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June 18th looms and, even if the box office got a shot in the arm last weekend with The Kung Fu - sorry, The Karate Kid (so called because the title character is taught kung fu, right? Yeah, that makes sense), this is the day. June 18th is the day that heralds the opening of what is arguably the most anticipated movie of the year for just about everybody (yes, I appreciate that the new Twilight movie is also hotly anticipated, but that’s a movie for a more specific if vociferous audience). Yes, I’m talking about Toy Story 3. What better way to excite ourselves even more for the third and final installment in the Toy Story trilogy than to look back at some of the greatest films ever produced by Pixar Animation Studios?

I know what you’re thinking, reader. If you’re an avid enough reader of Box Office Prophets, you’re wondering how the hell it’s possible that the A-List has never talked specifically about Pixar, and Pixar alone. As shocking as it is (and believe you me, I’m the first one to be shocked about it), no, the A-List has never dealt with Pixar by itself. You’ve probably read me wax on and on about the movies on this list (well, maybe not one of them), but there’s no reason not to revisit these classics, as we do. So far, the reviews for Toy Story 3 are all glowing - and though I’m cautiously optimistic, how could they not be? - which means that Pixar may well have done what no one else could do: make a satisfying trilogy of films. My fingers are crossed, as should yours be. Here, then, is this week’s A-List, about the best Pixar has ever offered us.

Toy Story

So we start at the beginning, and why not? Granted, this is going to cover both Toy Story films from the late 1990s, so the second film isn’t being shortchanged. While Pixar made itself fully known to the movie-going public in 1995 with Toy Story, it became a force that was truly to be reckoned with in 1999, with Toy Story 2. What is it about the Toy Story franchise that gets it favorably compared to the original Star Wars trilogy and the Godfather trilogy? Aliens to mobsters to…toys? Unlike most big-budget blockbusters, the Toy Story films aren’t really about quests or action or adventure. They’re about friendship. Sure, the friends are plastic toys who only talk when no humans are looking, but they’re as human as anyone we know. Woody the cowboy and Buzz Lightyear are so well developed in the first two films that, amidst all the calamity, we care about them.

Another strength of the Toy Story franchise is that the movies aren’t just about Woody and Buzz. Yes, these are the main characters, but what is a memorable story without a fully realized world? From Andy, the human owner of the toys, to playthings like Rex the dinosaur, Hamm the piggy bank, Slinky the dog, and the Potato Heads, John Lasseter (who directed the first two films) and the rest of the geniuses at Pixar gave everyone not just traits and personalities, but character arcs. Some of the best entertainments are able to provide payoffs in so many ways, and one of my favorites in the Toy Story films comes in the second, with the complete, if short, arc of Rex, who’s obsessed throughout with defeating Buzz’s video game nemesis, the evil Emperor Zurg. There’s no reason for us to go past the initial joke, but the filmmakers gave Rex plenty of time to resolve his Zurg problems. Who knows how the toys will grow in the third film, but here’s hoping it’s just as great as its predecessors.

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