5) Inside Out
Worldwide Box Office: $856 Million (#7)
After a string of less than stellar sequels, Inside Out was quite rightly hailed as a return to form for Pixar last year. Taking viewers inside the mind of a young girl going through some big life changes, the studio somehow succeeded in giving her emotions their own very unique and quirky personalities, all the while telling a meaningful story both inside and out of Riley’s mind (ah, so that’s where they got the title…).
Of the two animated movies to make this list, it’s pretty obvious that Inside Out should have been the one to crack a billion, and it goes without saying that the animation was superb. The voice cast (made up of names like Amy Poehler, Bill Hader, Kyle MacLachlan, and Richard Kind) was also pretty solid, if somewhat lacking of that one performance which really sticks with you long after watching the movie.
It’s hard to get too caught up in any minor niggles when Inside Out is so damn inventive and charming though, and with some genuinely moving moments – I still haven’t got over what happened to Bing Bong – this is a movie which most definitely deserves to sit up there as one of Pixar’s best alongside the likes of Toy Story, Up, and Wall-E. It’s just a shame 2015 later had another misfire for Pixar in The Good Dinosaur.