Ali Plumb Picks His Top Five Pixar Films

How do you pick your top five favourite Pixar films? How could you? It's like picking your favourite children, only maybe harder. Seriously, I'm not joking.

But I'm going to step up to the plate, just to start the conversation and get you guys mildly, pleasingly, enjoyably up in arms. So... be kind to me on social media, I'm only little.

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Right, hands up: I know Ratatouille may not be the fifth best Pixar film ever made - and they've released 22 films, by the way - but in the Plumb household it's held in such high regard it's kept in the drawer in the TV stand, arguably the biggest compliment you can give a film in my eyes. I love Patton Oswalt as Remy, I love his enthusiasm, I love his sheer force of will. No joke, he's a really inspirational rat. Oh, and Emile is adorable and we may or may not have a plushie version of him somewhere about the house. But back to the real stuff: the music is superb, Peter O'Toole is always an absolute treat as snooty food critic Anton Ego - what a name, almost as good as 'Bomb Voyage' from The Incredibles, who actually makes a cameo in Ratatouille by the by - and the sheer outlandishness of the conceit, it just fills my heart with joy every time.

Fun fact: Pixar had pet rats in their office for over a year so that animators could use them as movement references, studying their fur, tails and so on. Also, you know, for fun.

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My most recent Pixar favourite is also - ahem - the most cerebral they've ever released. No doubt causing the folks over at The Beano who came up with 'The Numbskulls' to scratch their heads in a "Why didn't we do this...?" sort of way, Inside Out tells the story of a young girl called Riley who's not coping well after her family's move to California. We learn about the 'little voices inside her head', namely Anger, Joy, Fear, Sadness and Disgust and learn a surprisingly amount about ourselves, and psychology (of a sort), and self-control. It's a thinker, obviously, but it also has one of the biggest gut-punch sadder-than-sad moments in the history of Pixar - I won't mention his name or I'll start tearing up again - and honestly, I love that Inside Out is a film that can make you think, laugh, cry, wonder and so much more. It may not be as loveable as the others, but I love that it exists, and that the folks at Pixar were brave enough to make it.

Fun fact: Many different other emotions were considered - 27 at one count - but they were whittled down to five to keep things simpler. The ones that got closest to the cut were Surprise, Pride and Trust.

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For whatever reason, Monsters, Inc. was the Pixar film that first made me think "These people at Pixar are genuine geniuses". The idea alone - here's a film about two monsters employed at a factory called 'Monsters, Inc.' which generates power by scaring human children - is utterly, bonkers - but here, for me, was the first time I thought, "In Pixar we trust" and went along for the funny, heartbreaking, heartwarming, delightfully off-beat ride. Boo could well be the most adorable character in the Pixar back catalogue, though she has competition in the form of Wall-E, the triplets from Brave, Jack-Jack (kind of), young Carl from Up, Squirt from Finding Nemo (a film I still can't quite believe didn't make it to my top five) and many more. Also, a quick shout out to the 'Monsters, Inc. song' also known as 'If I Didn't Have You', which actually ended up winning Best Original Song at the Oscars the year the film came out.

Fun fact: The number of individual hairs on Sulley's body? 2,320,413. We know that so precisely because all this hair meant each frame that featured him took 11 hours to render.

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Let it be said straight away that I could put most of the Toy Stories in my top five without batting an eyelid, but for the sake of making this list a touch more interesting, I've stuck my neck out and just picked one: Toy Story 3. There's a lot of back and forth online about whether they should have made a fourth - and maybe they shouldn't have, but it's very good, truly - but the third one, for me, is an absolute masterpiece. They're all good, like I say, but there are certain moments in this film that knock me sideways every time. The incinerator, the Bonnie giveaway, the flattened Mr. Potato Head (always makes me chuckle), the angry clapping monkey watching the CCTV cameras, Lotso's flashbacks... there are so many amazing moments in this film. I actively look forward to watching through all four films in the coming weeks, especially as I really enjoy the 'bloopers' from Toy Story 2, remember them?

Fun fact: Lotso can actually be spotted high up on a shelf in the first Toy Story, and Pixar had wanted him to be in the first film, but because of his hair - and it being the early '90s, so the technology wasn't there yet - they decided against it.

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I think the first 'Married Life' sequence at the front of Up could have won an Oscar in of itself. That section is jaw-droppingly good: so sweet, so true, so heart-breaking. Whenever I think about the story of Up, I just can't get my head around it. This is the tale of a widower refusing to move out of his house out of love of his late wife, before flying away thanks to some balloons, front porch and and all, taking a young boy with him on an adventure into the unknown where he meets a dog that can talk and lots of other dogs that can talk, and a mystical bird, and a one-time hero that has turned bad who has a massive zeppelin and an army of other dogs, and... This is my favourite Pixar film. An instant weepie, an empowering adventure, a fun family film - one that tackles death, love, life, honestly, heroism, animal care (yep) and the pursuit of happiness. And the music! This score is exceptional. A round of applause, please, to the director (of course) Pete Docter - who also gave us Inside Out and Monster's Inc., so it looks like I'm a bit of a fan - but also to the composer, Michael Giacchino, whose work here is exceptional. A beautiful, wonderful, gorgeous miracle of a film. I simply adore it.

Fun fact: Doug the dog's voice is supplied by Pixar's very own Bob Peterson, who is also the co-director/co-writer of the film. He's the man we have to thank for the line "I have just met you, and I love you."

Radio 1's film critic Ali Plumb has put together his favourite TV sitcoms which are available to watch across all major streaming platforms: BBC iPlayer, Netflix, Amazon Prime and Now TV.