Monsters Inc. takes a horror film and turns it on its head, showing how scared monsters are of us lot. In this way, it's very enjoyable to watch. This is backed up by a compelling and emotional storyline with lovable (and despicable) characters as Sully, main scream collector, overcomes his fear of children to do what is right. But even though it's tied up in emotion for large portions, the film still manages to be one of the more humorous Pixars. It's got good pacing and a good variety of styles and tones in general, and it is most certainly worth a watch if, for some bizarre reason, you haven't already seen it.

Ratatouille is a great uplifting story (a lot happier than the conclusion of Monsters Inc, that's for certain), following a rat who wants to be a professional chef. Remy (the rat) is a charming and ambitious character, while Linguini (the kitchen boy he controls to cook things) starts out as a bit of a doofus but progresses to become a genuinely likeable character. It's very heartwarming to watch Remy progress through the film against all the odds (and those odds start out very, very slim indeed) and fulfil his dream. For this reason I'd say Ratatouille is one of the highest Pixar scorers on the emotional front, thanks to the developing relationships in the film and the inspirational ending.

The 3rd in the Toy Story series is still quintessentially Toy Story in style, but again with a nice change of scene and context. There's action and comedy and all the other usual ingredients, with the usual balance Pixar finds, only the film is super-emotional, especially at the end. We see characters we have come to know and love over 3 movies and 15 years go through a hell of a lot but remain the coherent community we first saw them as. There's as much tragedy in the film as there is happiness, with a very bittersweet ending which is both poignant and uplifting. Just the ending would probably be enough to put this film at number 3. It scores highly on all aspects, only it scores amazingly on pulling your heartstrings at the ending.

Wall-E takes place in one of Pixar's most far-fetched settings, the dystopian future, with Wall-E and Eve, the two main protagonist robots. These two characters are easily two of the best characters Pixar have made, and give a deep relationship, while the humans they run into also provide a little dig at consumer culture and overreliance on technology (speaking of which, there's a nice spoof of HAL in the captain's quarters). It provides everything in spades; one of the best character relationships of all the Pixars and some of the funniest moments as well.

In my view, Pixar's debut film remains their best to date. This could well be because I grew up with it, but still- it's a masterful film and has everything. The characters are lovable, highly individual and even follow the characters of their toy, probably the best set of characters Pixar have created. There are some genuinely laugh-out-loud moments in there, more so than in most other Pixars, but the film still retains some depth because there are some very sad moments like Buzz's fall- so it has character studies as well as slapstick. Aside from that, the voice acting from Tom Hanks and Tim Allen is top-drawer and the film was completely groundbreaking for its time and an amazingly innovative idea. Really anyone could watch it. It's a perfect all-rounder, a wonderfully balanced film that provides the full package and there really aren't many faults you could hope to find with it.