For episode 2 we each ranked our five favorite Pixar movies, no coordinating beforehand. Out of thirty-one films to choose from, we landed on the same one exactly once. See both countdowns on the full list.
The one match
WALL-E is Jeff's number three and Matt's number one. Jeff loves that it barely has any dialogue and is still completely engaging, from the opening scene where WALL-E is listening to "Hello, Dolly!" Matt calls it everybody's best friend, and points to how clever and unique it still is: nobody has really made anything else like it, and he thinks it's admirable that Pixar never made a sequel.
Jeff's list
Jeff leaned toward the movies he's watched over and over with his son.
- Number five, Toy Story 3. He hasn't rewatched Toy Story 4 recently and hadn't yet seen Toy Story 5, but the ending of the third film hit him hard at the time, and he still thinks it would have been a fitting place to wrap up the series.
- Number four, Monsters University. A stand-in for the whole Monsters franchise, which he's rewatched a few times since his son got into movies. He'll admit he enjoys it slightly more than Monsters, Inc.
- Number two, Coco. Great story, great heartfelt music. His family still sings it.
- Number one, Inside Out. Maybe the Pixar movie he knows best after countless rewatches. He loves how the emotions interact and thinks it's genuinely useful for emotional insight, on top of being witty.
Matt's list
Matt's picks skewed toward Pixar's earlier run.
- Number five, Ratatouille. Not his thing on first watch, but one he's come to appreciate more over time for how unique and well made it is.
- Number four, The Incredibles. A fresh, phenomenal take on the superhero genre that beat most of the Marvel wave to the punch, with great action and voice work.
- Number three, Up. Hilarious and heartfelt, with visuals he still remembers. The engineer in him keeps questioning whether balloons could really lift a house, but he loves the movie anyway.
- Number two, Toy Story 2. The tightest of the Toy Story films for him, with Zurg, Al's Toy Barn, and a run of characters who stuck around for the sequels.
Where they diverged
Jeff's list runs through movies he's watched again and again with his son, while Matt's holds onto Pixar's early run, when the stories felt like nothing else out there. We do agree on the big picture. Jeff joked that you'd have to be a little bit of a psycho to like the new Pixar movies more than the old ones, though he still gave honorable mentions to Hoppers and Inside Out 2. Pixar is still making good movies.
Hear the whole rundown, plus our takes on Is This Thing On?, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die, Coyote vs. Acme, and Train Dreams, on episode 2.