Who is the best Pixar director?

So I saw Up a couple weeks ago with my wife and kiddies. It was typically Pixar which, of course, means it was a very good movie. While not on the same level as Toy Story 2 and The Incredibles, it was still quite enjoyable.

This got me thinking about the directors of the Pixar films and directors in general. I don't know about the rest of you, but when I hear about a new film and it sounds interesting I always look up the director. If the director has a good track record, it will be a movie that I might just see (assuming I like the director). If it's a piss-poor director or even one that's good but isn't my thing, I'll definitely pass on the flick. There are a handful of popular directors that I will absolutely not see anything from like Michael Bay (Transformers, Pearl Harbor, Armageddon) and Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, Stargate, 10,000 BC). I see those guys attached to a movie, I know the movie ain't worth seeing. On the other hand, if Clint Eastwood is directing a film, there's a pretty good chance it will be darn good.

That brings us back around to Pixar. Who is the best Pixar director? There are a total of ten movies, most of which were co-directed by two or more directors. Let's break 'em down:

Toy Story - John Lasseter
A Bugs Life -John Lasseter & Andrew Stanton
Toy Story 2 - John Lasseter, Lee Unkrich, & Ash Brannon.
Monsters, Inc. - Pete Docter, Lee Unkrich, & David Silverman.
Finding Nemo - Andrew Stanton & Lee Unkrich
The Incredibles - Brad Bird
Cars - John Lasseter & Joe Ranft
Ratatouille - Brad Bird & Joe Pinkava
WALL-E - Andrew Stanton
Up - Pete Docter & Bob Peterson

We can throw out guys who only co-directed one Pixar film simply because, well, they only co-directed one Pixar film. It isn't enough to rate 'em fairly. So Ash Brannon, David Silverman, Joe Ranft, Joe Pinkava, and Bob Petersen are out. That leaves us with five directors: John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich, Brad Bird, & Pete Docter.

How do we rate them? Well, let's break down the Pixar movies.

To me, there are three levels of Pixar flicks: Great, almost great, and darn good.

The great: Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc, The Incredibles. While very few of you would argue with my choices of Toy Story, Toy Story 2, and The Incredibles, I know there are many of you who don't feel Monsters, Inc. is one of the great Pixar flicks. You'd probably put Finding Nemo or Up (or both) in it's place. Fair enough. But it isn't your list. It's mine!

The almost great - Finding Nemo, Ratatouille, Up. Like I said, Nemo and Up would be in the great category for many, if not most, of you out there. And you'd boot Ratatouille down to the darn good category. But, hey, my list.

The darn good - A Bugs Life, Cars, WALL-E. Other than throwing Ratatouille in this category, I don't think too many of you disagree with what I have here.

Brad Bird has The Incredibles and Ratatouille to his credit. Not bad. That's one great one (in my opinion, the greatest Pixar movie is The Incredibles) and one almost great one in Ratatouille (a film I quite enjoyed).
Andrew Stanton has A Bugs Life, Finding Nemo, and WALL-E to his credit. He's a good director but, looking at my list, that's two darn good Pixar films and one near great one. Brad Bird is number one so far.
Lee Unkrich co-directed Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., and Finding Nemo. Two great ones and one almost great one. Okay, as a Pixar director, Unkrich now overtakes Bird. But just barely.
Pete Docter co-directed Monsters, Inc. and Up. Unkrich is still in the lead, Bird is second but barely ahead of Docter.
John Lasseter directed or co-directed Toy Story, A Bugs Life, Toy Story 2, and Cars. Two great ones and two darn good ones. I still think Unkrich wins with Bird and Lasseter tied for second.

Now I know Unkrich "only" has co-directing credits on all three of his Pixar movies while Bird and Lasseter have sole directing credits for The Incredibles (Bird) and Toy Story (Lasseter). I suppose I could come up with a points-based system that would give those who have directed more consideration over those who have co-directed but, hey, isn't that a bit much? Do I need to go into it that deep? Maybe. If I just look at who directed and co-directed what, I gotta go with Bird and Lasseter over Unkrich. So maybe it's a three way tie, really. Do we need some sort of tiebreaker? Yeah. We do. It's called Toy Story 3 to be released in 2010 and it's directed by Lee Unkrich.

How do you rank the Pixar movies? Who is your favorite Pixar director?