For several decades, Pixar was the king of animated filmmaking. Its run from the ‘90s to the mid-2010s was marked by the kind of dazzling creative output that makes you believe art isn’t dead and was so inspiring, it no doubt made many consider pivoting careers into animation. The decade that’s followed has been pretty uneven, and as a result, Pixar’s place at the top of the animation industry has felt tenuous as of late. Disney’s internal animation studio was picking up some real steam as Pixar was faltering and in the last decade, it’s arguably eclipsed the Toy Story studio in terms of cultural cachet. Disney has also buried a handful of Pixar’s releases, relegating them to Disney+ rather than giving them real theatrical releases following the covid-19 pandemic. Pixar isn’t the cultural juggernaut it once was, but looking at its body of work as a whole, it’s still got an impressive portfolio of heartfelt stories and gorgeous animation. But which movies are the best of the best? Here’s our ranking of Pixar’s feature films ahead of Toy Story 5‘s release on June 19.
