Summary

• Toy Story trilogy tops Rotten Tomatoes' best list, outperforming competitors with top rankings and audience appeal.
• Rotten Tomatoes' methodology combines critical, audience scores to determine best trio - "Toy Story" takes the lead.
• Despite top ranking, debate remains whether Toy Story truly has best trilogy - other contenders score higher critically.

Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes has revealed its definitive list of the best movies of all time, and in doing so, appears to have finally settled the long-running debate about which series constitutes the best film trilogy ever made. The ranking, which uses complex criteria combining critical scores, audience reaction, and editorial insight provides an extensive list of 300 of the greatest movies ever. Although the list was not designed to provide a definitive trilogy ranking, the results following the compilation are clear.

As with any ranking of the best movies of all time, Rotten Tomatoes' list – and especially its methodology – has come in for criticism. According to the site, the collection "applied our recommendation formula, which considers a movie’s Tomatometer rating with assistance from its Audience Score, illuminating beloved sentiment from both sides." This makes it more than a collection of films with a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score, and explains why a film like L.A. Confidential rose to the top. Beyond this, however, the approach may also explain why one trilogy stands out as having by far and away the highest-ranked movies.

Toy Story Is The Best Movie Trilogy Based On Rotten Tomatoes Ranking

Although Rotten Tomatoes' ranking appraises individual movies rather than films as part of a series, the complete list suggests that the Toy Story series is comfortably the best movie trilogy ever made. All three films rank within the top 26 movies on the list – a record that easily outstrips any competitors. Considering that the franchise is one of the most successful of all time and has been an intergenerational hit for both audiences and critics, this position is perhaps unsurprising.

Interestingly, the highest-ranked Toy Story movie is not the 1995 original, but the much-loved follow-up, Toy Story 2. Rated as the 8th-best film of all time, it is also the highest-rated animated movie on the list. Toy Story comes close behind at number 12, giving the Toy Story series the top two animated movies ever made, ahead of their nearest competitor, How To Train Your Dragon (number 15). Toy Story 3 rounds out the trilogy at number 26, behind other animated films like Up, Spirited Away, and Spider-Man: Into The Spiderverse. However, regardless of its lower position, the series as a whole is unquestionably in top spot – according to this list.

Toy Story's Trilogy Ranks Much Higher On Rotten Tomatoes Than Other Contenders

Having three movies inside the top 26 films of all time is a serious achievement – regardless of context. However, Toy Story's ranking arguably becomes even more impressive when the performance of other iconic series is factored in. In discussions around the best movie trilogy, Toy Story is typically mentioned in the same breath as projects like The Lord of the Rings, Richard Linklater's Before series, and the Indiana Jones franchise. However, if using the Rotten Tomatoes list as a guide, it's clear that Toy Story is a long way ahead of these frequent rivals.

While all three Lord of the Rings movies are included inside the top 300, only The Two Towers cracks the top 50 – sitting at number 40. Despite their hallowed status among fans, the only Indiana Jones movie to make the list is Raiders of the Lost Ark. Linklater's acclaimed Before movies are perhaps the most consistent other trilogy, with the three films sitting at numbers 50, 166, and 172, but this impressive performance still pales in comparison to Toy Story's combined ranking.

Why Rotten Tomatoes Is Right About Toy Story Being The Best Trilogy

Although aspects of Rotten Tomatoes' methodology and some movies' rankings can be called into question, there's no doubt that the first three Toy Story films deserve their reputation as three of the best films of all time. Each of the movies tells a touching, vivid, and often heart-breaking story of friendship, adventure, and growing up. The first Toy Story pushed animation boundaries like never before and marked a startling debut for Pixar, while Toy Story 2 exceeded the original in the emotional scope of its story. Even after an 11-year gap, Toy Story 3 brought the overall arc to a satisfying and resonant conclusion, securing the series' status for generations.

Even aside from the three films' impressive technical and narrative achievements, as well as their ability to create timeless characters like Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Jessie, and many more, the Toy Story trilogy's consistent critical performance marks it out as the greatest ever. Both Toy Story and Toy Story 2 are part of a select group of movies to sit at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, while Toy Story 3 narrowly misses out on 98%. This justified acclaim, combined with everything else that makes the movies great, clearly establishes Toy Story as one of the best series of all time, whatever the metric being applied.

Toy Story's "Best Trilogy" Title Is Still Controversial

There can be no doubt that the three Toy Story films are fantastic in isolation. Each of them tells a self-contained story that works as both an entertaining adventure and a valuable moral lesson. However, although their reputation deserves recognition, there is a slight question over whether their combined story works as effectively as other trilogies. The Lord of the Rings, for example, uses three films to weave a single narrative, arguably making them a more impressive storytelling achievement. Unlike other trilogies, Toy Story should perhaps be considered as three separate stories, rather than one complete arc.

Purely taking the site's critical average into account, there are other movie trilogies that score more highly than Toy Story's combined total of 99.3%.

There's also the question of whether, by Rotten Tomatoes' own criteria, the trilogy should be considered the best ever made. Purely taking the site's critical average into account, there are other movie trilogies that score more highly than Toy Story's combined total of 99.3%. Every movie in the so-called Noriko trilogy, for instance, holds a 100% rating on the website, as does Hiroshi Inagaki's Samurai trilogy (albeit from far fewer reviews). While Toy Story's consistently high scores are an important factor when determining the Rotten Tomatoes ranking, it's clear that it's not the only franchise that fits this criteria.

Source: Rotten Tomatoes