2. Married Life - Up (2006)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHMD_EqM61I Not just the first scene here, but the montage attached to the end of it (I'm cheating slightly, perhaps). To my mind, though, this isn't just one of the best scenes in animated movie history, but one of the greatest scenes in motion picture history - the amount of sheer emotional imbued in every frame of Up's "Married Life" montage is truly something to behold. Just watching it again, whilst preparing this article, almost brought me to tears. The real magic is in how Pixar manage to make us feel so much about two characters we've only just met. The montage, of course, recounts the lives of Carl and Ellie, who meet as kids and fall in love. We watch them as they grow, as the couple learn they can't have children, and eventually to Ellie's untimely death, which leaves Carl (and the entire audience) totally and utterly heartbroken. Michael Giacchino, who composed the music for this sequence, deserves 50% of the credit. Up is a good movie, no doubt, but it never reaches the emotional heights of its perfect opening sequence - it doesn't even come close.