So now we’ve reached the final summary. If you haven’t read a single blog post here. I’m going to quickly summarize each of my posts on the Pixar filmography and then compare my original ranking before my rewatch to my new one.
So let’s get to it!
Toy Story is about coping with the way life changes and learning how to handle when life doesn’t go the way you planned for it to go. It shows that if you accept change it can make life better.
A Bug’s Life is an allegory for the way the wealthy and powerful exploit the weak and poor. It is only by working against the system and overcoming those judgements that we can better society for everyone.
Toy Story 2 talks about moving away from the pain of the past and aiming to keep the best days of your life ahead of you. If we don’t dwell on our past we can have a happier and more successful future.
Monsters, Inc. is about how the ends do not always justify the means. We can have the best of intentions but we defeat our own argument if we take shortcuts and harmful tactics when working to achieve our goals.
Finding Nemo has a simple message. No matter what obstacles come into your path, no matter what life throws in your way, not matter how hard it gets, Just. Keep Swimming.
Syndrome is the absolute perfect movie villain. He contrasts Mr. Incredible perfectly. In the legacy of Pixar there has never been a better villain than Syndrome.
When we travel through life, it is often the journey that we remember, not the destination. If we only journey to get somewhere, we’ll miss so many wonderful moments and people who come across our lives.
Ratatouille teaches us that we shouldn’t judge anyone by their looks. The way a person presents themselves is not indicative of their potential in any craft and if we just invest in people we’ll find that anyone can do anything.
WALL-E is a warning. If we don’t take care of ourselves, our neighbors, and our planet, we’ll destroy all of it before we know it. Life doesn’t survive if we don’t make the sacrifices necessary for it to do so.
There will never be a right time to take that trip, so just do it. And if you think you’ve missed your chance, you haven’t. It may not be the best time, but it’s never too late.
As we grow up we learn valuable lessons. And if we are wise, we’ll learn to pass these lessons on those who are younger than us. If we want to better everyone’s life, we need to pass on what we’ve learned.
You are the only one who gets to decide who you are, you are the only one who gets to decide what you do in life, no one else can tell you who you are or what you are capable of becoming. Only you can decide that.
There is so much the world expects of you. But you can carve your own path, you can write your own destiny. You simply have to have the courage to face the mob of conformity and carve out a path on your own.
There is never one road in life. No matter what anyone tells you, there is always another way. Life is an open series of paths and you can follow whatever one fits you best.
Mental illness is real and it affects millions of people. If we don’t take it seriously we can lose those we love.
Sometimes the only way to overcome our fears is to face them. And when we do face our fears we can become stronger and more complete people.
If we work together and use our differences we can do great things. There is no one in the world without value and not everyone can do everything. So come together and learn to work with each other because we’ll all be better for it.
If you’re looking at a dream and worrying about the outcome, ask yourself one question: what do you have to lose? I’ll bet it’s next to nothing, so take chances and be brave. Because you have nothing to lose.
There are people who will come into our lives and influence them more than we could every know. And there people who we’ll look up to, be careful of idolizing anyone but don’t be afraid to go meet your heroes.
It took 14 years to get The Incredibles to the screen and it was worth every minute it took to get there. Sometimes getting it right is worth the wait.
If we look at things differently, anything can be special. If we open our eyes to the possibilities of the world, anything can be special. If we learn to play the way a child plays, anything can be whatever we need it to be. Anything can be a toy.
Often we’ll find people in our lives who help tell our story. And sometimes the gestures we do for others can have a grand impact. We all have more influence than we realize and we all can be the heroes those around us need.
There is beauty in the simple parts of life. If we simply take the time to look around once in a while and appreciate the things in life we have, we can make every day wonderful. Life has lots to be grateful for, we just have to take the time to look.
So how did these movies all stack up. Well before we get to that let me show you my predictions. These are my original rankings from before starting the blog:
- The Incredibles
- Inside Out
- Toy Story 2
- Coco
- Toy Story 3
- Monsters, Inc.
- Toy Story
- Onward
- WALL-E
- A Bug’s Life
- Ratatouille
- Up
- The Incredibles 2
- Brave
- Finding Nemo
- Cars
- Toy Story 4
- Monsters University
- Finding Dory
And I had not seen Cars 2, The Good Dinosaur, Cars 3, or Soul so I couldn’t accurately rank them.
Now let’s compare the old scores to the new ones.
- The Incredibles +0
- Coco +2
- Toy Story 2 +0
- Inside Out -2
- Onward +3
- Toy Story 3 -1
- Ratatouille +4
- Brave +6
- Monsters, Inc. +3
- Soul – New Entry
- Toy Story -4
- A Bug’s Life -2
- The Incredibles 2 +0
- Toy Story 4 +3
- Monsters University +3
- WALL-E -7
- Cars 3 – New Entry
- Finding Dory +1
- Up -6
- Finding Nemo -5
- The Good Dinosaur – New Entry
- Cars 2 – New Entry
- Cars -7
Biggest jump: Brave (14th to 8th)
Biggest fall: WALL-E (9th to 16th) and Cars (16th to 23rd)
And finally my favorite character in each movie in order of release:
- Toy Story – Woody
- A Bug’s Life – Slim
- Toy Story 2 – Jessie
- Monsters, Inc. – Mike
- Finding Nemo – Gill
- The Incredibles – Syndrome
- Cars – Luigi
- Ratatouille – Remy
- WALL-E – WALL-E
- Up – Carl
- Toy Story 3 – Buzz Lightyear
- Cars 2 – Finn McMissile
- Brave – Merida
- Monsters University – Sully
- Inside Out – Anger
- The Good Dinosaur – Poppa Henry
- Finding Dory – Hank
- Cars 3 – Cruz Ramirez
- Coco – Miguel
- The Incredibles 2 – Helen Parr
- Toy Story 4 – Forky
- Onward – Barley
- Soul – Joe
And that’s it, I now have no more lessons to learn from Pixar until they come out with another movie. But since that’s a ways away I’ll have to find another franchise to keep my attention in the meantime. And I’ve got big plans for how I’m tackling the next franchise. Let’s just say I’m gonna really dive into whether or not a certain super spy holds up in the 21st century.
It’s gonna be a few weeks while you’re waiting for that to get started though. So in the meantime feel free to check out my Youtube channel and my podcast for a different look at movies. You can find it all here: Ploominator
Thanks again for joining me on this journey and until next time, thanks for taking the time to get Ploominated.
Ploominate 