How a 2017 Blockbuster Crashed the Best Pixar Movie Debate
For years, the best Pixar movie conversation started and ended with the studio’s early landmarks: Toy Story, WALL-E, Monsters Inc, Up. A recent How-To Geek reappraisal argues that a later entry, the 2017 Pixar film Coco, now deserves the crown. The writer calls Coco “hands down” the best Pixar movie, noting that people are often surprised it tops their personal ranking because it arrived after the supposed golden age. What tips the scales is not nostalgia but craft: the film’s vivid, Día de los Muertos–inspired palette, the sense that every frame has been lifted straight from real celebrations, and an emotional architecture that rewards repeat viewing. Crucially, Coco is also easily available as part of Pixar movies on streaming via Disney+, giving it a second life as both gateway film for kids and rewatch staple for adults, which strengthens the case that it’s Pixar’s most essential title right now.
Toy Story vs Coco: From Technical Revolution to Emotional Peak
Toy Story redefined animation by proving that fully computer-generated features could be commercially and creatively viable, establishing the 3D rendering style that Pixar has refined ever since. Its genius lay in the concept and technology: toys with inner lives, plastic and fabric rendered with then-groundbreaking detail, and storytelling that balanced slapstick with heart. Coco, by contrast, operates in a world where those tools are assumed; its achievement lies in how it pushes them toward richer emotional stakes and cultural specificity. How-To Geek’s assessment highlights how Coco’s design of the Land of the Dead uses cascades of color and meticulous costume and set details that feel authentically tied to Día de los Muertos traditions rather than generic fantasy. Where Toy Story’s themes orbit friendship and jealousy, Coco tackles memory, intergenerational trauma, and artistic legacy, giving the Pixar ranking debate a new axis: not just what was most innovative, but what feels most complete.
Streaming, Comfort Watches and the Quiet Rise of Modern Pixar
The shift to streaming has quietly reshaped how audiences evaluate the best Pixar movie. Earlier hits like Toy Story were experienced primarily as cinematic events and physical media staples; their status was cemented by scarcity and repetition. Coco, released in 2017, has grown inside a different ecosystem. As How-To Geek notes, it is now just there on Disney+ for anyone with a subscription, always ready to be revisited. That accessibility lets mid-run titles evolve into comfort watches and cult favorites, as families cycle through Pixar movies on streaming until certain films become the default background to dinner or a lazy Sunday. Streaming also flattens generational gaps: children may encounter Coco before Toy Story, making its aesthetic and themes their baseline for what Pixar is. In that landscape, the Pixar 2017 film doesn’t feel like a late-era outlier but a central pillar, redefining what a canonical Pixar experience looks like today.
Coco’s Cultural Footprint: Songs, Memes and Family Rituals
Coco’s case as the best Pixar movie is strengthened by how it has embedded itself in popular culture. While the How-To Geek piece focuses primarily on its visuals, the film’s music and imagery have taken on a second life online and in living rooms. “Remember Me” and the rest of the soundtrack have become fixtures of family playlists and school performances, while Miguel strumming his guitar in the Land of the Dead is arguably as instantly recognizable as any shot from Toy Story. Meme-able moments, like the film’s humorous skeleton gags and dramatic musical reveals, circulate widely on social platforms, keeping the narrative emotionally fresh for new viewers. Just as importantly, Coco has become a go-to choice for family movie nights, especially around autumn celebrations, giving it a recurring place in annual viewing rituals that the earliest Pixar classics no longer automatically occupy.
What Coco Signals About Pixar’s Future
If Coco truly is Pixar’s best film, it complicates the nostalgic idea that the studio’s peak sits firmly in the past. The How-To Geek argument suggests that modern Pixar can not only match but surpass its foundational works when it leans into specific cultures, bold color design, and emotionally thorny material. Coco proves that the studio’s signature blend of humor and heartbreak still works, but now it is filtered through more diverse settings and family dynamics. In the Toy Story vs Coco debate, the former may remain the sentimental favorite for kick-starting the era of CG animation, yet the latter feels more in tune with how viewers live and watch now: on streaming platforms, across generations, looping the same film dozens of times. Rather than a swan song, Coco reads as a blueprint, implying that Pixar’s future best might again arrive when no one is expecting it.