10 Pixar Films That Are Perfect From Start to Finish
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You'd have to be living under a rock to not hear that Pixar Animation Studios is one of the absolute titans of the animated industry. For decades, they've been crafting and releasing some of the greatest animated stories of all time, and they're all proof of that—even their lesser successes. They've been going strong for 30+ years now, and that doesn't seem to be stopping anytime soon.
While almost all of their projects are great, there are some that simply stand out far from the rest, for the best reasons. Pixar has made some of the greatest animated films of all time. They typically manage to juggle mature themes and child-like wonder perfectly. The studio consistently cooks and equips great directors for projects, allowing them to fulfill their vision with minimal creative control taken from them.
10 'Inside Out' (2015)
"Do you ever look at someone and wonder, 'what is going on inside their head?'" is the perfect way to describe the likes of Inside Out and why it resonates with people so much. Pixar's iconic 2015 film is one of their best projects of the 2010s, and for good reason. Within this wonderful project, director Pete Docter dissects the human mind and why people act the ways they do.
Inside Out follows the likes of a young girl named Riley (Kaitlyn Dias) as she stresses about moving across the country, putting a whole new life ahead of her. Inside her head, her emotions struggle right alongside her, and the protagonists of the film, Joy (Amy Poehler) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith), are swept away into the outer limits of Riley's mind, they must find their way back to keep her, well, from crashing out. It's a beautiful story about appreciating life for what it is and finding joy.
9 'Brave' (2012)
If there's one thing Pixar is very good at when planning the various films they'll create, it's giving audiences a variety of worlds to watch. Brave is a great example of this, being unlike anything Pixar has ever put out. The story of young princess Merida (Kelly Macdonald) is nothing like a typical princess story, and that's the total point.
Centering around the rocky relationship she has with her mother, Queen Elinor (Emma Thompson), Brave manages to capture what a natural—rough around the edges—familial dynamic is actually like, without villainizing either party. Directors Brenda Chapman and Mark Andrews utilize Queen Elinor's transformation into a dialogueless bear as a way to emphasize the disconnect in their communication, and it works extremely well. If anything, Brave has an incredibly smart screenplay.
8 'A Bug's Life' (1998)
One of the most underrated Pixar movies, by far, is John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton's A Bug's Life. This 1998 insect-led adventure did not get the recognition it deserved, with a cult following behind it. What makes this project so special is that, while being a film for families, it's actually about fighting oppressive forces and corrupt institutions—advocating for the little guy and the power people have when they come together.
A Bug's Life is a more important film now than it ever has been. The underdog story behind it all, following the clumsy Flik (Dave Foley), is inspiring and shows people how strong the masses can be. Not to mention, the villain, Hopper (Kevin Spacey), is a genuinely fearsome foe that adds a sense of true tension over the entire runtime.
7 'Monsters Inc.' (2001)
Pixar is really good at coming up with unique worlds and characters, and one of the best examples of this is Monsters Inc. Centered around two monsters named James "Sully" Sullivan (John Goodman) and Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal), who discover a little human girl and must try to get her back home in secret. However, things become difficult when their troublesome co-worker, Randall Boggs (Steve Buscemi), tries to expose them and get them fired.
Monsters Inc. feels very much like Three Men and a Baby as the two grown monsters try to take care of a child—something they're far unequipped to do. This allows for some great comedy and heartwarming moments all over. The characters are also memorable because of how well they were designed—the character design team led by Ricky Nierva—and that adds to how much people look back on this film.
6 'Finding Nemo' (2003)
Finding Nemo is another Pixar film that's known as one of their absolute classics. Being their fifth movie under their belt as a studio, Pixar continued to push their standards and technology with Finding Nemo. With them releasing the first-ever 3D-animated theatrical feature just four movies earlier, jumping all the way underwater now was a big one. Pixar spearheaded new technology and graphics engines that allowed them to craft underwater lighting, non-linear movement systems (to best replicate aquatic life), and more.
When the adventurous little clownfish known as Nemo (Alexander Goul) is taken from his father, Marlin (Albert Brooks), both father and son have to fight their way through the vast world to get back to each other. This is a beautiful story about a father and son, showcasing how hard it can be for parents to let go—let their kid swim out into the ocean that is the rest of the world. It's a gorgeous film that is genuinely moving.
Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes Which Iconic Fandom Should You Join? Harry Potter · Lord of the Rings · Star Wars · Star Trek
Eight honest questions about how you actually are: what you put on when you need cheering up, how deep you go into the things you love, what you argue about, what you keep on your shelf. Answer them and we will tell you where you belong. Four of the biggest fandoms on earth are taking new members, and they could not be more different from one another.
⚡Harry Potter(Wizarding World)
💍Lord of the Rings(Middle-earth)
⚔️Star Wars(A Galaxy Far Away)
🖖Star Trek(The Final Frontier)
01
What do you put on when you need cheering up? Nobody is brave about this one.
02
How deep do you go into something you love? There is no shallow end here, only different deep ends.
03
What do you and your friends actually argue about? Every fandom has one argument it has been having for years.
04
How do you feel about a room full of strangers? Every one of these comes with a very big room.
05
Where would you rather spend a week? Pick on instinct rather than on budget.
06
What do you believe about people, mostly? All four of these stories have an answer, and they disagree.
07
What is actually on your shelf? Look over at it before you answer.
08
What do you actually want from a story? Eight questions in, this is the one that picks your fandom.
Membership Confirmed Your Fandom Is…
Four of the largest communities on the planet, and four completely different reasons to belong to one. Here is yours, what it would give you, and the argument you would be having within a week.
Harry Potter
You belong to the fandom that is really about comfort. Hogwarts works on people because it is a place rather than a plot, and the pull is not the wizard war so much as the corridors, the food, the weather and the sense that somebody is expecting you.
- You are drawn to belonging, which is why this fandom sorted itself into houses within about five minutes and has never stopped.
- This is the most social of the four, and the one most likely to know which type every single person in your life would be.
- The books are built to be reread rather than analysed, and rereading is exactly what you do with things you love.
- The new HBO series is bringing the whole thing back one book at a time, which means the arguments are about to start all over again.
Lord of the Rings
You belong to the deepest fandom on this list, the one where somebody has always read further than you and is quietly delighted to say so. Middle-earth rewards patience more than any other world in popular culture.
- You like the sense that the story you are reading is only the visible part of something enormous, which is precisely how Tolkien built it.
- This fandom takes adaptation seriously to a degree that other fandoms find slightly alarming, and it has good reasons for that.
- Your favourite thing about the books is probably the bit that is not action at all, which is the walking, the songs and the long goodbyes.
- Nobody here thinks heroism belongs to the powerful, and the whole story exists to make that argument.
Star Wars
You belong to the loudest and largest tent of the four, the one where three generations are all watching the same thing and none of them agree about any of it. That disagreement is not a flaw in this fandom, it is the main activity.
- You want something you can share with absolutely everybody, from a six year old to a grandparent, and this is the only one on the list that really does that.
- Nobody argues like Star Wars fans argue, and the argument has been running since roughly 1980 with no sign of resolution.
- The pull here is sensory before it is narrative, since it is the sound design, the score and the look of a used and dented galaxy.
- You would be first in the queue, in costume, with strong opinions and a genuinely good time.
Star Trek
You belong to the thinking fandom, the one that turns up for the argument rather than the explosion. Trek has always been a series of ethical problems in space, and the people who love it love being asked what they would have done.
- You are an optimist in a way that is currently unfashionable, and this is the only major franchise still willing to say the future might be better.
- The best episodes are the ones where nobody fires anything, which is a sentence that makes perfect sense to this fandom and to nobody else.
- Starfleet Academy brought the franchise back to a classroom in 2026, which is appropriate, because Trek has always been a bit of a seminar.
- You would want the conversation afterwards more than the episode itself, and here you will always find somebody willing to have it.
5 'WALL-E' (2008)
It's hard not to love the likes of WALL-E. It's simply an adorable film that also sends an incredible message about environmental conservation—needed now more than ever. WALL-E follows the titular little trash-compacting robot—voiced by Ben Burtt—as he's one of the last beings left on Earth after humanity fled because they, to put it plainly, trashed the entire planet.
What is so special about this movie is the fact that it has major silent film vibes for almost the entire runtime. With the plot mainly revolving around little WALL-E and his new companion, the high-tech EVE (Elissa Knight), there's not a lot of dialogue outside of them saying their own names. This forced director Andrew Stanton to really hone in on visual storytelling, rather than dialogue—far easier said than done, which is a testament to his talent as a director.
4 'Cars' (2006)
Having a flawed protagonist is incredibly important for a plot like Cars', but this is also incredibly difficult to accomplish, because—especially with a film for all families—one doesn't want their protagonist to be too unlikable. They need to be just enough so that they have a lot of room to improve. One of the most flawed protagonists in the Pixar catalog comes in the form of Cars' Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson).
When Lightning starts the movie, he's an egotistical dude—sometimes even a jerk—who cannot get his head out of his own rear bumper. It's an emotionally compelling story about slowing down in life and letting go of selfishness and arrogance. Forcing such a hot shot into a small town like Radiator Springs leads to an incredibly well-told story.
3 'Toy Story' (1995)
Toy Story isn't just an amazing movie. First off, it's an incredibly important one, as well. Being the very first 3D-animated feature film to be released in theaters, this project, directed by the one and only John Lasseter, is one of the most important films in the history of animated film—especially given how prominent CG-animated movies have become over the decades since Toy Story's release.
If there's one thing that Lasseter is really good at—as proven through his work across the years—it's his ability to make non-human beings feel more human than one could ever imagine. His first example of this with Pixar comes in the form of this 1995 project, and, in it, he showcases the prowess he's capable of. These toys are living and breathing, fully-fleshed out characters that are a joy to watch from beginning to end.
2 'The Incredibles' (2004)
If one thing is true, it's that Brad Bird is one of the titans of animated filmmaking. Known for movies like The Iron Giant, he is, at times, simply unbeatable. That much is certainly true with his first directorial outing with Pixar, The Incredibles. This family-led flick isn't just one of the best animated movies out there, but also one of the best superheroes movies out there, as well.
The Incredibles is often considered the best Fantastic Four film, while simultaneously not being a Fantastic Four film. The way it handles imperfect family dynamics, and the mature themes at play are excellent. This manages to be a movie that has deeply mature themes that can compel not just kids and teens, but adults, as well.
1 'Ratatouille' (2007)
Brad Bird's best work, however, is the one and the only Ratatouille. Commonly considered Pixar and Bird's "magnum opus," this production tells a story of dreams and passions—the pursuit of them. The world often looks down on people who follow their dreams with such an intense drive—borderline blind—and Ratatouille tells those people who do to screw off.
Remy (Patton Oswalt), the rodent protagonist, is one that is so inspiring and riveting. Audiences often wish they could have the kind of love and drive for their dreams that he does, which makes him so relatable and a fantasy of a character, in a way. This, plus an invigorating plot, make Ratatouille unforgettable in every way.
Ratatouille
- Release Date
- June 21, 2007
- Runtime
- 111 minutes
- Director
- Brad Bird
- Writers
- Brad Bird, Jim Capobianco, Jan Pinkava
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