A surprise to no one, Toy Story tops our list of Pixar franchises. Because of the incredibly strong scores for all four films, especially for the first and second from us both, it is unsurprising that Woody and the gang clinch top place. Toy Story 3 also got a good score from Shaun as it’s his favourite Pixar film of all time. Even Toy Story 4, which I have serious reservations about thanks to the ending, got strong scores as well. But what is it about Toy Story that just “clicks” with people?
I think a lot of it is emotion and nostalgia. Everyone either looks back fondly at watching the earlier Toy Story films when they were children and/or are nostalgic about the times when they were kids playing with toys and going off on mad adventures with inanimate objects. The idea of having a little band of buddies that have your back and would do anything for you is also very comforting. Other emotions are also explored, such as being left behind as others move on and the melancholy of growing up, away from the increasingly distant, rose-tinted past.
Some of the greatest Pixar moments of all time are in the Toy Story franchise. The scene where The Cleaner fixes Woody in Toy Story 2 has to be the most satisfying scene ever. And who didn’t cry at two separate occasions at the end of Toy Story 3? Not me, obviously shifty eyes. Pixar really starts to flex their animation muscles at us in Toy Story 3 and 4, one scene, when Woody tries to rescue RC in the fourth film, looked particularly special in the cinema. The music is also great in this film, songs such as “When She Loved Me” and “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” being particularly fondly remembered. Toy Story will always be falling with style.
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It is only when put into a spreadsheet, in a highly scientific way, that I really started to appreciate just how incredibly good the Pixar franchises are. Not a single film dropped below an average score of six from either of us and every franchise scored above a seven overall. There isn’t a more consistent animation studio out there. I have every faith that Pixar will continue to impress.
For those of you that are interested in the stats (and why wouldn’t you be?), graphs of our results are below.
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