Beauty and the Beast (Alan Menken & Howard Ashman, 1991): Beauty and the Beast is my favorite of Disney’s animated films and on my short list of favorite movies in general.  The film’s music is absolutely critical to its success.  At the time, it was the closest that an animated film had come to duplicating the style of a modern Broadway musical and, thus, it was no big surprise when several years later an adaptation of the movie became Disney’s first Broadway show.

The film featured six songs, and two reprises, by the songwriting team of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, who had written songs for Disney’s The Little Mermaid a couple years earlier.  One previously deleted song, entitled “Human Again”, was added back in to the film for the 2002 re-issue of the film in Imax.  Menken also wrote the film’s score, which is largely based around the song melodies, but also introduces a couple additional themes.

The film and soundtrack albums open with a “Prologue” with David Ogden Stiers reading narration that sets up the story.  Alan Menken’s musical accompaniment to this is essentially an (unfortunately) uncredited adaptation of Camille Saint-Saëns’ “Aquarium” from “Carnival of the Animals”.  The music fits wonderfully, although its pretty obvious source should have been credited.

The opening number is entitled “Belle” and serves as an introduction for both the film’s heroine and, late in the song, the villain Gaston.  This is an impressively-scoped number featuring an entire ensemble, led by Paige O’Hara as Belle.  During my first viewing of the film, I remember realizing during this sequence that my jaw was pretty much hanging open from the amazement that they had pulled off such a sweeping, Broadway-style number.  This really felt like something very new and unexpected for this medium and the song and sequence continues to impress even after numerous viewings.

“Gaston” remains one of the best villain songs from a Disney film.  It also has some of the most clever wordplay of Howard Ashman’s impressive career, even managing to work in the word “expectorating”, which may have been a first for a song lyric.  The song really captures Gaston’s distinctive traits while also being exceptionally funny, with Richard White’s (Gaston) and Jessi Corti’s (La Fou) contributing highly to that.  Probably because it really doesn’t mean much out of context, the song isn’t as well known as the others from the film, but it may actually be the most complex and accomplished.

The two best known songs from the film are “Be Our Guest” and the title song.  The former is presented in a big, Busby Berkley style showstopper.  The sequence is probably the most traditional for an animated music number, but it still is tremendous fun and aided greatly by the great vocals by Jerry Orbach (Lumiere) and David Ogden Stiers (Cogsworth).

The Oscar winning title song is, of course, performed by Angela Lansbury and accompanies the romantic dance sequence late in the film.  The song has already become something of a standard and is easily one of the most beautiful songs in the Disney catalog.  The end credits’ duet version of the song performed by Peabo Bryson and Celine Dion became a huge hit on the pop chart, but pales in comparison to Lansbury’s version.

The other two songs in the film, “Something There” and “The Mob Song” are both used essentially as short cuts to progress the story.  The former depicts scenes of Belle and the Beast getting to know each other (and falling in love) and includes some impressive musical parallels to “Belle”, particularly one repeated musical passage to underline the fact that Belle is now living the story she described from her favorite book in the earlier song.  “Something There” is also the only song that contains sung vocals by Robbie Benson as the Beast, something that has always seemed like the one gap in the film’s music.  “The Mob Song” musically depicts the villagers preparing for their assault on the Beast’s castle.  The use of a song for this was a bold and very effective element of the film.

There have been 3 different editions of the soundtrack album to the film.  The original release that came out with the film contained the songs as well as about 20 minutes of the score. 

The second release was part of Disney’s The Music Behind the Magic boxed set (which also included music from The Little Mermaid and Aladdin) and contained the full contents of the original release (except for, oddly, the full version of the prologue) as well as demo versions of all the songs.  It also contained a bit more score.

Finally, a special edition soundtrack release came out at the same time as the 2002 re-issue.  This added in “Human Again”, a new production number that took place after “Something There” as the enchanted objects all expressed their hopes of being restored to their human state.  The song is very good, although the film is probably better without it as it does affect the pacing somewhat.  A demo version of that song was also on the “Music Behind the Magic” release and the song had been featured in the Broadway musical, but this was the first release of a completed version with the original cast.  The special edition CD also includes demo versions of “Be Our Guest” and “Beauty and the Beast” (both of which were also in the boxed set release) as well as one short, additional score cue.

The Broadway cast album should also be mentioned in any discussion of the music from Beauty and the Beast.  The cast album was recorded with the show’s original cast and released by Disney Records shortly after the show’s debut.  The cover on the left above was used for the original pressing (the CD that I have), but was replaced with the one on the right for later pressings.  I don’t think there is any difference in the content, although I’ve never heard the newer editions and can’t say for certain.

In addition to using all the songs from the film (including “Human Again”), the show featured 9 additional songs (plus some reprises) written by Alan Menken and lyricist Tim Rice (sadly, Howard Ashman died during the making of the film).  Some of the new songs were built around previously instrumental-only melodies from the film’s score.  The new songs are very good and do a lot to flesh out the score, taking good advantage of the longer running time available for the stage show.

The new songs for the stage musical included a couple new solos for Belle (“Home”, which is my favorite of the new additions, and “A Change In Me”) as well as new songs that featured Belle’s father (“No Matter What”) and a couple solos for the Beast (“How Long Must This Go On” and “If I Can’t Love Her”).  Songs were also created for a few key sequences that were instrumental only in the film, most notably “The Transformation” at the film’s finale.  Note that “A Change In Me” was added to the show a few years into its run and is not on the cast album.  Susan Egan, who played Belle in the original cast, did record it for her solo album entitled So Far…

There are also some key expansions to a few of the songs from the movie.  The stage version of “Be Our Guest” contains an extended dance sequence in the mid-section that significantly adds to the song’s length.  The running time on the stage version is just under 7 minutes, as opposed to the under 4 minute film version.  Even more significant is the addition of a section in “Something There” where Belle is teaching the Beast how to read, a sequence that later pays off during “Human Again”.  These segments add some intimacy to the growing relationship between the two characters which is a big help.  A little bit of this is included in the version of “Human Again” added to the special edition of the film, but it works much better in the stage show.

The Broadway cast was uniformly excellent, led by the wonderful Susan Egan as Belle.  Egan’s voice somewhat resembles Paige O’Hara’s, but Egan does a good job of allowing her own personality to shine through and making the role her own.  Both actresses created very effective and memorable versions of the character and it is great that both are available.  Other excellent contributors to the cast album include Terrance Mann as the Beast, Gary Beach as Lumierre, Tom Bosley as Maurice (Belle’s father) and Burke Moses as Gaston.  The only performance that falls a bit short is Beth Fowler, who’s performance of “Beauty and the Beast” can’t really live up to Angela Lansbury’s, although that was probably a nearly impossible act to follow.

I saw the show in Los Angeles in late 1996.  The original Broadway cast transferred to the L.A. production when it first started, so I did see a number of the original cast members, including Gary Beach and Tom Bosley.  I saw the show fairly late in its run and, unfortunately, Susan Egan and Terrance Mann had already left the show.  James Barbour had taken over the role of Beast and did an excellent job.  He eventually moved to the Broadway production as well. 

I don’t recall the name of the actress that had taken over the role of Belle, but I didn’t really care for her performance.  She played the character with too much of a “little girl” vocal style that would have been better suited to Snow White than to Belle.  Even with the weaker lead, it was still an extremely enjoyable production.  I saw the show one more time in Pasadena a couple years ago and still enjoyed it, even though the touring production was scaled down quite a bit compared to the longer run.

Not too long after I saw the show in 1996, Disney produced a TV special called “Beauty and the Beast: A Concert on Ice”.  This show featured Susan Egan plus the current (at the time) L.A. cast performing the songs as accompaniment for ice skating routines.  I ended up recording the audio from that show and was able to create a revised version of the cast album featuring James Barbour and some of the other performers that I had seen in L.A. 

The performances on the TV show also included several revisions that had been made to some of the songs after the original cast album was recorded.  Minor changes were made to “Home” and “The Transformation” while the lyrics for “Maison De Lune” and the reprise of “If I Can’t Love Her” were almost entirely re-written.  While the original cast album certainly has better sound quality than my music transfer from VHS tape, it is nice to have the revisions and, especially, Barbour’s versions of the Beast’s songs.

Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas (Rachel Portman, 1997): The direct-to-video sequel to Beauty and the Beast was typically in the mediocre-to-bad category, but the soundtrack album is actually quite good.  While Alan Menken wasn’t involved, the original voice cast did return.  Rachel Portman was brought on board to score the film and co-write the songs (with lyricist Don Black).  Portman was a surprisingly distinguished choice to take on this kind of project and the results, while not close to matching the quality of the Menken & Ashman songs from the original, are still pretty decent.

Portman and Black contributed four new songs to the film.  “Stories” and “As Long as There’s Christmas” are holiday-themed ballads performed by Paige O’Hara as Belle.  Both are catchy and generally pleasant songs, helped quite a bit by O’Hara’s winning delivery.   There is also a nice reprise of the latter song which is performed as a duet with Bernadette Peters, who voiced a new character.  That song is also featured in an end credits duet version performed by Peabo Bryson and Roberta Flack.

The villain of the film (an enchanted piano) is voiced by Tim Curry, who has a fun song entitled “Don’t Fall In Love”.  Curry is pretty much always an entertaining performer and the song is performed in his typically over-the-top style and is apt to appeal to any of his fans.  Finally, the song “A Cut Above the Rest” is a catchy little song primarily featuring Jerry Orbach as Lumierre and David Ogden Stiers as Cogsworth.

Portman’s score is given very little attention on the album, with only about 3 minutes featured over 3 very short cues.  The score cues mainly derived from the song melodies and don’t really give more than just a small taste of what is offered.

The real highlight of the album, and the primary reason to buy it, is actually a set of cues that aren’t actually in the movie.  The album includes 8 traditional Christmas carols performed, in character, by Page O’Hara.  These are simply wonderful and, in fact, it has become one of our most frequently played albums during the holiday season.  I especially love O’Hara’s absolutely delightful rendition of “The Twelve Days of Christmas”, which she performs with a great deal of personality and charm.  Her versions of more reverent songs like “Silent Night”, “Do You Hear What I Hear?” and “What Child Is This?” are rendered with great emotion.

Backdraft (Hans Zimmer, 1991): I’m pretty sure that Backdraft was the first film in which I really noticed a Hans Zimmer score enough to purchase the soundtrack album.  Of course, Zimmer has become one of the most successful working composers in subsequent years, but his distinctive style was something of a fresh discovery back in 1991.

The score features Zimmer’s usual mix of orchestra and synthesizer, with a rock beat behind the main theme.  While this musical sound is now pretty ubiquitous, largely because of Zimmer and his protégées, it felt very new when this film first came out and I remember being very excited to get the soundtrack album.  While it isn’t nearly as distinctive today, the score still holds up as one of the best examples of this style of scoring. 

While there are some action-oriented portions to the score, especially during the cue “Burn It All”, the majority reflects more of a dramatic intensity.  Strings and synths dominate, with a pretty ever present percussion backing.  Occasional choral elements come into play as well, particularly during some of the more action-oriented sections.

The soundtrack CD opens and closes with the Bruce Hornsby songs “Set Me In Motion” and “The Show Goes On”.  Hornsby has a very recognizable style to his songs and both of these are easily recognizable as his.  Generally, I think they fit reasonably well with this score.

Bad Boys (Mark Mancina, 1995): This film was the first pairing of director Michael Bay and producer Jerry Bruckheimer and was essentially the first instance of the heavily rock-influenced instrumentals that film score enthusiasts often refer to simply as the “Bruckheimer sound”.  There is a lot of room for debate as to whether or not that should be considered a positive milestone.  The scores to Bruckheimer’s films from 1995 onward are most widely associated with Hans Zimmer and his influence is evident.  While Zimmer didn’t score the film, Mancina was employed by his company (at the time known as Media Ventures) and another Mancina protégé, Nick Glennie-Smith, also contributed to the score. 

Mancina was likely hired to score the film largely on the strength of his generally acclaimed score to Speed the year before and the similarities are obvious, particularly in the main theme.  The score is generally driven by synthesizer, keyboards, and electric guitar, with orchestral components generally given a backseat.  Acoustic guitar is occasionally used to score the film’s rare quieter moments, as in the cue “You’re Going to Leave Me Alone?”  The score also has some appealing reggae influences, first given significant play during the cue “JoJo, What You Know?”, and revisited periodically afterward.  Even the score’s main theme has a reggae influenced melody, which becomes more evident as the score continues on.  Fairly intense wordless vocals are also used periodically.

The soundtrack album released with the film was primarily a song album and only included one 4 minute score cue featuring an arrangement of Mancina’s main theme.   In 2007, La-La Land Records released a limited edition 70-minute CD of the complete score.  This edition is still available at their site and is currently priced at just $9.98.  It is very much worth getting at that price.

The Ballad of Cable Hogue (Jerry Goldsmith, 1970):  This Goldsmith score to a Sam Peckinpah western is very song oriented, with vocalist/songwriter Richard Gillis playing a very substantial role on the soundtrack.  The main theme is based on a Goldsmith-composed song entitled “Tomorrow Is the Song I Sing”, which Gillis performed and served as lyricist. 

Gillis himself wrote two other songs that are performed in full on the soundtrack (including the end credits cue) and occasionally incorporated into the score.  His involvement is sufficient that he probably could be considered a co-composer on the film.  One of Gillis’ songs is entitled “Butterfly Mornin’” and is performed by Jason Robards and Stella Stevens on the soundtrack.  Likely due to the available source elements, some sound effects are heard during the song.

The instrumental score is a pretty traditional western score, complete with harmonica, banjo, harp, and even organ, although portions are much more orchestral.  The score is very lively and often melodic.  The western style is very prominent in cues such as “Hasty Exit”, while the more melodic, orchestral side is well represented in “A Soothing Hand”.  The cue entitled “The Rattlesnakes” is a good example of one that blends the two aspects very well, eventually also introducing some sound effects to represent the titular creatures.

The fairly short (37 minutes) soundtrack CD was released as a limited edition by the Varese Sarabande CD Club.  It is sold out now and very difficult, and typically very expensive, to find now.  The one copy currently being offered by a seller on Amazon.com is priced at $189.

The Ballad of Lucy Whipple (Bruce Broughton, 2001): In the 1980s, it looked like Bruce Broughton was going to be one of the industry’s top film composers but, almost inexplicably, he has instead somehow ended up almost exclusively scoring TV or direct-to-video movies and the occasional theme park attractions.  He hasn’t scored a major theatrical release since 1998’s film version of Lost In Space.  His TV projects have often been pretty prominent ones and, thanks to a close working relationship with Intrada, a surprising large percentage of his TV scores have still generated soundtrack releases.

The Ballad of Lucy Whipple was a CBS western starring Glenn Close.  Broughton provided a pretty traditional western sound for the score, although on a fairly small scale.  The ensemble that performed the score is pretty small and only features instruments that would have existed during the period when the film was set.  These include fiddle, cello, acoustic guitar, tin whistle and period horns and percussion.  The result is a mostly intimate sounding score, although Broughton does occasionally manage to wring a fairly big sound out of the small ensemble, such as in the action music contained in the cue “Jake’s No Buck”.

Those expecting a big-scale western score like Broughton famously provided for Silverado and Tombstone are apt to be disappointed by the much smaller scale of this one.  The music is very good, though, and a nice demonstration of Broughton’s skill for melody.

Bambi (Edward Plumb, Frank Churchill, Larry Morey, 1942): Bambi generally set a new high water mark for the level of the drama in a Disney animated film, particularly with the famous and extremely moving death scene for the title character’s mother.  The excellent soundtrack CD put out by Walt Disney Records very effectively conveys the charming and often dramatically rich music for the film.

The score by Edward Plumb emphasizes woodwind and string melodies that pretty effectively reflect the rustic, wildlife settings of the film.  The musical mood shifts effortlessly from playful to romantic to dramatic intensity as needed.  The score introduces some brass for the fairly majestic “Gallop of the Stags/The Great Prince of the Forest/Man” with choir joining in to emphasize the title character’s royal lineage and finally giving way to some harsher strings and brass during the last minute or so of the cue to introduce a touch of menace.  I emphasize that particular cue as it represents a bit of a turning point where the music shifts from the more playful tones of the title character’s early childhood towards a more dramatic scoring eventually culminating in the very dark “Man Returns”.

The songs by Frank Churchill and Larry Morey are all performed by choir and blend extremely well with the score to give the film a distinctive musical character.  “Love Is a Song” plays over the film’s opening titles and nicely establishes the musical style for the film.  “Little April Showers” is the most creative and interesting song from the film.  It very convincingly evokes a rain storm musically, including bringing to mind the raindrops via individual notes presented at varying tempos as well as using percussion to represent thunder.  “Let’s Sing a Gay Little Spring Song” captures the optimistic mood of the season while “I Bring You a Song” is a nice romantic ballad.  The CD also includes “Rain Drops”, a demo recording of an alternate song to “Little April Showers”.

Bambi II (Bruce Broughton, 2006): In the late 90s and the 2000s, Disney released a whole series of direct-to-video sequels to their classic films.  These generally were of very questionable artistic merit and didn’t come close to equaling the quality of the originals, but they did sometimes involve some decent talent.  Bambi II featured a score by Bruce Broughton.

The soundtrack CD released by Walt Disney Records only contains about 10 minutes of Broughton’s score.  It is unfortunate that there isn’t more of it there, but it is a bit of an unusual treat that any of the score was made available at all.  The rest of the CD includes a few pop songs that were used in the movie and, oddly, the songs from the original Bambi, which probably were added mainly to fill up a disc.  The new songs from the movie are fairly generic light pop songs from Alison Krauss, Michelle Lewis, Martina McBride, and Anthony Callea.  None are particularly bad, but none are particularly memorable either.

Broughton’s score is, not surprisingly, inspired by the music from the original film.  He incorporates “Love is a Song” at several points in the score and the rest is stylistically in line with Edward Plumb’s compositions.  Woodwinds and strings dominate again, although Broughton definitely uses brass a lot more frequently, often in a less menacing manner.  The cue “Being Brave (Part 2)” is a particularly lively, brassy cue.  The relatively short length of the score on the soundtrack makes it a bit hard to tell the degree to which Broughton develops themes, although there is a central melody to the cue “Bambi and the Great Prince” that sounds like a primary theme for the title character.

Bandolero! (Jerry Goldsmith, 1968): Goldsmith’s score to this western is especially colorful.  It features a full orchestra, but supplemented by a wide variety of less common instruments.  Among those used include harmonica, banjo, xylophone, wood blocks, castanets, marimbas, guitar (both acoustic and electric), and even a whistler. 

The score is built around a fairly simple, but infectious, main theme that is played on many different instruments throughout the score.  The album’s first cue, called “The Saloon”, instantly establishes the unusual style of the score by introducing the main theme in a version that sounds like a saloon piano.  Over the main title, the theme is initially presented by a solo whistler.  In addition to the variations of the main theme, Goldsmith introduces one strong secondary theme for the film’s female lead.  This gets an especially strong statement in the cue “Dee’s Proposal” and figures in other parts of the score as well.  There is also some good action and suspense material peppered throughout the score as well.

I have the expanded, limited edition version of the soundtrack that was released by Intrada in 2004.  Unfortunately, this release is long out of print and now very difficult (and expensive) to obtain.  This edition includes the complete score (about 44 minutes), plus about 3 minutes of early demo versions of both main themes.  The CD ends with the original 1968 soundtrack album program, which runs another 30 minutes.  The original album is an interesting inclusion on this one as the mixes are pretty dramatically different.  Many of the unusual instruments were removed from the mix for some reason.  It is an interesting alternate take to the score.

Fortunately, the work load was such that I was really busy (and a bit stressed) while at the office last week, but it didn’t result in overly late schedules at the office or anything much in the way of weekend work.  I was typically pretty tired when I got home from work last week, but I still made it home in time to have dinner and help get my son off to bed each night.  I don’t really mind being very busy at work in cases like this where it doesn’t really interfere too much with my own time.

While I was a little concerned late last week that I would have to put in some time for work over the weekend, that turned out not to be the case allowing us to have quite a bit of time for family activities.  On Saturday afternoon, we took our son to see Bolt, Disney’s new animated feature which opened on Friday.  We have been pretty conservative when it comes to taking our son to the movies and this was only the third that he had seen in a theater (the two previous were Horton Hears a Who and a revival showing of The Muppet Movie).  So far, we have been very proud of his behavior at movies.  He did get a little fidgety around the hour mark, but we were able to settle him down very quickly.  He stayed very quiet throughout the movie, having taken very seriously our repeated reminders beforehand that a movie theater is a quiet place.  He seemed to enjoy the movie, although his attention did wander a little bit  The movie was targeted perhaps a bit older than we had expected.

I enjoyed the movie a lot, finding it to be fun, charming, and very funny.  The action sequences were surprisingly good for this kind of animated film as well.  I thought the voice cast was well selected and the character designs were appealing.  The film had some genuine heart as well, with the character of Mittens the cat being particularly effective in this regard.  On the downside, though, the film did have a pretty conventional look and style to it and the story line was almost entirely predictable.  My reaction was that this was a very good film, but not a particularly inventive one.  The end result was a fun movie, but one that is on a somewhat lower tier among Disney’s animated films.

Like The Emperor’s New Groove a few years ago, I think that Bolt is going to remain a film that I enjoy and admire, but where I also can’t help but wonder what might have been.  Both films evolved from projects that seemed much more ambitious than the final versions, but were halted when Disney management felt that they weren’t coming together in a commercially viable way.  In the case of Bolt, the film evolved from American Dog, which was to be director Chris Sanders’ follow up to Lilo and Stitch, which I believe to be Disney’s best, and most creative, animated feature since Beauty and the Beast.  Sanders was ultimately fired from the project and is now making films for Dreamworks.  As much as I enjoyed the final version of Bolt, I can’t help wonder if this fairly conventional film could have been something much more.

Shifting topics again (yes, these "week in review" posts can’t help being a bit rambling), yesterday’s main activity was a somewhat more intimate continuation of our celebration of our son Andy’s birthday.  For the big party last weekend on his actual birthday, we had to kind of go against his wishes in our choice of venue.  For his last two birthdays, we had taken him to Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour for dinner/dessert with a few of our adult friends.  He remembered last year’s party and really wanted to go back there again this year.  That isn’t really the best venue for a party with a large group of pre-schoolers, so we ended up promising him that we would take him to Farrell’s the following week instead.

The Farrell’s chain is one that I remember well from my childhood.  They have a very boisterous, celebratory atmosphere, with sirens and a big drum used to regularly announce birthdays and other special occasions as well as to herald the delivery of such large and elaborate ice cream concoctions as "The Zoo" or the "Pig Trough".  The chain all but disappeared about 15-20 years ago, but a new set of owners are now trying to revive it.  One of the only three current locations is up in Santa Clarita, only about 20 miles from our house (the other two are in Hawaii).  The Santa Clarita location is inside of Mountasia Fun Center, an amusement facility featuring various video and carnival games as well as miniature golf, batting cages, go-karts, and other similar items. 

Yesterday afternoon, we drove up there around mid-afternoon and spent an hour and half or so playing some of the various games while waiting for a few friends to arrive.  They have a small merry-go-round (basically one of the miniature coin-operated type) which Andy especially enjoys and was, in fact, one of his main reasons for wanting to go back there.  He spent a lot of time playing that, while my wife and I took turns wandering around playing some of the various carnival and ticket-vending games.  Andy did take a bit of an interest in a couple of the other games this time, particularly enjoying a basketball game (it was cool that that they had a child-sized one in addition to the full-sized adult game) as well as a race-car video game.

After our friends arrived, we went into Farrell’s for dinner and ice cream.  My wife and I both had pizza slices for dinner, which were pretty greasy, but still not too bad.  I was particularly surprised by how generous they were with the toppings.  They, of course, have a good variety of ice cream sundaes available for dessert.  I selected one called the "Hot Caramel Nutty Nutty", which pretty much is what it sounds like: vanilla ice cream covered in hot caramel with lots of pecans and Spanish peanuts.  My wife had an Oreo sundae and Andy had the kid’s "clown sundae", which was a scoop of ice cream with chocolate sauce, whipped cream and sprinkles and then a sugar cone placed on top such that it looks like a clown’s hat.

It was a fun evening that provided a chance to spend some time with a few good friends as well as to enjoy some family time.  It made for a good supplement to the bigger, more chaotic party of the week before.

I do see a distinction between a list of "favorites" and "best" when discussing works of art or entertainment and this list is going to be favorites.  What that means is that the order is based more on how much I enjoy the movies and am apt to return to them.  Essentially, this is based more on the "fun" factor than on the full collection of merits.  Finally, the rankings can’t help but be a bit arbitrary and I openly admit that the order could easily change, especially based on how recently I’ve seen each movie.

1. Monsters, Inc.  - Of all the Pixar films, this is the one that I am most apt to stop and watch if I come across it airing on TV or cable.  The film succeeds due to great casting, humor that hits the mark with an amazing consistency, truly exciting action sequences, and a story that takes place in a fully-realized and unique world of its own.  Finally, the closing shot of this movie is right up there towards the top of the list of the all time best endings.  While all of this is in service of a somewhat conventional buddy-movie plot, the whole package simply works.

2. Toy Story 2 – Pixar’s only sequel to date brilliantly expanded on the great characters and concept of the company’s first feature to create a more fully-realized film.  The movie is uproariously funny (it has the most out-loud laughs of any Pixar film) and it also quite touching at times.  The new characters created for the sequel (Jessie, Stinky Pete, and Bullseye) are not extraneous in any way, instead greatly expanding the overall storytelling.  The movie also contains the single best musical sequence of any Pixar film with the highly moving "When She Loved Me". This is a very rare case of a sequel that surpassed the original, largely through the careful application of the experience that the Pixar artists had gained with their first two films.

3. Wall-E – If I were putting together a "best" list instead of a "favorites" list, I’m pretty sure this would top it.   Pixar’s newest film is also their most bold an most creative.  I’ve seen some online debate about whether the film (especially the first 20 minutes or so) is mainly charming and funny or if it is mostly dark and sad.  The brilliance of the film is that it is all of those.  They were able to take a fairly downbeat scenario and present it in a way that is both palatable and, ultimately, even optimistic.  Much of this is accomplished thanks to the title character being Pixar’s most instantly endearing and sympathetic creation to date.  The film’s use of visual storytelling and incredibly detailed sound effects design gives it an exhilaratingly unconventional feel.  I can see the possibility that this one could move up on my favorites list as well with additional viewing and the passage of time.

4. Ratatouille – This one has the sharpest writing and most sophisticated story of all of the Pixar films to date.  While all of Pixar’s films have appealed to a fairly broad age range, this one does seem to skew a bit older than their other films, probably because the appreciation for fine food that is at the heart of the story really has to come with age and experience.  The film does still contain its fair share of visual gags and punch-lines, but it also contains a great deal of wit and character-driven humor.  This one would likely be a close 2nd on my "best" list.

5. Toy Story – Pixar’s first film was a milestone not just because it was the first CGI-animated feature, but also because it still would have been an exceptionally good film even if it hadn’t been the first of its kind.  In this way, it largely echoed Walt Disney’s accomplishment with "Snow White" many years before.  While the technology of the film was obviously an accomplishment, the filmmakers realized that it was every bit as important to focus on providing top-notch stories and characters.  With a clever concept and a well-chosen celebrity cast voicing memorable characters (Woody and Buzz Lightyear are now pretty much cultural icons), the end result was a film that succeeded as way more than just a technical novelty.  While it has been eclipsed in many ways by some of the later Pixar films (including its own sequel), this is a film that is pretty much ensured to remain a classic work.

6. The Incredibles – Brad Bird’s first effort after joining Pixar provided a welcome change of pace at a time when their films were just starting to feel a bit formulaic.  Of all of Pixar’s films, this is the one that most seems like pretty much the same film could have been made as live-action (probably with a huge special effects budget), but I felt that actually helped to demonstrate the flexibility of the medium.  The film itself is a lot of fun and includes some very clever action sequences.  I don’t think the characters are quite as memorable as in most of the other Pixar films, although that is alleviated by a somewhat larger, more ensemble cast as well.

7. Cars - I think this is probably the most formulaic of the Pixar films to date (the plot is essentially identical to the 90s Michael J. Fox movie "Doc Hollywood"), but it is redeemed quite a bit by setting the story in an exceptionally well-defined, internally-consistent, and generally interesting alternate reality.  I also admit to a certain affection towards this film because it is the one Pixar film that my 4-year-old son has pretty fully taken to, both the film itself (which he has seen quite a few times on DVD) and the merchandise.  As an adult male, it is not at all hard for me to understand, and even somewhat share, the fondness that a young boy is apt to have for an entire world of cars.

8. A Bug’s Life – It is hard not to see a bit of a sophomore slump in Pixar’s second film.  The movie is absolutely beautiful visually and it has some appealing characters, but the whole endeavor just isn’t exceptionally memorable.  I don’t think it was helped by its release being in such close proximity to Dreamworks’ similarly-themed "Antz", another good but not overly memorable film.  I can’t help getting the two movies a bit jumbled in my mind, often having a hard time remembering what scenes or characters actually go with which movie.  The movie is still a lot of fun, though, and on occasions when I’ve re-watched it I have found myself thinking that it is better than I remembered it.

9. Finding Nemo – Yes, I am ranking Pixar’s most financially successful film to date as my least favorite.  To be clear, I like the film overall and can even see its appeal, but this is the only one of Pixar’s movies that I think is over-long and even tends to drag at times.  As is typical for them, the film is an absolute treat visually, creating an underwater world that is both beautiful and convincing.  The characters are memorable and well-defined, even more so than in some of the other films that I rank higher on this list.  In fact, my son knows and likes the characters (and merchandise…) very much, despite the fact that he has shown very little interest in the movie itself.   I feel like putting this one in last place on my list drives home for me how much this really is an exercising in ranking a group where all the members are top-notch.  Even though it is last here, I certainly would never want anyone to think that it is even remotely a bad movie.