Top Ten: Pixar Films

I've never committed to a definitive ranking of the films of Pixar Animation. Perhaps having relatively few feature titles under their banner made a top ten list kinda meaningless (although their ever growing roster of memorable characters is always ripe for sorting). Or perhaps the frequently high caliber of their movies made ranking them a more arbitrary exercise than ranking movies already is.

But with raves for their fifteenth feature Inside Out announcing a return to form after a few years of middling success, now seems like a good time to go on record as to which gems sparkle the brightest for me personally. Needless to say, this list is in constant flux and subject to positional shifts at any time – Probably as soon as I see Inside Out!

But which of the studio's first fourteen is on the bubble?...

Sunday Top Ten - Snubs of the decade

As we enter the new Oscar season I find myself wondering what the big snub of the year is going to be. There's invariably at least one big snub every year, though not necessarily in a “big” category. This past year it was the perplexing exclusion of Inception from Best Film Editing. While I continue to ponder which deserving contender will fall victim to the Academy's questionable taste, here's a look back at ten egregious snubs from the decade that was (2000-2009).

Note: I tried to limit myself to awards hopefuls that actually stood a chance at being nominated. For instance, I felt that The Cove was the Best Picture of 2009, but never entertained the delusion that it could be nominated. The real sting of a missed nomination comes from expecting it to actually happen. That being said...

Sunday Top Ten - Credits design

One of the most frequently overlooked and underrated aspects of filmmaking would have to be the art of the title design. Be it the opening or closing credits, a creatively conceived title design can make a real impression on the viewer, defining the tone of a movie or even taking an active part in telling the story. There have been hundreds of great credit sequences to which I've responded well, but these ten are some of my personal favourites.

Sunday Top Ten - Pixar characters

This upcoming Friday, Pixar will release their annual animated feature, Cars 2. While I profess that this new entry in their portfolio has me less than excited, it still seems like an appropriate enough time to celebrate the proficient studio with an edition of my Sunday Top Ten that lists my favourite characters from their wonderful filmography.

Best of the Decade #7: WALL-E (2008)

The opening scenes of this masterpiece from Pixar play out as a dark Kubrikean science-fiction; a disturbing painting of the ravages of environmental indifference and mass consumerism on our planet. But at the heart of it, WALL-E is a love story of beautiful simplicity yet surprisingly deep in its subtextual implications. The ultimate message is one of hope for the future of humanity, presenting the two robots as a kind of futuristic Adam and Eve. Some might even perceive one particular scene as being the pseudo-sexual conception of a new humanity, whereby WALL-E puts his "seed" into the "egg-shaped" EVE (this character's name is no coincidence). The next generation of humans is even meant to resemble babies in space, sucking up liquid meals, virtually no bone density, unable to walk. It signifies human civilization in infancy, a civilization of which WALL-E and EVE are virtual father and mother.

As for the somewhat blunt environmental message, the film makes a point of suggesting that our new technology (and consumption thereof) is not to blame for the environmental crisis, but our own contentedness to sit back and assume everything is OK. The machines are not an enemy that needs to be fought. Our story's savior is one such machine himself. It's human kind's paradigm that needs to be confronted; Man cannot rely solely on his machines, but with machines, he can achieve more than he ever could alone. It's through that combination of the old and the new that civilization will evolve (an idea poignantly evoked during the gorgeous end credits).

The film-making itself is a testament to the combination of the old and the new, where the classics of the silent era are emulated with the most visually stunning of modern technology. High praise must be sung for writer-director Andrew Stanton, who recognizes that a picture is worth a thousand words. WALL-E is made up of thousands of said pictures, each one as effective and filled with emotion as the wordiest of dialogue. WALL-E speaks a different type of dialogue. One with a more universal appeal. With WALL-E, Pixar has created a perfect marriage of the most modern film making techniques and the most ancient ones, hearkening to a time when the movies didn't rely on sound to get the point across.

Not that I've got anything against sound. On the contrary, Ben Burtt's exceptional sound effects for this picture intelligently help convey the thoughts and moods of all the robot characters. His achievement here almost equals his groundbreaking accomplishments on Star Wars over 30 years ago. Credit also Thomas Newman for his equally inventive score.

It may not be perfect, but WALL-E represents one of the decade's cinematic milestones; utterly gorgeous in its visual and audio design, brimming with thoughtful and important ideas, and above all else, a genuinely moving romance that overcomes all odds.