A very good friend of mine believes that a sure sign of the Apocalypse will come when Pixar makes a bad movie.
And to be honest, after seeing the Disney partner's latest, digitally animated feature, "Up," I'm not sure I'd disagree with him.
After all, Pixar has a perfect track record to date. They've produced 10 quality movies in 10 tries.
Even "Cars" (2006), which is my least favorite of their films, would be a terrific movie if it had been released by any other studio.
So it's no wonder that Pixar is smashing box-office records and winning Oscars regularly.
By the way, my top-five favorites of their films to date are:
THE INCREDIBLES (2004)
This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, since this is a superhero movie. It's also a terrific little dysfunctional-family tale.
TOY STORY 2 (1999)
A rare instance of a sequel that improves on its predecessor, the second, action-figure-centric feature has more emotional heft.
TOY STORY (1995)
That's not to say the original — and first Pixar feature offering — doesn't have heart, though. And it still dazzles, nearly 15 years later.
MONSTERS, INC. (2001)
As sweet as it is goofy, the animated fantasy features one of Billy Crystal's better performances. (He's usually better heard than seen.)
WALL*E (2008)
The nearly wordless opening or 45 or so minutes still takes my breath away. And no recent film has been able to impart an environmentally friendly message so subtly.
By the way, I'm not sure exactly where the wonderful "Up" would place on my list, though I suspect it might dislodge "WALL
E" after a little time. I'm a believer that a film has to age a little bit before it can be afforded all-time status, though.
OF COURSE, NOT EVERYONE AGREES WITH ME …
AOL/Moviefone recently polled users as to which are their favorite Pixar movies.
The results were, in order, favorite to least-favorite: "Finding Nemo" (2003), "Toy Story" (1995), "Monsters, Inc." (2001), "The Incredibles" (2004), "WALL
E" (2008), "Cars" (2006), "Up," "Ratatouille" (2007), "Toy Story 2" (1999) and "A Bug's Life" (1998).
The votes were pretty evenly split. Out of 500,000-plus votes, "Finding Nemo" got just 18 percent of the total vote. "Toy Story" received 16 percent, and "Monsters, Inc." and "The Incredibles" had 12 percent apiece.
Even "A Bug's Life" still got 5 percent of the votes.
AND IN CASE YOU'RE WONDERING: Pixar's next animated feature will be "Toy Story 3," slated for release June 18, 2010.
The studio will also release 3D versions of both "Toy Story" and "Toy Story 2" Oct. 2.
E-mail: jeff@desnews.com