Top 10 Pixar Movies

Toy Story versus The Incredibles as the household default

These two films sit at opposite ends of what Pixar does well, and picking between them is the real decision most viewers face. Toy Story runs 81 minutes, rated G, directed by John Lasseter, released in 1995. The Incredibles runs 115 minutes, rated PG, directed by Brad Bird, released in 2004. That 34-minute gap is the single biggest practical variable: Toy Story fits inside a weeknight bedtime window with time to spare, while The Incredibles is effectively a full feature-length commitment closer to a live-action action movie.

Toy Story's case is historical and structural. It was the first feature-length film animated entirely with computers, and it earned a Special Achievement Academy Award for pioneering the form. The story is a two-hander: Woody (Tom Hanks), a pull-string cowboy doll who has been the favorite toy for years, is displaced by Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), a space ranger action figure who does not know he is a toy. Jealousy drives the plot, and the resolution is earned through forced cooperation rather than a speech. Nothing in the screenplay depends on a technology that has aged; the character logic works identically in 1995 and today.

The Incredibles' case is practical. Bob Parr (Craig T. Nelson) and Helen Parr (Holly Hunter) are retired superheroes raising powered kids under a government relocation program, and the film blends spy thriller, midlife-crisis drama, and family comedy in a way that gives every viewer in the room something to track. Kids follow Dash and Violet. Teenagers follow the action set pieces. Adults follow a man lying to his wife about a job. It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Because those three layers run simultaneously rather than in sequence, nobody in a mixed-age room has to wait out a stretch that is not for them — which is exactly what drives repeat viewing.

The trade-off is intensity. Toy Story's peril is Sid's bedroom and a rocket strapped to a toy. The Incredibles opens with an attempted suicide interrupted, includes a sequence where a villain believes he has killed children, and stages genuine on-screen deaths of minor characters. The PG rating is doing real work. For a household with a four-year-old, Toy Story is the safer default; for a household with a nine-year-old and a thirteen-year-old, The Incredibles holds the room better.

The rest of the ten and where each one fits

Up (2009), directed by Pete Docter, 96 minutes, PG. Carl Fredricksen (Ed Asner) ties thousands of balloons to his house and floats toward South America after his wife Ellie dies, accidentally carrying along Russell (Jordan Nagai), a young Wilderness Explorer. The opening montage compresses an entire marriage into a wordless sequence and is the most emotionally efficient stretch of film Pixar has produced. It won Best Animated Feature and earned a Best Picture nomination — one of a small handful of animated films ever nominated in that category. The back half, with talking dogs and a villainous explorer, is lighter than the opening promises, which is either a relief or a letdown depending on what you came for.

WALL-E (2008), directed by Andrew Stanton, 98 minutes, G. A trash-compacting robot alone on an abandoned Earth falls for EVE, a sleek reconnaissance probe. The first act runs nearly dialogue-free and works as pure visual storytelling in the Chaplin tradition. It won Best Animated Feature. The second half, set aboard the starliner Axiom with its sedentary human passengers, is more conventional and more didactic, and the satire lands harder on adults than kids.

Ratatouille (2007), Brad Bird again, 111 minutes, G. Remy (Patton Oswalt), a rat with a refined palate, guides kitchen boy Linguini (Lou Romano) through a Paris restaurant. Best Animated Feature winner. Anton Ego's closing review monologue is one of the best-written passages in the studio's catalog, and the film's argument — that greatness can come from anywhere, but not everyone can be great — is more nuanced than the "anyone can cook" slogan it hangs on.

Inside Out (2015), Pete Docter, 95 minutes, PG. Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Fear, Anger, and Disgust operate the control console inside eleven-year-old Riley's head during a cross-country move. Best Animated Feature winner. Its practical value is unusual: it gives parents shared vocabulary for talking to children about emotional states, and the thesis — that sadness serves a function and suppressing it makes things worse — is a genuinely useful idea delivered without a lecture.

Coco (2017), Lee Unkrich, 105 minutes, PG. Miguel (Anthony Gonzalez) crosses into the Land of the Dead on Día de los Muertos and untangles a family secret about music and abandonment. It won two Oscars, Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song for "Remember Me." Visually it is the most saturated film in the catalog. The plot twist is telegraphed early, but the climax does not depend on surprise — it depends on a song sung to a woman losing her memory, and it works regardless.

Finding Nemo (2003), Andrew Stanton, 100 minutes, G. Marlin (Albert Brooks), an anxious clownfish, crosses the ocean for his captured son with help from Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), a blue tang with short-term memory loss. Best Animated Feature winner and a box-office phenomenon that spawned a sequel built entirely around Dory. The opening scene is more traumatic than most parents remember.

Toy Story 3 (2010), Lee Unkrich, 103 minutes, G. Andy leaves for college and the toys end up at Sunnyside Daycare under Lotso, a strawberry-scented teddy bear running a prison regime. Best Animated Feature winner and a Best Picture nominee. The incinerator sequence and the handoff scene at the end make it the most emotionally punishing film here, which is why it ranks high on quality and low on casual-rewatch frequency.

Monsters, Inc. (2001), Pete Docter, 92 minutes, G. Sulley (John Goodman) and Mike (Billy Crystal) work a scream-harvesting energy utility until a toddler follows them home. It is the lightest film on this list and the best pick for the youngest viewers — high invention, low emotional cost, and a buddy dynamic carried entirely by two voice performances.

How to route a specific viewing night

The ranking is not the useful output. The useful output is a routing decision, because the correct Pixar film changes with the room. Three variables settle it: the youngest age present, the emotional bandwidth available, and the runtime window.

Youngest age is the hard constraint, and it filters first. Under five, stay with G-rated, low-threat entries: Toy Story, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo with a warning about the opening. Five to eight opens up Ratatouille, WALL-E, and Coco. Nine and up puts everything on the table, including The Incredibles and Toy Story 3.

Emotional bandwidth is the variable people underweight and regret. Up, Coco, Inside Out, and Toy Story 3 all end in a deliberate emotional payload. If the evening is already heavy — a bad day, a recent loss, a stressed household — those four are the wrong call regardless of quality. Monsters, Inc., The Incredibles, and Finding Nemo are the low-cost options that still deliver a complete story.

Runtime is the tiebreaker. Under 95 minutes: Toy Story (81), Monsters, Inc. (92), Inside Out (95). Around 100: WALL-E (98), Finding Nemo (100), Toy Story 3 (103), Coco (105). Over 110: Ratatouille (111), The Incredibles (115). A 7:30 start with a 9:00 bedtime rules out the last two before taste ever enters the picture.

The numbers behind the ranking

Every film on this list is a Best Animated Feature Academy Award winner with one exception: Toy Story, which predates the category. The Best Animated Feature Oscar was first awarded for the 2001 film year, so Toy Story (1995), released six years earlier, was never eligible — it received a Special Achievement Award instead. That single fact explains why award count alone cannot rank this catalog, and why the raw metric needs adjusting before you use it.

Best Picture nominations are the sharper filter. Only two films here have one: Up and Toy Story 3, both from the brief window after the Academy expanded the Best Picture field beyond five nominees. Two nominations out of ten entries is a meaningful concentration for any studio, and it identifies which Pixar films crossed from "best animated film that year" to "one of the best films that year."

Runtime distribution tells you something about the studio's discipline. The ten films span 81 to 115 minutes, with a median around 99. Pixar does not make long movies. Compare that to the two-hour-plus norm for live-action tentpoles and the practical advantage is obvious: a Pixar film is a complete evening's story that still ends before a kid's attention does. The 81-minute Toy Story is the outlier on the short end and it is not accidental — it was the studio's first feature, made under real technical and budget limits, and the constraint produced a screenplay with no slack in it.

Directors cluster tightly. Pete Docter directed three of the ten (Monsters, Inc., Up, Inside Out). Andrew Stanton directed two (Finding Nemo, WALL-E). Brad Bird directed two (The Incredibles, Ratatouille). Lee Unkrich directed two (Toy Story 3, Coco). John Lasseter directed one (Toy Story). Four directors account for nine of ten films, which is an unusually concentrated creative bench and a real explanation for the tonal consistency across two decades.

Release cadence matters for how you think about the catalog. The ten films span 1995 to 2017, twenty-two years. Seven of them land between 2001 and 2010 — a nine-year run that includes Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, WALL-E, Up, and Toy Story 3. That concentration is the studio's peak, and it is worth knowing when someone asks why the newer releases feel different: the comparison set is one of the strongest consecutive runs any film studio has assembled.

On the business side, Pixar's box-office revenue profile is what funded the risk-taking. Finding Nemo and Toy Story 3 were both enormous global earners, and that revenue is what bought the studio room to greenlight a nearly silent first act in WALL-E and a wordless marriage montage in Up. The pattern is worth naming because it explains the catalog's shape: commercial wins subsidized formal experiments, and the experiments are what people remember.

Building a watch order that actually works

If you are introducing someone to Pixar — a kid aging into the catalog, or an adult who somehow missed it — release order is the wrong sequence. Start with accessibility and escalate emotional weight.

Start with Monsters, Inc. It is the lowest-friction entry: bright, funny, ninety-two minutes, and the emotional beat at the end is gentle rather than devastating. Nobody bounces off it.

Move to Toy Story second, not first. Counterintuitive, but the 1995 rendering — plastic surfaces, simple textures, sparse environments — reads as visually dated to a viewer whose baseline is modern animation. Watching it after a more polished film lets the screenplay carry it, and the screenplay is what makes it the best film here. Follow with Finding Nemo third for the visual leap and the first real emotional stakes.

Fourth and fifth, The Incredibles and Ratatouille. Both are Brad Bird films, both longer, both assume more patience. The Incredibles rewards a viewer who can track three plot threads at once; Ratatouille rewards one who can sit through a slower middle act for a payoff that is entirely verbal.

Sixth and seventh, WALL-E and Inside Out. These are the concept films — one nearly silent, one entirely abstract — and they need a viewer who trusts the studio enough to stay with an unusual first twenty minutes. Putting them here rather than earlier is the difference between "this is strange and boring" and "this is strange and I want to see where it goes."

Save Up, Coco, and Toy Story 3 for last, in that order. All three are built to make you cry, and stacking them back-to-back is a mistake — space them out. Up front-loads its payload, Coco back-loads it, and Toy Story 3 delivers a sustained gut-punch across its final twenty minutes that only works if you already care about Woody and Buzz, which means it must come after Toy Story and ideally after a rewatch.

Two practical notes on access. Nearly the entire catalog streams on Disney+, and every title here is also available to rent or buy through the major digital storefronts, so a lapsed subscription does not block a single-film night. And if you are watching with someone who cries easily, tell them before Up starts. The montage arrives in the first ten minutes with no warning, and being ambushed by it is a different experience than being prepared for it.

Related questions

Which Pixar movie is the shortest?

Toy Story (1995) at 81 minutes is the shortest film on this list, and the only one under ninety minutes besides Monsters, Inc. at 92. That brevity is a feature — the screenplay carries no slack, and it fits a tight bedtime window.

Why isn't Toy Story an Oscar winner for Best Animated Feature?

The Best Animated Feature category did not exist in 1995. It was first awarded for the 2001 film year. Toy Story received a Special Achievement Academy Award instead, recognizing it as the first feature-length computer-animated film.

Which Pixar directors made more than one film on this list?

Pete Docter directed three (Monsters, Inc., Up, Inside Out). Andrew Stanton, Brad Bird, and Lee Unkrich each directed two. Four directors account for nine of the ten entries, which explains the catalog's unusual tonal consistency.

What's the best Pixar movie for a four-year-old?

Monsters, Inc. — ninety-two minutes, no death, no abandonment plot, and a monster who turns out to be a friend. Toy Story is the close second, though Sid's bedroom sequence unsettles some younger viewers.

FAQ

What is the best Pixar movie?

Toy Story (1995) tops this list as the first fully computer-animated feature and a screenplay with no wasted scene. Up, WALL-E, and The Incredibles are all legitimate alternate picks depending on whether you value emotional weight, formal ambition, or rewatch value.

Which Pixar movies were nominated for Best Picture?

Up (2009) and Toy Story 3 (2010) both received Best Picture nominations at the Academy Awards. They are the only two films on this list to cross from the animation category into the main race.

Where can I stream these Pixar movies?

Nearly the entire Pixar catalog streams on Disney+. Every title here is also available to rent or purchase through major digital storefronts, so you can watch any single film without an active subscription.

Which Pixar movie makes people cry the most?

Up (the opening montage), Toy Story 3 (the incinerator and the final handoff), and Coco (the "Remember Me" climax) are the three most reliable. All arrive at different points in their runtimes — Up front-loads, Coco and Toy Story 3 back-load.

What was Pixar's first feature film?

Toy Story (1995), directed by John Lasseter, was Pixar's first feature and the first feature-length film animated entirely with computers. It launched both the studio's theatrical run and its longest-running franchise.

How long are most Pixar movies?

The ten films here run 81 to 115 minutes with a median near 99. Pixar keeps its features tight — well under the two-hour live-action tentpole norm — which is part of why they work as a complete weeknight evening.

Sources

• IMDb — Pixar Animation Studios
• Rotten Tomatoes — Pixar movies ranked
• Metacritic — film reviews and scores
• Letterboxd — Pixar studio page
• RogerEbert.com — film reviews archive
• Academy Awards — official ceremony database
• Pixar — official studio site
• Variety — film industry coverage
• Box Office Mojo — box office data

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