CARS - What did everyone think? (SPOILERS INSIDE!)

[PixarFan]

I can't help but think back on what Brad Bird once said about how bugged he gets when people talk about the animation 'genre.' "Animation is NOT a genre!" he declared. And while I think that's true, and animated films can be in any genre that live-action movies can, animation does tend to treat each genre a little differently. And, no matter what you say, live-action movies look and feel like live-action, and animated movies look and feel like animation. Which is why it was such an incredible experience to sit back three-fourths of the way through the movie and say, "Wait! This is an animated film, isn't it?" I didn't think that because the animation was realistic. It was the most spectacular animation yet, but it still looked like animation. What got me was how much it didn't feel like animation. Granted, it didn't quite feel live-action, either. To me the story reached past any style in a way that was mesmerising. And that is why I loved Cars so much.

Now, having said that, I can't really say this is the best Pixar film...It's hard to say. This movie is so much different than any other Pixar movie, I can't see how people can say it follows "all of Pixar's formulas." There were only a few that I noticed. Unfortunately, the writing for a few scenes was a little weaker than it's been in past films, but overall the story---while simplistic, a bit predictable, and somewhat unoriginal---is still gold! The thing that bugged me the most (and this only happened a couple times) was the cheesy, "Saturday-morning-cartoon" style gags that have stayed out of past Pixar movies. (For example, after tearing through Radiator Springs and ripping up the road, the statue that Lightning is dragging gets catapulted through the air and lands perfectly in place back on its stand. I mean, come on! )

My final two complaints have nothing to do with the movie itself:
- I went to an early showing yesterday, so most people were still at work, and the theater was pretty empty. The 1 1/2 dozen people in the theater were all mothers with their four-year-old kids. I tend to enjoy a movie more when there's a lot of enthusiasm from the people around me (but it turned out that me and my family were the only ones to laugh at most of the jokes, which felt awkward). Although I have to admit, the little boy in front of me was cute when he would turn around on his seat to talk to me (and tell me how he had to "go potty").
- The surround sound balance was horrible in the theater! I've only had complaints about the audio set up once before at this cinema, and it wasn't nearly this bad! The dialogue and music was too quiet. If a character moved from one side of the screen to the other, or was even remotely close to one side of the screen, all the audio would transfer entirely to that speaker and get very soft. The songs sounded like whispers. The sound effects weren't mixed at all, and came from all speakers at all times, while the dialogue continued to come from one or (if we were lucky) two speakers. It got a little better as the movie went on, but as a result I could not enjoy the first forty-five minutes!

One final comment: Doc Hudson was by far my favorite character in this, and quite possibly any Pixar movie! He was completely different from what the previews implied, and I loved his cold personality because of the way it made his warmth so fantastic! Paul Newman did an amazing job, but then I guess that makes sense.

I'm going to see this again tomorrow at a different theater with some friends who couldn't come Friday. Hopefully the audio mix will be better there. My rating: ***1/2 out of ****.

[rexcrk]

I thought Cars was AMAZING! I'd say it was better than Finding Nemo, but not quite as good as The Incredibles or Monster's Inc. Definitely not as good as the Toy Story movies but nothing will be for me anyway.

I saw trailers for Meet the Robinsons and Ratatouille before my showing of Cars (as well as One Man Band, which was awesome)

I'd say that Mack was my favorite character and that bit at the end was brilliant with the previous Pixar movie characters as cars. Although it would've been cool if they did The Incredibles and Finding Nemo as well.

The thing with Joe Ranft at the end was nice too.

Did anyone else remember that Dinoco was the gas station from Toy Story?

[Disneykid]

Did anyone else remember that Dinoco was the gas station from Toy Story?

Yes.

Looking back on the film, I think part of the reason I enjoyed it so much was because two of my friends are huge Nascar fans and recognized all of the in-jokes and cameo voices. The tractor scene was funny to me only because of Mater's reaction to everything; the joke itself actually felt kind of low for Pixar (they've only done one fart joke previous to this film in Finding Nemo, and it was handled very tastefully). Even though I like Finding Nemo, Monsters, Inc., and Toy Story 2 more, I'm debating whether or not I like this more than The Incredibles. On the list I made in my original post, I ranked Cars above it, but now I'm wondering if that's accurate or not. I think both films have similar strengths and weaknesses (the biggest for me is that both have somewhat slow middle acts). For now I'll say I'll like Cars a bit better because I found it funnier than Incredibles, but that's not a slam against the latter since it was never meant to be as much of a comedy as Cars was, anyway. All Pixar films are winners in my book regardless of how I may rank them.

[Just Myself]

I saw it at the 11:15pm show last night to avoid the little kiddies, and I have to say Pixar has done it again. I loved this film so much. My favorite part was when Mater took Lightning 'Tractor Tipping'.

Cars - 4 1/2 out of 5 stars

Current rank of Pixar films:

1. Finding Nemo - Perfect 5
2. Toy Story - Perfect 5
3. Cars - 4 1/2
4. Monsters Inc. - 4 1/2
5. Toy Story 2 - 4 1/4
6. A Bug's Life - 4 1/4
7. The Incredibles - 4

-JM

[Harbinger]

I'm still laughing at the "piss" joke. That came out of nowhere. Probably my favorite joke of the movie.

[rexcrk]

Did anyone else cry during the movie?

I did at the part when Lightning, Chick, and The King were all racing at the end and The King just crashed and was on the grass. Lightning stopped and went back and helped him so he could finish his last race. I thought that was such a nice thing to do, it really got to me.

[Jake Lipson]

Kudos to Pixar for that scene -- any other studio would probably have involved Lightning winning it and then have some big speech where he says, "I couldn'tve done it without all my friends from Radiator Springs." The way they ended it was, while not entirely unpredictable, very appropriate and worked effectively. Allowing Lightning to lose was a great touch, and The King's accident was a terrific shocker that stunned me and the entire crowd I was watching it with, and the comparisons to Doc were spot-on. It hit me too. Terrific job.

[Just Myself]

I did get a little choked up at the end, but I usually do at almost every Pixar film. I cry everytime I see Finding Nemo and Monster's Inc. Okay, I'm a wimp.

-JM

[Jake Lipson]

Okay, I'm a wimp.

Hey, lol, I cry a lot during movies too (and, yes, Cars included.) "Our Town" in particular. And I'll echo the Monsters and Nemo sentiment, adding Lilo & Stitch to that list (okay, not Pixar, but still.)

Did anyone else remember that Dinoco was the gas station from Toy Story?

Yes.

Make that three of us. It also brings to mind -- has anyone located the Pizza Planet truck in Cars yet? Even with Cars' status as the first Pixar movie in a humanless world, I can't imagine they wouldn't include it somewhere, especially given that it's a truck in a world full of...well, cars and trucks.

[Luke]

PS: I still don't think Aaron saw the same movie we all saw.

How bold of the Charlotte Speedway to switch the movies in front of 30,000 folks including the director himself!

[KinOO]

You can spot the Pizza Planet truck (with eyes ) in the crowd near the final part of the movie, before the Piston Cup when there's an overview of diffrenrent places and crowds... not clear but it's a good reason to see it again!!

[Robin Hood]

I just saw this movie this afternoon! I think its the best Pixar movie so far!

[memnv]

Did anyone notice what brand tires they used. They are Lightyear after BuzzLightyear and goodyear

[jediliz]

Did anyone else remember that Dinoco was the gas station from Toy Story?

Yes. That was one of the first things I noticed, besides the "Buzz" tires.

Buzz meaning Lightyear tires.

[DisneyPrincess]

Did anyone notice what brand tires they used. They are Lightyear after BuzzLightyear and goodyear

I'm glad someone else noticed! I did see that on the tires, and even pointed it out during the movie to someone I was with. That's what I like about Pixar, is that you can always find little "easter eggs" of things from their other movies.

[stitcharielbeast]

Hmm... my first reaction after getting home is that I'm somewhat dissapointed.
After I saw The Incredibles, 19 months ago, I was practically bursting with excitement. I sat down and poured out a 1,000 word review effortlessly, but tonight I'm having a hard time expressing what I thought.

I keep thinking to myself, "it just didn't live up to The Incredibles", but I know that's unfair. Bird came in outta nowhere and did that film his way. Cars actually fits pretty neatly between Lasseter's other work like Toy Story and Bug's Life. But what it didn't really have, I thought, were any new observations that we couldn't have gotten any other way. So far, all of Pixar's films have followed the same vague theme - Toy Story showed us the hidden world of toys, Bug's Life showed us the hidden world of bugs, etc etc. But Cars didn't really contain any great insights about the world of cars... it could have been told with humans, which is something you couldn't say for Finding Nemo or Monsters, Inc. Maybe making the characters be vehicles instead of riding them was the best way to tell the story, I don't know. I wasn't privy to Pixar's story meetings. But despite the fine animation, I couldn't really empathize with the cars. And the love story between Lightning and Sally was a bit too too much for me to swallow.

I will say that it was a gorgeous film to look at, though. The natural environments were truly breathtaking. It's a shame there wasn't a greater variety of them. I hate to compare it to Incredibles again, but that film had over 130 sets, while Cars seemed to be simply "Racetrack-> Radiator Springs-> Racetrack".

The biggest, and nearly only laughs for me were the automobile-versions of the other Pixar flicks during the credits. That was bloody brilliant. Especially with Ratzenberger criticizing himself. At least he had a fairly substantial role this time, unlike his last couple of outings.

Maybe I'm just not the target audience - I've never been to the Midwest, I don't particularly care for cars or racing, and I'm not from a small town that faded over time. What it really boils down to, is that Pixar unfortunately homogenized themselves. The whole deal just felt like a "typical Pixar movie" - not to say that that's a really bad thing, just dissapointing that they didn't really push the envelope this time.
Edit/Delete Message

There is no target audience, Pixar movies are meant to be enjoyed by everyone, emphasis on enjoy not "teach"....a Pixar movie doesn't have to have a titanic revelation of any sort, just an enjoyable, well rounded presentation for the whole family and Cars more than accomplishes this.

[Tascar]

I found Cars a rather enjoyable movie and I care not for racing, the Midwest, etc. As for the slow middle act that many have been complaining about, I found it rather enjoyable. Has the entire world converted over to an MTV ADD attention span all of a sudden? Is it so difficult for adults and kids to sit down for a two-hour film? I sat down silent and mesmerized for the entirety of Fantasia when I was about 6 and that movie is far longer and arguably far more boring than Cars. IF there were any complaints I had, it was that the use of songs in the music, while service-able, did not particularly strike me as particularly interesting or memorable.

I guess what surprises me most about all the Cars reviews I have read is that they all seem to talk about how tired and cookie-cutter Pixar formula the film is. While I am not entirely in agreement with that statement, the comment seems to further confirm to me how utterly stupid so many critics are. I've been saying that Pixar (with the exception of Brad Bird's The Incredibles and to an extent A Bug's Life) and especially Lasseter and his successors have been using the same formula over and over and over again ever since Toy Story. As far as I can see, Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc, and Finding Nemo have been using the same formula over and over and over again. While A Bug's Life and Cars (to an extent) changed the formula a bit by either removing or reducing emphasis on the whole buddy-comedy aspect, they also pretty much adhere to the Pixar formula. I am surprised and shocked that it took critics so long to come to this realization and it surprising me that after giving glowing reviews to films that are arguably equally-cookie-cutter-formula movies, they are now choosing to punish this film for it. Sorry critics, you should have done it at Toy Story 2 or Monsters, Inc. Cars was the first film other than The Incredibles that started to signal to me that Pixar was starting to move on to new exciting directions and it didn't deserve the criticism of unoriginality that the critics should have rightfully made several movies ago.

[brownie]

Well, it's hard to compare this to Pixar's previous movies, but this was definitely the best animated feature since Wallace and Gromit: Curse of Were-Rabbit. Something Pixar is known for is its animation, humor, and story-telling; Cars definitely had top notch animation, but there were only two or three times where I really found myself laughing, and the story seemed sloppily put together in some parts. Larry the Cable Guy as Mater was surprisingly not obnoxious as I was expecting him to be. Choosing cars as Pixar's next "world" was a bit of a challenge, but I wasn't too distracted by it. I'm not a Nascar fan, so I didn't get a lot of the references. The music didn't really interest me at all. And, uh...there were too many gas jokes. I don't know if I would say it's my least favorite Pixar movie, even though it is, but I don't think it's bad, it's just different. 9.2/10

One Man Band was really funny. The whole John Ratzenberger making fun of himself thing was really funny, too.

My ranking of the Pixar films:
The Incredibles 10/10
Toy Story 10/10
Monsters, Inc. 10/10
Toy Story 2 10/10
A Bug's Life 9.4/10
Finding Nemo 9.2/10
Cars 9.2/10

[Maerj]

I have to agreee with most everyone here... I loved Cars! May be their best movie since Toy Story 2 and I'm not even a fan of cars or racing. I think its kind of foolish for the critics to be reviewing it based on Pixars previous efforts. Each film was unique and this one is no exception and is in no way of a lower quality than the others. The animation in Pixar's movies is still far beyond all these other CG movies. There were shots that I swear looked like they were live action footage.

Meet the Robinsons and Ratatoille both look really good. At the animation attraction in WDW they had some artwork/promo stuff up for upcoming films and Meet the Robinsons was there too. I was glad to see that it only said "Rapunzel" instead of "Rapunzel Unbraided" for that film. There was also some pictures for one I believe they were calling American Dog. Sorry for the slight thread drift!

[Luke]

Yay, a Maerj posting! With Pixar's next film due in only a little over a year, that means it will be only a little over a year until his next post, worst case scenario!