Pixar’s beautiful, emotionally charged movies typically revolve around a duo, like a clownfish searching for his lost son and the forgetful blue tang who holds the only information about his whereabouts, or a pair of monstrous roommates whose lives are invaded by a human child.
There are exceptions to this, like the franchise about a family of superheroes, but more often than not, it will be the dynamic shared by two characters – whether those two characters are friends, enemies, or love interests – that provides a Pixar movie with its dramatic spine. So, here are 10 Most Lovable Duos From Pixar Movies.
Arlo & Spot in The Good Dinosaur
In the opening scene of The Good Dinosaur, the meteor that killed all the dinosaurs misses Earth. This sets off an alternate course of history, in which dinosaurs evolved to talk and build farms and have a traditional family setup, and they co-existed with humans, who weren’t as evolved. In many senses, The Good Dinosaur is a “boy and his dog” story, except the “boy” is actually an Apatosaurus and the “dog” is actually a boy.
Spot is a feral kid who speaks in growls, so he communicates non-verbally with Arlo. The Good Dinosaur is possibly Pixar’s most underrated movie. It’s a delightful story about Arlo and Spot’s complicated friendship with some beautiful animation and emotional moments.
Remy & Linguini in Ratatouille
Ratatouille’s protagonist Remy is the ultimate underdog. He’s a rat who wants to be a chef. Chefs will go to great lengths to keep rats out of their kitchen, so Remy has his work cut out for him in pursuit of his dream. And when he meets Alfredo Linguini, the garbage man at a fancy Parisian restaurant, he gets the chance to achieve that dream – kind of.
Remy gets to spend his days working in a restaurant, cooking delicious meals and serving hungry customers. But he has to do it from under Linguini’s hat, pulling his hair to control his actions, so it’s Linguini who gets all the credit.
Miguel & Héctor in Coco
Pixar’s 2017 movie Coco helped parents across the world to teach their kids about the concept of death and prepare them for the loss of a loved one. It handles the topic beautifully, and it’s a really important movie. Héctor is a streetwise trickster who enlists 12-year-old Miguel’s help so that he can revisit the Land of the Living to solidify a permanent spot in the Land of the Dead.
If no one remembers you in the Land of the Living, you disappear from existence, so Héctor wants to set the record straight, after being betrayed in his life, and be remembered by his family.
Joy & Sadness in Inside Out
The most memorable duos in movies tend to be the ones who are polar opposites of each other in every way. This is probably why the “buddy cop” genre is responsible for so many iconic screen duos; mismatched protagonists are the foundation of those movies.
In Inside Out, the central pair of characters are opposites in an abstract sense; they’re the personifications of Riley’s joy and sadness, appropriately named Joy and Sadness. The movie has a really sweet message about the positive side of sadness. Sadness is a cathartic emotional release and it makes happiness possible. This is what Joy learns from Sadness by the end of Inside Out.
Carl & Russell in Up
When Pixar first announced a movie about an old man who uses a lot of balloons to fly his house to a waterfall, audiences dismissed the premise and thought the studio was jumping the shark.
But then Up came out, and emerged as possibly one of the most beautiful movies ever made. Shaky third act aside, the story of grieving widower Carl Fredricksen’s quest to achieve his late wife’s lifelong dream touches every viewer on a deep emotional level. And his relationship with Russell, the Boy Scout stowaway, teaches him to open up and care again.
WALL-E & EVE in WALL-E
Ben Burtt is one of the film industry’s most underappreciated geniuses. He’s responsible for some of the most iconic sounds in movie history, from the hum of a lightsaber to the over-the-top punches from the Indiana Jones movies. With the titular little sentient robot, he created a character that audiences around the world would root for using only beeps and whirs. He did a similar thing for R2-D2, but this was a new challenge; WALL-E was the lead character.
WALL-E and EVE have some really touching moments throughout the movie, like when they drift through space with a fire extinguisher. The way that Andrew Stanton conveys their romance without words is fascinating.
Mr. Incredible & Elastigirl in The Incredibles
Brad Bird provided a unique take on the superhero genre in The Incredibles, and that’s saying a lot because it’s a genre with a lot of different takes across a lot of different art forms. Bird created a relatable family – a dad who hates his job, a bored housewife who wishes her husband would chip in more as he leaves her to do everything, a son who gets into trouble at school, and a daughter who feels like an outcast – and he gave them superpowers that correspond to their characterizations.
Bob and Helen Parr feel like a real couple, with real insecurities and problems. For their first movie starring human characters, Pixar delivered some seriously human characters.
Marlin & Dory in Finding Nemo
There’s something primal in all of us that makes us root for Marlin in Finding Nemo. Since a barracuda killed his wife and all but one of his unborn children, he’s particularly protective of the one son he has, because he’s lost so much and Nemo is all he has in the world. When Nemo is taken, Marlin is devastated, but determined to find him.
Along the way, he bumps into Dory, who claims to have seen the boat that took Nemo but also suffers from short-term memory loss. Marlin and Dory have nothing in common, but they become oddly endeared to each other over the course of the movie.
Mike & Sulley in Monsters, Inc.
Billy Crystal and John Goodman recorded their lines for Monsters, Inc. together, which is unconventional for animation, but definitely helped to give the characters a more palpable bond. Mike and Sulley are introduced as the best of friends, but as external forces disrupt their blissful existence, their friendship is put to the test.
It’s always heartbreaking to watch any scene where these two aren’t getting along. Ultimately, Mike and Sulley have a really sweet relationship. A prime example of this is Mike tirelessly putting Boo’s door back together from a pile of wood-chippings, just so Sulley could see her again.
Woody & Buzz in Toy Story
The four Toy Story movies chart Woody and Buzz’s constantly evolving relationship. When we first meet Woody, he’s the unchallenged leader of the toys, and when we first meet Buzz, he’s the hot new toy who’s threatening his position.
Woody’s jealousy drives him to knock Buzz out of Andy’s window, leading them on an adventure to the house next door, under the thumb of a sadistic kid who wants to torture them. In the face of this adversity, they learn to work together and become best friends. Over the course of the sequels, they continue to have each other’s backs until Woody decides to leave and they share a tearful farewell.