You definitely know his voice, and you’re undoubtedly familiar with his body of work, but if the average Joe found themselves walking past John Ratzenberger on the sidewalk, chances are they’d never know that they just walked past one of the most iconic Pixar voice actors of all time.
Make no mistake, the fact that John Ratzenberger may not have the most recognizable face is only because his most famous roles are those where he lends his voice instead - and there have been a lot. Take a look at our list of John Ratzenberger’s 10 best Pixar roles (so far).
Fritz
Don’t feel bad if you didn’t catch this one (or even remember it). In a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, Ratzenberger makes one of his briefest cameo appearances at the end of Inside Out as the character ‘Fritz’. The blueish-green blob is a mind-worker for Riley and installs a new control-panel that includes a ‘puberty’ button, which of course seems like it’s leading to something of a sequel somewhere in the future. As short as the appearance is, Ratzenberger’s character gets a spot on our list for the cleverness of his name - something in Riley’s mind is on the ‘fritz’ so naturally, Fritz is the one to fix it.
Construction Foreman Tom
In another one of his shortest on-screen appearances (barely a minute) that audiences might not have noticed the first time around, Ratzenberger plays the foreman of the construction site around Carl and Ellie’s house at the beginning of the movie Up.
He only has a few lines, but Tom the Foreman quickly made an impression on fans since he was the character responsible for showing us that Carl wasn’t exactly the sweet, tender loving old-man that he seemed to be - those emotions he reserved solely for Ellie (and later, Russel).
John
Now we’re starting to get into Ratzenberger’s more involved roles, though his screen-time in Wall-E as the character ‘John’ still pales in comparison to some of his more major roles, we’re getting there though. As for the character that shares the same name as the actor, John plays a small, but vital, role in helping Wall-E and the Captain of the Axiom take control of the spaceship and save the plant that allows them to return to Earth. Not only that, but John was one of the first humans on the ship to realize that his legs worked and finally got up out of his floaty-chair.
Mustafa the Waiter
It wasn’t his best, it wasn’t his worst. Welcome to the Ratzenberger Pixar role that was his most ordinary to date, playing the character of Mustafa, a waiter at Gusteau’s in Ratatouille. The character has a few lines (nearly all of which add comedic value to the film) but it’s the first role Ratzenberger plays in a Pixar movie that feels as though anybody could’ve played it if they did a funny enough accent.
The waiter leaves along with the rest of the kitchen staff at the end of the movie when he finds out that the food he’s been serving was actually cooked by a rat (and that’s fair).
The Underminer
For a character that declared war on peace and happiness, The Underminer was a joy to have on-screen. Ratzenberger’s role as the underground super-villain was incredibly (ba-dum-tss) short in the first Incredibles movie, but his reprised role in the sequel that came out in 2018 was epic, to say the least, as it took the entire Parr family (and Frozone) to take him down. As a matter of fact, the bank-robbing mole-like villain got away after the super-family stopped his drill from destroying the town hall, so whose to say that this super-villain couldn’t pop back up if Pixar ever decided to make an Incredibles 3 movie.
Yeti
Does anybody want a Snow Cone? In one of Pixar’s earliest films, and easily one of Ratzenberger’s best roles, he plays the fabled Abominable Snowman (or Yeti) that lives in the Himalayan mountains. The premise behind Monsters’ Inc was brilliant, but to add an actual monster that children are told stories about and make him the most friendly monster in the entire film was flat-out genius.
The “Agreeable” Snowman was cheery and chipper despite having been banished to a frozen tundra, and always had a Snow Cone ready for any of his infrequent guests (we call B.S. on the lemon flavor, though).
School of Fish
It might not have been one of his more major roles, but it was assuredly one of his funniest. When Marlin and Dory are in desperate need of help, a school of Moonfish appear out of nowhere and start doing impressions that quickly entertain and astonish Dory, while having the complete opposite effect on an impatient Marlin. The fact that the entire school of fish is voiced by Ratzenberger is hilarious in itself, but add in the comedic impressions and witty back-and-forth and Ratzenberger gave audiences one of the best scenes in any Pixar movie to date.
Mack
While we don’t speak of Cars 2, the original and conclusion to Pixar’s vehicular trilogy are some of their best movies - and one of the best characters in those movies is Mack, Lightning McQueen’s trailer. His role is significantly reduced in the first sequel, but he makes a comeback appearance in Cars 3 and even ends up becoming the transport vehicle for Cruz after she takes over the steering wheel for Lightning.
This is undoubtedly one of Ratzenberger’s best Pixar roles as Mack is a true friend to Lightning and always has his back.
Hamm
This was a tough one, simply because Hamm has had the benefit of being on-screen for four different Pixar films (and a few holiday specials) and has performed admirably in all of them. Hamm is one of the most recognizable characters from the Toy Story franchise, and is a fan favorite among fans thanks to his blunt attitude and eccentric remarks. His roles have dwindled throughout the twenty-five-year history of the franchise, but that’s understandable, as each Toy Story movie has done a great job of incorporating new characters and storylines. Regardless, Hamm’s presence on-screen is always welcome and hilarious, and will go down as one of Ratzenberger’s most iconic roles.
P.T. Flea
We’re just going to say it - A Bug’s Life needs a sequel, and for no other reason than we want to see more of John Ratzenberger’s most hilarious Pixar character to date, P.T. Flea. The ringmaster to the circus bugs wasn’t exactly a main character, but every second he was on-screen was hilarious as he introduced the world to the “Flaming Death” circus act. The money-hungry flea made it known from the beginning that cold-hard-cash was all he was after, but it’s safe to say that Pixar fans want more of this Ratzenberger voiced character.
