#johnratzenberger

A good luck charm could be a stuffed animal or a pair of socks but for Pixar it used to be John Ratzenberger. 

John Dezso Ratzenberger (born April 6, 1947) has appeared in almost every Pixar film. From Hamm in Toy Story to Construction Worker Fennwick in Onward. His favorite character to voice was P.T. Flea in a Bug's Life. He  is an American actor, voice actor, and entrepreneur who has appeared in 21 Pixar films, the most of any other voice actor. It was said that he was a good luck charm for Pixar. He did not voice any characters in the film Soul or Luca either. Ratzenberger is a team member of the Pixar Softball Team. He even hosted the documentary film Pixar: 20 Years of Animation and Counting. Ratzenberger is best known for playing Cliff Clavin on the TV show Cheers. He will also not be voicing a character in Turning Red.  Which leaves me to believe Pixar/Disney is moving away from their so-called good luck charm. As the years have gone by his animated characters are getting less screen time and he is getting less lines to say. As a fan of Pixar and Ratzenberger this is a sad thing to hear. The fun thing about Pixar movies are the Easter eggs and finding John Ratzenberger in the movie. Pixar's most notable traditions other than Ratzenberger are the appearance of the Pizza Planet truck, references to other Pixar movies past and present and “A113” hidden somewhere, and the  Easter egg teasing Pixar's next movie.

My favorite Ratzenberger quote from Monsters, Inc

“Adorable Snowman: "Snow cone?"

Mike: "Yuck."

Abominable Snowman: "No, no, no, don't worry. It's lemon."”

Another favorite quote of his from Toy Story 2

 Hamm: "All right. Let's review this one more time. At precisely 8:32-ish, Exhibit 'A,' Woody, was kidnapped. Exhibit 'B,' a composite sketch of the kidnapper."

Bo Peep: "He didn't have a beard like that."

Hamm: "Fine. Etch, give him a shave."

Slinky Dog: "The kidnapper was bigger than that."

Hamm: "Oh, picky, picky, picky."

Mr. Potato Head: "Let's just go straight to Exhibit 'F.' The kidnapper's vehicle. Now, the vehicle fled the scene in this direction."

Hamm: "Your eyes are in backwards. It went the other way. "

Potato Head: "Hey, put a cork in it."

Rex: "How do you spell 'FBI'?" (destroys the "crime scene")

Potato Head: "My crime scene!"

Hamm: "Oh, why don't you watch where you're going, 'Godspilla'?"

Rex: "I didn't know there was a crime scene."

List of Pixar appearances by John Ratzenberger 

1995 Toy Story    Hamm

1995 Toy Story Activity Center

1995 Toy Story: Animated Storybook

1996    Toy Story Treats

1998    A Bug's Life    P.T. Flea, Fly in Bug Bar

1999    Toy Story 2    Hamm

 Toy Story 2: The Video Game

2001    Monsters, Inc.    Yeti

2003    Finding Nemo    Moonfish

2004    The Incredibles    The Underminer

2006    Cars    Mack / Car versions of Hamm, Yeti, and P.T. Flea

 Cars: The Video Game    Mack

2007    Ratatouille    Mustafa

2008    WALL•E    John

2009    Up    Construction Foreman Tom

Toy Story Mania!    Hamm

Cars Race-O-Rama    Mack

2010    Toy Story 3    Hamm

Toy Story 3: The Video Game

2011    Cars 2    Mack

Hawaiian Vacation    Hamm

Small Fry

2012    Kinect Rush: A Disney/Pixar Adventure

Brave    Gordon

Partysaurus Rex    Hamm

2013    Monsters University    Yeti

Disney Infinity    Hamm

2015    Inside Out    Fritz

The Good Dinosaur    Earl

2016    Finding Dory    Bill

2017    Cars 3    Mack

Coco    Juan Ortodoncia

2018    Incredibles 2    The Underminer

2019    Toy Story 4    Hamm

2020    Onward    Construction Worker Fennwick

If you didn't see WALL-E or it isn't fresh in your mind, you don’t even know what you are missing. This is an enchanting film. It was one of the year's best when it came out and still resonates just as strongly years later.

Set in the far future, Earth has become a literal dump. Garbage is piled sky high and humanity abandoned the planet centuries ago. On the surface, the only sign of life isn’t alive at all. A tiny robot named WALL-E who has been cleaning up the surface for who knows how long. When a probe comes to determine if the planet has become habitable again, WALL-E is immediately smitten by the robotic EVE.

If you needed more proof of Andrew Stanton and Pixar studios' title as expert filmmakers, this is it. In 2009, District 9 made us sympathize with creepy bugs. One year prior, Wall-E made us believe in a genuine, deep romance between two robots… without using any dialogue. This movie is about more than this relationship, but I want to address it first. Although we are following two mechanical objects, WALL-E and EVE are true, three-dimensional, living, breathing characters. WALL-E is delightfully eccentric. "He" likes music, dancing (well, what a legless droid can pass for dancing), collecting, and is fiercely loyal. There are so many laugh-out-loud moments as the little machine takes a break from his regular duties to sift through humanity’s garbage (often being fascinated by mundane things and tossing away precious objects like they were nothing). You fall in love with the little guy. When he happens upon a new robot, excitement fills your every pore. Will EVE respond with affection? She seems awfully trigger-happy to be a love interest. How will her mission objective impact the story?

This film is more than romantic sequences and big laughs. It’s also a great adventure. There's plenty of tension as our heroes find themselves in unexpected peril - tension made thicker and more nerve-wracking because the characters are so memorable and endearing. It’s also a smart science fiction film that serves as a cautionary tale (the best science fiction stories often do). All of these elements are expertly integrated to feel organic, accessible, and genuinely moving. While Illumination relied on cartoonish villains that even the most “evil” corporate fat cats would recognize as ridiculous, WALL-E uses subtlety and proves a thousand times more effective - even without dialogue.

There's nothing not to like about WALL-E. It has learned from the very best silent films to cut out all the unnecessary dialogue. Instead, it uses its characters' performances, the visuals, and its imagination to say so much more. Its poignant drama, thrills, and laughs give it universal appeal. Even the end credits are spectacular. (On Blu-ray, July 3, 2015)