THE LISTS: Best Female Characters of Pixar

It's another blessed Pixar week, even if the buzz regarding their latest film, "Brave", isn't all sunshine and daisies. It doesn't discount the widely lauded milestone of Pixar's first female protagonist, and quite optimistically not the last. Last year I posted a semi-serious list of the Best Pixar Characters, so why focus in further because of a specific gender? Because that list was majorly taken up by the men of the show, as Collette would lament were she working in this business. So I decided to look deeper into the catalog of Pixar's characters to pick out ten female characters outside of "Brave" that truly state the potential Pixar has had for significant feminine emotion.

It is worth mentioning those who could not make the list, such as Merida and Queen Elinor of this weekend's "Brave", simply because I have yet to see it. From the "Toy Story" trilogy, the presence and loss of Bo Peep is absolutely nothing to neglect, and delivers resonance in a single line of dialogue in the third film. Boo was especially close to making the mark for "Monsters Inc.", but the fact of the matter is that she's a kid, however sweet. And nobody really enters the frame from "A Bugs Life" or either of the "Cars" films. They all just feel so simple in construction. But with no further ado, here's our list of the top ten ladies of Pixar!

WALL-E(Theus)

I'm not sure what's going on with the "Prometheus" trailer, but this is pretty cool, and makes me wonder what's going on with that Ridley Scott film.

Trailers I Adore

Well they missed the cut for the Oscar, but at least The Social Network got in on the Golden Trailer Awards and finished off awards season on a late note of positivity. So with the awards come and gone, talk and discussion have broken out on personal picks of favorite trailers, as instigated by Ryan Adams of Awards Daily. Being mildly new to the game, I don't have the experience of years upon years of trailer hunting. We have gotten our share of really well made trailers recently with Tinker Tailor Solider Spy and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, both of which keep sticking out as similar starts to adult oriented film franchises. Still, I felt obligated to look further back at trailers which really impressed me.

I was really impressed with the first teaser trailer for WALL-E, as it made it clear that this was going to be a very special and important film. The first trailer for Cloverfield was clearly a clever WTF piece of surprise marketing, and it was the main thing people were talking about after seeing the first Transformers. Perhaps my favorite piece of trailer marketing is the first trailer for Up in the Air. It's a trailer that established itself as the main thing of 2009. I'll let it speak for itself. Just ignore the stupid logo of the YouTuber who uploaded it.

THE LISTS: Best Pixar Characters

It feels overdone to the regular ranking of Pixar's many films, because I feel there's often only a few films that stand at the head of the pack. The Toy Story trilogy seems to be in their own individual class, more outstanding as a whole than in their separate pieces. Cars and A Bugs Life instantly land at the back of the pack, and Cars 2 looks to set a new standard as the worst of Pixar's catalog. For me, WALL-E, Ratatouile, and Finding Nemo are the biggest true winners. However, as Cars 2 seems to be the Pixar film most lacking in well rounded characters, I feel it's worth looking over the best of those.

Pixar is less known for outstanding films than they are for outstanding characters, and it's the cling to those characters that make the films so effective. Quite obviously enough, no characters from A Bug's Life and Cars make it in. On the other hand, neither did The Incredibles, but that's ensemble a piece with Pixar as you can get. True, they could've rounded those characters a little better than just the simple family dynamic. However, as I started to give certain characters passes on to the top ten, I couldn't help but notice some rather big ones being left out.

First of all, Buzz from the Toy Story franchise was left out of the pot, despite having such a compelling arc in the first film. There were also a few smaller characters that didn't make it in because they didn't have enough screentime. I love Ken in Toy Story 3, but he barely missed the cut, and for the sake of specificity, Ellie of Up is more of a driving force than a character. Remy from Ratatouille was the closest to a number 11 pick as I could find, but he would have never been so wonderful without Patton Oswalt's surprisingly strong performance. So now I give you my picks for the top ten Pixar characters, after the jump!

The Top 10: Best Animated Feature Nominees

With all the bustle of awards season, it's easy to forget that this is the tenth year of the Best Animated Feature category at the Oscars, and the nominees have been diverse and mostly rewarding. So here is my compilation of the ten best nominees in this category to date, stretching all the way back to 2001. And I can promise you that it's not all Pixar.

10. Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
Directed by Wes Anderson

I'm not really a great fan of Wes Anderson, because most of his work is far more miss than hit. He does have an enthusiasm about him and that energy shows in his work. So what better medium for his to try his hand at than animation, or more specifically stop-motion. After Henry Selick left the project for bigger and quite honestly better things (see #4), Anderson became the unlikely director, and brought so much to it. Authenticity is something that always impresses me, and this is undeniably the most authentic animated feature of the past decade. Everything feels so real and untarnished, from the aesthetic of the dolls that make up the characters, to witty script that rivals The Hangover in terms of screwball antics. It definitely feels like the sort of film that would be passed down through the years.

9. Persepolis (2007)
Directed by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud

A French animated adaptation of an autobiographical graphic novel about the Iranian revolution. That's a description that will only ever be suited to this film, and you can overlook how unique this film is at first glance. From the basic and simple animation style, this film is more than just a look into the way the government of Iran changed, but also a spry and emotional tale of the way a little girl changes as she grows up. It has an ironic comic timing to it, and that's very much amplified by the constantly changing atmosphere of Marjane Satrapi's mindset. The film moves at such a clip that you can feel that change of mind that zigzags around so frantically. It's like catching lightning in a bottle, and how it bounces around from there.

8. Finding Nemo (2003)
Directed by Andrew Stanton

When thinking of Pixar's achievements over the past decade, the mind always seems to shift to the film that truly put them on the map. Toy Story, A Bugs Life, and Monster's Inc. could all be seen as Pixar's precursor work, very much like Memento, Insomnia, and The Prestige could be seen as Christopher Nolan's precursor work to The Dark Knight. Both didn't truly hit worldwide renown until their greatest hits yet premiered. Finding Nemo is very much the film most responsible for Pixar's impeccable track record. It didn't stray too far away from the harshness of life, nor the cruelty of the sea. It has plenty humorous anecdotes along the way, and to this day there ceases to be a voice performance that reaches the same heights as Ellen Degeneres as Dori. The men and women over at Pixar still had plenty greater works to unveil, but this was the perfect beginning.

The Beauty of Pixar