten feature films, ranked in order of my enjoyment of them:

The Incredibles
Up
Ratatouille
Finding Nemo
Wall-E
A Bug's Life
Toy Story 2
Toy Story
Monsters, Inc.
Cars

Comments 13

homais November 14 2009, 05:32:12 UTC

Of those, I've only seen some, which I put in the following order:

1) Incredibles
2) Ratatouille (even after losing weight, I remain a foodie)
3) Wall-e
4) Up

Wow, I need to see more pixar movies. I usually like them.

amurderofcows November 14 2009, 05:53:42 UTC

Losing weight made me feel less guilty about being a foodie. But oh yes I am one. For our 23rd anniversary, we went to French Laundry, which turned us into religious zealots, not just because it was a great meal, but because it changed our ideas about what food could be like. Our expectations were ridiculously high, and so far exceeded that I think friends looked at us like recent converts to a cult when we talked about it. Probably because we were.

I saw Up twice (once in 2D, once in 3D) and both times the opening sequence about the relationship between the main character and his wife made me cry; I've been in a relationship for 23 years, so it's hard not to see some of my own life in it. I don't cry easily at films-hardly ever-but I did at Up, and for that it gets the #2 spot.

amurderofcows November 14 2009, 05:55:07 UTC

I like most of them. #9 and #10 are the only two I'd endorse skipping.

tko_ak November 14 2009, 06:19:44 UTC

I haven't seen Up yet, but I thought Ratatouille, Finding Nemo, and Wall-E were over rated. Toy Story and A Bug's Life makes me all nostalgic.

amurderofcows November 14 2009, 06:56:21 UTC

Did you see the double feature 3D re-release of Toy Story and Toy Story 2? They looked pretty spiffy in 3D.

Toy Story 3 comes out next year, with a script written by the guy who wrote Little Miss Sunshine.

tko_ak November 14 2009, 07:22:32 UTC

I didn't, but I've been looking forward to Toy Story 3 for a couple of years.

Little Miss Sunshine and Toy Story don't seem to click very well.

amurderofcows November 15 2009, 06:48:04 UTC

At the Toy Story/Toy Story 2 3D showings they ran a short trailer for Toy Story 3. As is usual with Pixar trailers, they didn't open the kimono very wide.

tisoi November 14 2009, 07:43:04 UTC

Here's mine

1. Finding Nemo
2. The Incredibles
3. Toy Story
4. Monsters, Inc.
5. A Bug's Life
6. Cars

amurderofcows November 15 2009, 06:41:00 UTC

So far Cars ranks near the end of everyone's list, if they've seen it, and it didn't do as well at the box office at most Pixar films, but yet they're making a sequel to it.

mizzoumark November 14 2009, 14:47:49 UTC

I'm a complete Pixar nerd. I haven't bought Up yet, and probably won't, since I fully expect to get it for Christmas, but if I don't, that's what gift cards are for. :)

My list:

1. Finding Nemo
2. Toy Story
3. Ratatouille
4. Monsters, Inc.
5. Wall-E
6. Toy Story 2
7. The Incredibles
8. Up
9. Cars
10. A Bug's Life

amurderofcows November 15 2009, 06:45:40 UTC

I'm a Pixar nerd as well. My partner has various ties to the company, so we've done the grand tour of the headquarters in Emeryville a number of times. It looks like an insanely fun place to work.

henkkuli November 15 2009, 17:07:39 UTC

1. Ratatouille - For the music, the compelling voice work by the actors, the realistic animation of mice, the beautiful rendering of Paris. And that scene where Anton Ego takes the first bite of Ratatouille and is immediately transported back to his childhood gets me every time1. Up! - I have never found the first few minutes of a film so moving. The story of redemption is incredible to me, and that dog with the voice chip is absolutely fantastic ( ... )

amurderofcows November 15 2009, 21:09:31 UTC

The realistic portrayal of mice was a controversial decision at Pixar. When the original director of the film was fired, they were moving more in the direction of cartoonish mice which wouldn't yield such an "ick" factor. Brad Bird insisted on more realistic mice, which made the heads of the studio very nervous, especially in scenes where you see a whole bunch of mice, moving more or less like real mice do, in wide shots. Bird insisted on the more realistic mice, and Ratatouille did well at the box office; it's the third-highest grossing Pixar film, although it's also the only Pixar film for which over two-thirds of its revenue came from outside the US.

The beginning of Up moved me to tears, both times I saw the movie, and that doesn't happen much. I'm not the tearing-up-at-movies type.

I also appreciated the libertarian themes in The Incredibles, unexpected in a "kids'" movie, which have Bird's fingerprints all over them. A lot of people took Wall-E as a message film about environmentalism, but that isn't, uh, a reflection of ( ... )