The ones that rose to the top (especially the top 5) are different from the pack in some remarkable way. Perhaps because there’s a lot of sequels in here, but too many are just too similar to one another. They’re solid scores and good music they’re just not overly exceptional. By contrast, so many of the Pixar scores are… fine. When I did our ranking of DreamWorks scores, I was generally surprised by the high quality across the board. However, I will say that I was almost uniformly underwhelmed by these. Just as even the worst Pixar movie is still pretty great in the grand scheme of things, the “worst” score here is still pretty good. I should also mention that the bottom of this ranking doesn’t necessarily mean the scores are bad. To be fair, there were actually two Newmans – cousins Randy and Thomas – but still, we’re talking about a limited pool of composers. It’s also important to note that in 22 films, only THREE were composed by someone whose last name isn’t Newman or Giacchino.

I was listening for themes and emotional music (that took me up or down) – not just background noise or a wallpaper score that’s barely noticeable. Likewise, I expect the scores to make me feel something, and this ranking reflects that expectation. Pixar films tug on your heartstrings and make you feel something. Not every movie has one, but it’s really hard to ignore those that do. Note: Original songs (written by the composer) factored in a tiny bit to this ranking, which is not something I’ve done in previous rankings. That means you need to divorce the films from their music, which, I’ll admit, is kind of hard to do for so many of these. We’re ranking the orchestral scores – not the movies. And even if we all agree that Cars 2 is pretty bad, that’s still a phenomenal track record.īut we’re not here today to talk about the merits of the films themselves. In 25 years, the studio has only released one or two films that were… subpar. Since Toy Story debuted in 1995, Pixar has made a name for itself on the quality of its animation AND the quality of its storytelling. (Note that Soul is due out later this year and – with a soundtrack from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross – will likely disrupt this ranking.) With Pixar’s 22nd film, Onward, in theaters this week, this seemed like an appropriate time. We’re back! The latest installment of our comprehensive score rankings is here, and this time, we’re taking on all 22 (as of this writing) feature films from Pixar Animation Studios!įeel free to check out our previous rankings here, including the scores of DreamWorks Animation.

Ratatouille soundtrack amazon music