Is Joss Whedon The Best Screenwriter And Director Of All Time? His Five Best Projects

Joss Whedon isn’t just a screenwriter and director. For his fans he has become an icon of his own distinctive genre. He is inventor of the Whedon world, where girls kick ass and everyone is born with an innate knowledge of pop culture. With The Avenger: Age of Ultron the talk of the town, we take a look at our five favourite Joss Whedon projects and what it is that makes them quite so unique.

5. Toy Story (screenwriter)

Back in the 90’s Whedon took a risk, penning the script for what would become the first feature-length computer animated film. This was unchartered territory, would the graphics look creepy? Would children react to them in the way that they did to the tried and tested Disney style animations? The creators of Toy Story did something really special. They imbued the now beloved Woody the Cowboy and Buzz Lightyear with a palpable sense of heart, it was all too easy to feel personally invested in poor usurped Woody. The animation of the movie is evidently the finest of its kind, but it’s Whedon’s script that really makes you fall in love with the characters.

Best quotes:

Woody: What chance does a toy like me have against a Buzz Lightyear action figure?

Rex: What if Andy gets another dinosaur? A mean one? I just don't think I can take that kind of rejection!

Buzz: I am Buzz Lightyear; I come in peace.

Rex: [shaking Buzz's hand] Oh, I'm so glad you're not a dinosaur!

4. Angel (creator/writer/director)

Angel, a vampire cursed with a soul by Romani gypsies, moves to LA and sets up his own supernatural detective agency. While Angel battles his own conscience and struggles for redemption, his team tirelessly fight a surge of demons and an array of other superhuman threats. It’s as good as it sounds (and it starred dreamy David Boreanaz).

Best quotes:

Angel: We live as though the world were as it should be, to show it what it can be.

Angel: Gone. What does it mean that she's gone?

Spike: Well, in the world of men, a person dies, they stay that way.

Angel: Unless you're a vampire.

Spike: Or the ghost of one that saved the world.

Angel: Or Buffy.

Next page: Did The Avengers make the list? Of course it did.

3. The Avengers (screenwriter/director)

In 2012 Joss Whedon wrote and directed the eagerly anticipation Avengers movie. For years Marvel has been releasing movies developing the individual superheroes, but Whedon was charged with the task of bringing together all of the characters into one script. A mammoth task for any screenwriter, considering each of the character's huge personalities, but Whedon effortlessly sewed them together without sacrificing their individual stories. In fact he even managed to develop each of them even further, which we’re still absolutely blown away by.

Best quotes:

Loki: Enough! You are, all of you are beneath me! I am a god, you dull creature, and I will not be bullied by...

[Hulk flattens Loki with repeated smashes into the floor]

The Hulk: Puny god.

Bruce Banner: I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats. You can smell crazy on him.

Thor: Have a care how you speak! Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard and he is my brother!

Natasha Romanoff: He killed eighty people in two days.

Thor: He's adopted.

2. The Cabin in the Woods (screenwriter)

We thought we knew what we’d be getting with The Cabin in the Woods. What looked like your every day run of the mill horror movie turned out to be an impressive sculpted simulacrum with a plot twist that nobody could have predicted.

Best quotes:

Marty: Yeah, uh, I had to dismember that guy with a trowel. What have you been up to?

Wiry Girl: That's not fair! I had zombies too!

Sitterson: Yes, you had "Zombies." But this is "Zombie Redneck Torture Family." Entirely separate thing. It's like the difference between an elephant and an elephant seal.

Dana: Me? The virgin?

The Director: We work with what we have.

1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (creator/writer/director)

Buffy was more than a show. It gathered a cult following over the 7 years that it ran and for some of us was just as integral to our adolescent years as that first break up, or indeed any other teenage angsty rite of passage. Buffy redefined gender stereotypes and she did it all whilst looking like a cheerleader. Whedon's greatest achievement, although he is still asked why he chooses to write strong female roles. His response? "Because you're still asking me that question."

Best quotes:

Rupert Giles: In every generation there is a Chosen One. She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness. She is the Slayer.

Buffy: It wasn't that bad. Principal Flutie: You burned down the gym!

Buffy: I did. I really did, but-but you're not seeing the big picture here. I mean that gym was full of vampi- asbestos.

Cordelia: It's in the bad part of town. Buffy: Where's that? Cordelia: About a half a block from the good part of town. We don't have a whole lot of town here.