The 30 Best Voice Performances In Pixar Movies

10. Emma Thompson as Queen Elinor in “Brave” (2012)

Though she’s transformed into a silent bear for much of the film’s second half, much of the heart of “Brave” comes thanks to Thompson as Queen Elinor, Merida’s mother. Both antagonist and MacGuffin, Elinor can seem strict and humorless, but Thompson (managing an extremely good Scottish accent) conveys via tone a history to the character that suggests she was once just as rebellious and feisty as her daughter, and in some cases still is. It’s a complex look at parenting that belies the film’s reasonably simple narrative and an incredibly textured performance that, like the film, deserves more attention.

9. Albert Brooks as Marlin in “Finding Nemo” (2003)

Speaking of parenting, Pixar’s best movie on the subject to date is certainly “Finding Nemo,” in large part thanks to Albert Brooks’ lead role. Marlin, the over-protective clownfish whose worst nightmare comes true when his son is taken, is a deeply flawed, deeply sympathetic figure, and Brooks gives a performance as good as any in his career, his trademark neuroticism and neediness tinged with pain at the loss of his family and his desperate need to save his son. The character takes advantage of his comic gifts while mostly having the confidence to make him the straight man. Simply put, it’s hard to imagine the film working without Brooks.

8. Patton Oswalt as Remy in “Ratatouille” (2007)

Some executives might have been hoping for a bigger name, but given that he’s both one of the best comedians working and a sort of prince of Internet fanboys, Oswalt proved to be perfect in “Ratatouille.” As the French rat who longs not just for the finest food but to be a great cook, Remy feels like the perfect underdog: he may be young and often beaten down, but he also refuses to give up on his dream, a mix of stubbornness and passion pushing him ever forward. His unbridled enthusiasm, cultured nature and inherent sweetness means that Oswalt pulls off one of Pixar’s toughest magic tricks, making you root for a rat in the kitchen.

7. Joan Cusack as Jessie in “Toy Story 2” and “Toy Story 3” (1999 and 2010)

When you think ‘rootin-tootin cowgirl,’ you don’t necessarily think of Joan Cusack, and yet the actress makes a character that could have been a cliche sing in “Toy Story 2.” The actress plays Jessie, part of Woody’s long-lost set, and she’s a gleeful, capable heroine in an old-school, winningly unfashionable way. But she’s also badly wounded by her abandonment, struggling to trust (which continues to have ramifications in the third film), and Cusack is wonderful at portraying both Jesse’s upbeat nature and the deep hurt that it hides.

6. Ben Burtt as Wall-E in “Wall-E.” (2008)

Is it cheating to put a character who doesn’t technically have a voice on a list of the best voice performances? Perhaps. But the use of sound to capture the personality of the robot hero of Andrew Stanton’s sci-fi masterpiece is so sublime that we had to include it. Veteran sound designer Burtt, a four-time Oscar winner who also helped to create the iconic sounds of “Star Wars,” created over 2500 sounds over three years to portray the little recycler. It’s not just a hugely impressive feat of sonic design, but also a real performance, with his little purrs and chirps making, along with the expressive animation, Wall-E one of Pixar’s most utterly adorable creations.

5. Ellen DeGeneres as Dory in “Finding Nemo” (2003)

She never quite found her place in the movies, hence the stand-up comedian and sitcom star’s transition to talk show hosting, but DeGeneres did get one truly great big-screen role thanks to Pixar. A character so beloved that she’s the focus of the upcoming sequel, Dory is a unique comic creation: a chipper regal blue tang with a “Memento”-style memory and an ability, she claims, to talk to whales. She functions as a contrast to the uptight, nervous Marlin, and DeGeneres’ faultless comic timing sells virtually every joke she’s given, but she also lets in the sadness and vulnerability of a life without long-term memory in a way that Leonard Shelby would sympathize with.

4. Peter O’Toole as Anton Ego in “Ratatouille” (2007)

Jesse Eisenberg and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, take note: this is how you do a fictional critic. To begin with, “Ratatouille” food critic Anton Ego seems like the cliche of the parasitic critic: an intimidating, almost vampiric figure who delights in destroying things. But in the hallowed tones of Peter O’Toole, Ego is at least utterly and completely watchable (and listenable). But then he has his Proustian moment of delight, as Remy’s ratatouille causes him to flash back to childhood, and Ego, and O’Toole, softens, delivering an instantly famous soliloquy on the power of art and criticism, one that the legendary actor plays like he’s doing Lear. A great performer’s last great role.

3. Holly Hunter as Elastigirl in “The Incredibles” (2004)

In a just world, Hunter would be talked about in the same breath as the Streeps and Blanchetts of the world, but despite never giving a bad performance and even winning an Oscar for “The Piano,” she seems to be undervalued today. Her astonishing vocal turn in “The Incredibles” is just one example of the actresses’ dizzying range and prowess: her Helen Parr, or Elastigirl, goes from sexy superhero to harassed, end-of-her-tether mom, to wife crushed by seeming infidelity, to back-in-the-game ass-kicker on a dime. It’s an impossibly rich turn that is superheroic in every sense of the word.

2. Amy Poehler as Joy in “Inside Out” (2015)

If Joy doesn’t work, then “Inside Out” doesn’t work. She’s our hero, our villain, our narrator, our MacGuffin, our introduction to the film’s world and our hope, and like the other actors in the film, she needs to continually portray the emotion she’s named for without letting the performance become samey. Fortunately, the filmmakers cast Poehler, who plays the role like an aria for nearly two hours. She’s almost relentlessly upbeat, but from the beginning, the “Parks and Recreation” star shows that that’s to a fault —she’s ever busy, ever focused on the good, to prevent the bad from ever getting a foothold. Once she does comes to terms with sadness, crying devastatingly in the memory dump, it’s both utterly heartbreaking and strangely pleasing.

1. Tom Hanks as Woody in the “Toy Story” series (1995-2010)

Buzz might have been the toy phenomenon, but Woody is the heart of the “Toy Story” films. Correction: Tom Hanks is the heart of the “Toy Story” films. Coming off back-to-back Oscar wins (the first person to do so since Spencer Tracy), Hanks was the new Jimmy Stewart, a natural choice to play a simple wooden cowboy doll, an embodiment of classic American childhood. But Hanks, like the filmmakers, wasn’t tempted to go down the aw-shucks route, making Woody into a sort of middle-management figure, a kind of proto Michael Scott, and one capable not just of goodness but of deep envy and selfishness as well. Hanks finds every comic and dramatic beat (“You! Are! A! Toy!” reads as both a gag and a howl of existential despair in his hands), but also stops Woody from tipping too far into being unsympathetic. The sequels only make him more complex, and it’s a fitting tribute to Pixar that one of the most memorable characters of any kind in cinema the last twenty years is a toy.

Frankly, Pixar’s casts are always so impressive that we could have gone on much longer than this. But to name but a few, we also considered Jim Varney, Don Rickles and Estelle Warren from “Toy Story,” Dave Foley and Julia Louis-Dreyfus from “A Bug’s Life,” Kelsey Grammer and Joe Ranft in “Toy Story 2,” Mary Gibbs, Steve Buscemi and James Coburn in “Monsters Inc.,” Allison Janney and Stephen Root in “Finding Nemo,” Jason Lee in “The Incredibles” and Owen Wilson in “Cars.”

And then there was also Lou Romano, Ian Holm and Janeane Garofalo in “Ratatouille,” Jeff Garlin in “Wall-E,” Christopher Plummer and Jordan Nagai in “Up,” Ned Beatty and Kristen Schaal in “Toy Story 3,” Michael Caine and Emily Mortimer in “Cars 2,” Billy Connolly in “Brave,” Helen Mirren in “Monsters University,” and Bill Hader, Lewis Black and Mindy Kaling in “Inside Out.” Anyone else you’d have picked? Let us know in the comments.