11. Breaking Hearts
I've already mentioned it, but that almost-opening sequence to
Up is one of the single most heart-breaking moments ever captured on screen - let alone in animation - and it's not the first time that Pixar have played with the audience's heart-strings. Scenes such as
Wall-E's attempt to woo an innert Eve, Jessie's lament for her former owner and the almost-destruction of the entire cast at the end of
Toy Story 3 are triumphantly heart-breaking, and deserve to be heralded as brilliant iconic scenes. The effect is also testament to how well Pixar engages us as an audience: the fact that we are encouraged to sympathise with, and even to love these characters adding a massive injection of emotion that crucially never feels cynically manipulative.
12. The Music: The Incredits
http://youtu.be/wnTSsIAcaOw
13. Perfect Ensembles
Dealing with numerous characters in film-making can often lead to inherent problems of under-development or bias towards certain characters to the detriment of others, particular in ensemble casts, yet Pixar repeatedly offer well-rounded new characters in films like Toy Story 3 without accusations of preferential treatment appearing in response. The studio's sprawling casts are uniformly well-balanced, with great dynamics between not only pairs of characters but multiple groups, and that's not something to be sniffed at.
14. The Quotes
"I am a nice shark, not a mindless eating machine. If I am to change this image, I must first change myself. Fish are friends, not food".
Bruce, Finding Nemo
15. The Short-films
How many short-films are anticipated as much as
Hawaiian Vacation - the mini-offshoot of
Toy Story 3- or as critically acclaimed as Presto? Pixar put as much attention to detail and passion into their short films as they do their features, and as a result have released a number of exceptional, charming shorts.