Image via Complex Original
Since the Fall of 1995, the A1 name in animated film has been Pixar. The Disney-owned studio is so far above everyone else that when it comes to predicting the Oscars's Best Animated Feature category, the thought process goes, "Is there a Pixar movie in the category? Okay, that one's gonna win." Pixar movies are just that good.
That has something to do with the way Pixar refuses to underestimate its core audience—children. The movies tell real stories with real messages and rely on good stories, writing and execution, rather than kooky humor. I mean, they have plenty of the latter, but that's all icing. And that's why adults love these movies as much as their kids do.
One consequence of this sort of storytelling though is that stuff happens in these movies that is decidedly realer than Pixar's demo might be used to—they don't shy away from death, loss, the pains of growing up—and at times in Pixar's 20-year run, it's gotten to the point that people have actually wondered if the movies were fit for children. (They are.) That's what makes the movies great though—and as an adult a big kid, reveling at the holy-shit-this-just-got-real moments is one of the best parts of the viewing experience.
So on the release date of Pixar's latest installment, Inside Out, we decided not to rank the movies (our friends did that already), but to run down the realest moments from each Pixar flick—and the real-ass lessons those moments taught.
Toy Story
The Realest Moment: When Buzz and Woody go to Sid's house.
Lesson Learned: As parents, if you leave your son unattended with a bunch of power tools, he may turn into a psychopath.
A Bug's Life
The Realest Moment: When Hopper is fed to and subsequently ripped apart by a bunch of baby birds.
Lesson Learned: Watching villains die is rewarding, until it gets reeeeally graphic. (Right, Game of Thrones?)
Toy Story 2
The Realest Moment: When Stinky Pete tries to murder Woody with a pickaxe.
Lesson Learned: WTF, old people!?
Monsters, Inc.
The Realest Moment: That Monsters, Inc. commercial where they talk about how human kids are harder to scare these days because "the window of innocence is shrinking." TRUE.
Lesson Learned: Wow, kids are messed up. (Also, lesson learned from the whole movie: Fuck your prejudice.)
Finding Nemo
The Realest Moment: The opening scene, in which a barracuda murders Marlin's wife and (nearly) all of their unborn children.
Lesson Learned: Do thorough research of a neighborhood before moving in.
The Incredibles
The Realest Moment: WHEN THE VILLAIN STEALS A BABY!
Lesson Learned: Be cool to your fans—'cause they might grow up to be ginger assholes.
Cars
The Realest Moment: When Lightning McQueen discovers an abandoned town, forgotten by time.
Lesson Learned: Learning about the past can help you to better understand your current situation.
Ratatouille
The Realest Moment: The entire movie, when a human chef becomes best friends with a rat.
Lesson Learned: Don't eat French food.
WALL-E
The Realest Moment: When Eve hastily reconfigures WALL-E, who then forgets her.
Lesson Learned: Love is risk, forever threatened by betrayal and mortality, the latter of which is certain.
Up
The Realest Moment: The opening montage (in which dude and his wife can't have children, and then years later he inadvertently kills her by making her walk up a hill).
Lesson Learned: Life's a bitch and then you die.
Toy Story 3
The Realest Moment: When the toys realize that college-aged Andy has outgrown them.
Lesson Learned: Even when you're somebody's trash, you can still be someone else's treasure.
Cars 2
The Realest Moment: When the bad, foreign car plots to kill the good car that sounds like Owen Wilson.
Lesson Learned: We deserve this for turning our backs on the American automobile industry.
Brave
The Realest Moment: When a demon bear eats a man's leg.
Lesson Learned: You know what? Not much of a lesson here—demon bears are just dangerous creatures.
Monsters University
The Realest Moment: How Mike and Sully fail out of college but still get a job at Monsters, Inc.
Lesson Learned: Don't let your lack of a college degree fuck with your dreams.