Follow-up: Pixar favorites, yours and mine.

Happy Post-Turkey day, if celebrating that was your thing. If not, welcome to late November, or as I like to call it “The Most Annoying Time Of The Year And When Did Everyone Forget How To Drive?”. I thought I’d run the results from last week’s article about next year’s Pixar release Wall-E in which I asked you to rate the studio’s eight movies from your favorite to least.

The thing about Pixar movies is that they already tend to be consistently better than the output of other studios or filmmakers, so much so that it’s almost an unfair playing field. And when you compare Pixar movies to other Pixar movies, the level of unfairness reaches nearly unprecedented levels of complete unfairness. The thing is, you have to rate something at the bottom or near the bottom of the list, despite the fact that – even at the bottom of the Pixar pile – it’s still a better movie than, say, all of M. Night Shyamalan’s filmography.

See how unfair that can be?

Here’s a summary of how you, the erudite and superior-in-smartnesses Burbanked readership, responded:

• Ratatouille and The Incredibles were your favorites of the eight Pixar movies
• You like Cars the least
• Both Toy Story movies are toward the top; A Bug’s Life and Monsters, Inc. are toward the bottom

For what it’s worth, my ratings for the Pixar movies are as follows, with my favorite first:

1. The Incredibles – just about perfect; a wondrous blending of story, character and amazing visual style. Every time I watch it I want to start it over again.
2. Toy Story – revolutionary but so filled with heart, humor and drama. Seems simple, yet amazing in how complex it actually is.
3. Finding Nemo – it could be because I’ve got sons who I’m desperate to protect at all costs, but this one gets me each time on a very basic level. And I can’t stand Ellen DeGeneres but I love her here.
4. Toy Story 2 – doesn’t surpass its predecessor but builds and expands it brilliantly.
5. Ratatouille – such a beautiful film, a feast for the eyes. A bit dopey in terms of the way Remy “controls” Linguini, but worth five times the cost of admission for the purely visual, slam-bang exposition climax of the Anton Ego flashback at the end.
6. A Bug’s Life – best Pixar use of soundtrack. Kevin Spacey at his (near) best. And is this the only Pixar movie where the antagonist is actually killed?
7. Monsters, Inc. – I don’t have a strong reason for rating this near the bottom other than the fact that I haven’t watched it all that much. Michael, Sonny and Tom Hagen don’t like it so much so it doesn’t hit the rotation very often. I’d probably rate it higher with a few more viewings.
8. Cars – a beautiful disappointment. Visually stunning but the anthropomorphized characters don’t make as much sense as created like they do in Toy Story or Finding Nemo. The universe they’re populating just doesn’t make sense to me, and it’s a complete stumbling block to enjoying the movie.

Special thanks for everybody who voted!