Movie Review: Cars
Posted June 9th, 2006 by Howard TaylerI just got back from Cars.
It was wonderful. Sure, the story arc and character arcs are predictable (especially if you’ve seen lots of similar Disney/Pixar films), but it is still a wonderful film.
The animation and voice characterization is uniformly brilliant, and the art direction and concept design is either the product of epiphanic genius or a jillion hours of really, really hard work. But you don’t have to be chowing down on the eye-candy to enjoy yourself.
Having seen it only once, I cannot be 100% sure that it will bear dozens of repeated viewings, but I know I’ll be buying the DVD, and I know my kids will watch it multiple times… with me and Sandra.
See this film, and stay for the credits… all the way to the very end.
I was expecting Pixar to blow this one. I don’t know if I thought it was too high-concept or too mundane, but I certainly didn’t expect it to speak to me. I’m not a NASCAR fan, and I’ve never followed car racing. A two-hour “cars-as-a-metaphor” film simply couldn’t work… could it?
It worked.
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June 9th, 2006 at 7:53 pm
Ever since Toy Story 2 I’ve been expecting Pixar to bomb the film. Each concept just didn’t speak to me at all. Yet I watched each one and loved each one. I had the same feeling about Cars, although unlike the previous movies I’m going to trust Pixar and watch it in theaters…
As you say, it seems like it couldn’t work but somehow Pixar makes it work…
June 9th, 2006 at 9:43 pm
I agree with Howard wholeheartedly. The drive in-movie scene during the credit had me rollin in the aisles laughing, as did the little touches, such as the Volkswagen “bugs”.
June 9th, 2006 at 9:49 pm
I loved how the “Car Talk” guys had roles in it. Click and Clack are just outrageously funny.
June 9th, 2006 at 11:18 pm
Howard, Howard, Howard… Don’t you know? Pixar can’t make bad movies. A bad movie from Pixar is like… A sign of the second coming.
June 10th, 2006 at 9:54 am
John Lasseter gave an interview to All Things Considered the other day. He said that he brought the computing power and electrical grid of San Diego to its knees with the rendering of this flick. How many supercomputers does it take to change a…
June 10th, 2006 at 8:59 pm
I’m guessing Cars will be the last GREAT Pixar film. I don’t trust Disney and now that they own Pixar (as opposed to the partnership they had for the previous films) I’m sure they are going to run the franchise into the ground.
Sure it may take a couple of films for them to finally get it wrong. But the second coming is . . . well . . . coming.
June 11th, 2006 at 8:31 pm
I wouldn’t be so sure.
Disney’s takeover of Pixar doesn’t seem to be like any takeover I’ve ever seen.
Pixar remains it’s own studio/lifestyle, John Lasseter takes creative control of Disney’s entire animation concern, and Steve Jobs becomes Disney’s largest shareholder.
Who precisely took over who?
June 13th, 2006 at 11:53 am
I’m with Badge on this one. It looks a lot more like Steve Jobs taking over Disney than vice-versa. Remember how the Apple folks were screaming at Jobs over Bill Gates’ appearance at the Apple Keynote back in ‘98, when Apple accepted some $40 million in funding from MSoft? They’re not screaming at him anymore.
June 13th, 2006 at 9:03 pm
Frankly, I think “Incredibles” was the last great Pixar film. Cars was a little too juvenile for my tastes, with lots of low replay-value sight gags and silly puns.
Certainly it wasn’t a bad film, but it was a far cry from Toy Story, which literally moved me to tears, or Incredibles, which had me laughing on the edge of my seat. The best Cars was able to evoke from me was a chuckle here and there, and quite a few groans, especially when jar ja^h^h^h^h^h^hTow-Mater maneuvered his “lips” around his rediculously oversized ‘buck-teeth’
As for the visual candy, I’m not very impressed by shiny, smooth things in a medium whose initial hurdle to overcome was overly-smooth shininess. It may be that we’re reaching diminishing returns here, but to my poorly-trained eye, it seemed LESS impressive than some of their earlier work.
I didn’t hate the film. I didn’t even not-like it. There were a few spots that were visually appealing, mildly humorous, or touching, but there wasn’t really any big payoff, the characters were remarkably static and cliché depite it’s nearly 2 hour running time, to the point that one of the “big turnarounds” was both obviously telegraphed and unsatisfyingly sudden.
None of which is really a problem for a simplistic kids movie (though many “kids movies” have been so much more…), but it will leave slightly more mature audiences craving a bit more.. substance.
I won’t give away the ending, but I will say that after a moment’s thought, I felt much much pity for the town of Radiator Springs. Which is not to say that the film’s promotion of unexamined nostalgia is a positive message, or even a desirable one for youngsters.
I don’t feel like it was $6.00 wasted, but I did leave the theater feeling mildly disappointed, and slightly more cynical. I was not disappointed in the least that the sold-outed-ness of cars caused me to watch “Prarie Home Companion” first, which though it has a good deal of faux-substantive dramaty-drama, manages to be laugh-out-loud funny, somewhat moving, and provides an interesting counterpoint to one of “Cars’” main themes.
June 13th, 2006 at 9:45 pm
The cars themselves were not the eye-candy I was referring to. I was talking about the landscapes, which managed to be breathtaking, and completely believable.
Yes, The Incredibles was a better film, but it was geared towards our generation. Cars was aimed at the kids, and still manages to please the grown-ups. It’s better fare by far than anything any of the other animation studios have released, and only suffers in comparison to other Pixar films.