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

[Maerj]

Wowsers, double post! I'm out of practice!

[Maerj]

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!

LOL, okay now Luke! I just got married three weeks and 2 days ago, so I haven't been online much. We went to WDW for two weeks after the wedding and I've been trying to move into our new place since then in addition to working. So, we've been a little busy lately but I'll try to post for now on.

[indianajdp]

Wow. congrats, Maerj!

Just remembered two things I wanted to mention earlier.

1). Thought One Man Band was awesome!! Man, the facial expressions on all of those characters were priceless.

2). One minor chink in the story armor to point out. If this is a world without humans, why the need for farms growing food? Looked like in one scene there was a lettuce farm or something like that.

Picky, picky

[Fidget1234]

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!

LOL, okay now Luke! I just got married three weeks and 2 days ago, so I haven't been online much. We went to WDW for two weeks after the wedding and I've been trying to move into our new place since then in addition to working. So, we've been a little busy lately but I'll try to post for now on.

CONGRATS on the wedding and new move!!!

U should be very proud.

[Pluto Region1]

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.

Ok someone pleeeese help me... what are all the inside jokes. I need to know what they were in order to figure out if they went over my head or I'd gotten them. Does this make sense? I asked my husband and all he does is tease me, saying I should know what they are if I really "got" them. I bet I got the jokes, but what were they? Just gimmee an example.

[goofystitch]

I saw Cars last night and was BLOWN AWAY!!!!! I thought it was absolutely incredible. I must admit, I am a classic car fan, but not a racing fan. So I had preliminary interest just in the fact that the film would feature cars dating back to the 20's. I am also a big Pixar fan. I don't know what people mean when they say Cars doesn't have a classic feel to it. First of all, 60% of the cast are classic cars and Radiator Springs is 100% nastalgia. I didn't feel that too much current pop culture was injected. I think my kids will love Cars the same way I loved Peter Pan and Pete's Dragon as a kid. It's timeless. The animation was great and they really achieved realistic driving manuvers from the entire cast. I loved the bugs (they were VW Beetles incase anyone missed that) and loved all the past Pixar references. I noticed Dinoco and the Pizza Planet truck from Toy Story, as well as birds from For the Birds. At least I think it was them. I have to see it again, but I spotted them in the begining when Mack was driving Lightning McQueen to California. The voice cast was amazing. Especially Larrry the Cable Guy, but I'm a Blue Collar Comedy Tour fan. I also don't know why people aren't enjoying the music. I thought Sherryl Crow's opening song was great, I like Rascall Flatts cover of "Life is a Highway," John Mayer did a good job with "Route 66" and I loved that the original was also included. I thought the Brad Paisley song at the end was extremely fitting. I own the soundtrack now and have listened to it three times. Cars is not only my new favorite Pixar film, but my it replaced The Incredibles for my 14 year old brother. Here is my new order of favorite Pixar films.

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

I love all of these films, so please don't accuse me of hating Toy Story just because it is last. I LOVE them all. This is just the order in which they appeal to me.

[GOGOinVegas]

Saw it last night finally, and i'm not getting why there is so much negativity surrounding this film. Especially on a Disney Fan site!!
I absolutely loved this movie. My wife loved it and my 4 year old daughter loved it! I agree with what someone else on this thread said about the attention spans around here. I was never bored once. I was too in awe of the whole thing. I still cant believe people are capable of making such beautiful films, while others who cant make anything rant and rave and rank the art that these people lovingly made. We're not talking about some crappy B list actors and directors, these are true artists. I really felt there was a lot of heart put into this film, and if you are reading this out in Emeryville guys:
AWESOME JOB once again!!! I will buy three the day it comes out on DVD

I guess before Pixar, Disney never did a buddy movie.
or anything formulaic ( Cars isn't )

[DaveWadding]

I saw it again (twice now)! Man I loooove this movie.

[PixarFan]

I've seen it twice now. I wish the second time had been my first. The theater was packed and the sound set up was much better than the first time. (The race scene actually sounded like a race this time, and I could enjoy the great music.) A couple of thing that stood out to me the second time:

The Good:
Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, and now Cars have all had 1-3 minute scenes with no dialogue and hardly any acting; just a long montage of beautiful animation and terrific music. This time while watching the "Life is a Highway" sequence, I kept thinking: How can Dreamworks have you fidgeting halfway through an hour and twenty minute dialogue-heavy movie, while Pixar can entertain you when practically nothing is happening on the screen? This is an amazing movie, with an intricately-simple story that is perfectly executed during the two hours. I disagree with people who say this movie drags in the middle. I thought it was the perfect length, and I never came close to being bored. The Incredibles felt longer than this movie (and I don't think The Incredibles' story drags at all, either)!

The Bad:
I agree with Timon/Pumbaa fan that the pop culture jokes will date this movie. Although there aren't that many, and they fit pretty well in this movie (unlike other movies who throw them in just for the sake of doing it), I do wish they hadn't been included. Also, the rest of the jokes were a bit more edgy. I'm sure that was partly due to the hillbilly nature of this movie, but still! Pixar has always had fart jokes, but never this many or this frequent. And Mater's "He did what in his cup" comment felt completely out of place. After the film was done, a few friends I saw it with said that, as far as the jokes were concerned, this felt like a Dreamworks film. And although I don't entirely agree, I can see where they're coming from. Finally, for the first time in a Pixar movie I noticed a few lines where either the acting or the line itself felt slightly out of place. It was only a couple of lines, not complete scenes, but it did bother me a bit.

Anyway, I still say Pixar is 7 for 7. The audience seemed to enjoy it as well. The "tractor tipping" scene got the biggest laughs (and they were laughing too hard to even hear the fart sounds), and everyone applauded after Guido's "Pit Stop" toward the end of the film! It was great!

[CJ]

I went to see Cars again this afternoon too. I hardly ever go see a movie more than once in the theater, but I had nothing better to do. I picked up on a lot of small details that I missed the first time. I'm still not fond of the farting tractors, but I like the part just after with angry Frank. Overall, I enjoyed watching it again.

However, I still don't know what happened to the mini vans, who didn't ask for directions. I missed it the first time, and this time the theater cut the movie off before the credits finished rolling.

[Sulley]

I saw the film opening night. It was a little awkward, but in an amusing way, as I took my girlfriend (17) and we were in a room full of kids, especially during the Shrek-esque innuendo when we and a few parents were the only ones laughing.

I was really excited because I knew so little about it. Though I'm a devoted Disney/Pixar fan, I had done little pre-premiere research and in fact I hadn't read a single review nor seen any trailer other than the teaser. I was excited because I knew it would all be fresh. I was going with full faith based solely on Pixar's reputation.

That said, it was my least favorite of the Pixar pictures. However, when dealing with Pixar, this is not a huge slam. I agree that Pixar's reputation and status in animation is untouchable. It is mainly the fact that they had six such tough acts to follow that I see Cars as a shortcoming. As I said, I had almost no real knowledge of the movie ahead of time and didn't really come to terms until about fifteen minutes into the film that there were going to be no humans at all, which I found disappointing and a little annoying.

Pixar has been fantastic at their iconic "point of view" genre. They have been terrificly imaginitive with the point of view of a toy, a bug, a monster, a fish, a superhero. But now, with Cars, they have detached themselves entirely from the human realm, which, though I admit allows for a few clever jokes (I admit I enjoyed the visual pun of the VW "bugs"), the cost was greater than the benefit with that special bit of realism that had always been added by supporting human characters, or a bird in the case of A Bug's Life. The point is the stories were more plausible when they existed in the natural world. I'm not saying I can't be imaginitive. I accepted the scenario and enjoyed the rest of the movie with that knowledge, but I always thought it was so much more imaginitive and engaging with a connection to the world that we know.

Again, it is a great feat, that intense engagement of the audience, but Pixar always had me on the edge of my seat with their other films, and I didn't feel the same for Cars. I didn't think it was terrible, I did have some good laughs. But I think it is the closest Pixar has come to mediocre. I don't have any less faith in them, for no studio is perfect, and they have been incredible in their work. I think I was the hardest laughing person in the theater during "One Man Band" and I think their next feature looks FANTASTIC just from the teaser, but I think Cars subject matter wasn't very interesting and its execution not as original as previous Pixar work.

There. My two cents.

[kbehm29]

I'm actually going to play hookey from work on Friday afternoon to go see this again. I can't get it off my brain. It really does make movies such as Over the Hedge seem like, well.......complete crap.

[dvdjunkie]

Well, Pixar has done it again...........not since the Incredibles has a movie gotten more of my money.......I just saw "Cars" for the fourth (that's right 4 times) time, and it was even better this time.

All you so called Pixar lovers, who really just like to nit-pick should stay at home and save their money and watch what they really like. There is no way that this movie is a 'detached-from-human world' movie. There are not obscene gestures or jokes in this film. (No more than some of these so-called great movies that you all seem to like such as "Date Movie", "Scarey Movie 4", and crap like that.) Why do you go to movies if you are just going to pick them apart instead of sitting back and letting them entertain you. If you aren't entertained by it, then leave, and don't go see this film again. I am so confused by people who go to movies to pick them apart. That is not what movies are for. Sure there are good movies and bad movies, but "Cars" is not even close to being a bad movie, and I would say it is probably closer to being the Box office hit of the year than most films that have come before it or will come after it.

Pixar films are made for the family to go see together, and I, for one, saw more families attending this movie than any other movie that is currently playing in the theater. I didn't see this many families in "Over The Hedge" or "Shrek".........so Pixar must know something about what it is doing.

I really think that people on this site are way too criticial about what they have seen in a movie, and since this is a Walt Disney site, they seem to forget who Walt Disney was and what he stood for. John Lassiter is trying to bring the family back into the theater and if the quality of the next Pixar movies are even half of what "Cars" was, he will succeed.

C'mon, let's lighten up a little. It is okay to not like a movie, but to slam a movie because it went over your head, or under your intelligence level, is something that is not called for.

[kbehm29]

I really think that people on this site are way too criticial about what they have seen in a movie, and since this is a Walt Disney site, they seem to forget who Walt Disney was and what he stood for. John Lassiter is trying to bring the family back into the theater and if the quality of the next Pixar movies are even half of what "Cars" was, he will succeed.

I totally agree with your post. I mean - I GET why people slam movies such as, say.....The Shaggy Dog with Tim Allen. I enjoyed that movie - but I can understand where the people are coming from who didn't like it. But Cars is in a completely different league. It is outstanding in every aspect of itself. Other animated films from this year pale, no disappear, in comparison to it. Everyone has a right to their own opinion - I just don't understand why there is any negativity surrounding this movie. I don't see where it's coming from, this movie is a no-brainer hands-down winner to me.

[memnv]

I think Cars will be one of the movies of the year and will win some OSCARS. I would love to see it up for Best Movie

[TheSequelOfDisney]

I think Cars will be one of the movies of the year and will win some OSCARS. I would love to see it up for Best Movie

OSCARS HAHAHAHAHAHA

That's funny!

[Elladorine]

Beautiful, epic story, sweeping visuals, and characters that grow through the coarse of the story. What more can you ask for?

So nice to see a film that focuses on slowing down, getting to know there's more to Amercia than, well, corporate Amercia, that there's more to life than just doing things for yourself.

[Luke]

First off, congratulations to Maerj for getting married!

Secondly, I think the negativity is understandable quite simply for one reason. It's Pixar. They've established a remarkable level of excellence through six films, with many saying that the movies have gradually gotten better. Inevitably, expectations are going to be super high. Just like with George Lucas making a new <i>Star Wars</i> movie in 1999. You put a certain brand name there, be it <i>Star Wars</i> or "Pixar Animation Studios", and people are going to expect, nay, demand excellence.

Like most of the harsh reviews I've read, Aaron's viewed <i>Cars</i> as part of the Pixar canon, with our esteemed UD critic succinctly writing that the movie "feels too much like a low-end rental after ten years of riding around in the luxury class." Now I happen to disagree. I enjoyed <i>Cars</i> quite a bit and I had relatively high expectations too. But I can definitely understand people being disappointed that it doesn't live up to past Pixar efforts. In fact, as much as I enjoyed the film, I don't think it is as terrific as any previous Pixar film. (Though, as usual, such a statement demands not only multiple viewings of <i>Cars</i> but the six Pixar films that preceeded it).

But there's no reason to get mad or defensive against people who honestly didn't enjoy the film much. I can see taking to task the practice of dismissing a film based on trailers or expectations without actually seeing it. That's generally pretty lame, but an informed opinion based on viewing is another story altogether. Reviews are subjective and even the very best movies won't please everyone in exactly the same way. (Thank goodness for that - think of how boring one uniform reaction would be.)

As for the Oscars question, there's unfortunately not a chance that <i>Cars</i> will be up for Best Picture. A Golden Globe for Best Musical or Comedy seems possible, but as long as there's a Kid's Table (Best Animated Feature) and the Academy Awards are decided by people who rely on live action filmmaking for a living, then excellence in animation will have to settle for a "minor category" win, which two out of three Pixar films in contention have done thus far. There are many more eligible films yet to come, but right now it looks like <i>Over the Hedge</i> and <i>Cars</i> are the two front-runners for a nomination based on how well they've performed with critics and moviegoers. If the number of nominees climbs to five, then <i>Ice Age 2</i> probably has a shot too.

[Pluto Region1]

I went to see Cars again this afternoon too. I hardly ever go see a movie more than once in the theater, but I had nothing better to do. I picked up on a lot of small details that I missed the first time.

That is really crappy that they did that; probably figured since it was hardly anyone there to just shut it off. You should have complained - everyone knows that half the fun of a Pixar movie is the credits. I was going to try and catch it again this week but now I'm worried this might happen to me so maybe I better wait until the well-attended weekend shows to see it a second time.

However, I still don't know what happened to the mini vans, who didn't ask for directions. I missed it the first time, and this time the theater cut the movie off before the credits finished rolling.

Well PM one of us; I suppose no one wants to post the story on this for fear of ruining the gag for anyone who hasn't seen the movie yet. I've seen it and can fill you in... (looks like DVD Junkie could also fill you in, since he's seen the movie 4 times now!)

[Pluto Region1]

Well, Pixar has done it again...........not since the Incredibles has a movie gotten more of my money.......I just saw "Cars" for the fourth (that's right 4 times) time, and it was even better this time.

You go, dvdjunkie!!! Wow, you are a true supporter!

All you so called Pixar lovers, who really just like to nit-pick should stay at home and save their money and watch what they really like. There is no way that this movie is a 'detached-from-human world' movie....Why do you go to movies if you are just going to pick them apart instead of sitting back and letting them entertain you.... "Cars" is not even close to being a bad movie, and I would say it is probably closer to being the Box office hit of the year than most films that have come before it or will come after it. I really think that people on this site are way too criticial about what they have seen in a movie...

Well the way I look at this is that because people on this forum are such devoted fans of Disney. Disney's biggest patrons after all are people like the members of this forum who are rushing out and buying these DVDs, and know for example if the color is slightly off on TLM DVD cover, etc. I mean, would the normal/regular consumer know such a thing? No! so what we have here is a bunch of hardcore fans who have really high expectations, are familiar with everything Disney puts out and can be the best supporters and the worst critics of Disney. Will people's opinions here have any bearing on how Cars does in the theaters? The answer is "no." So I wouldn't let this bother you too much. Keep in mind, everyone is entitled to their opinions, even if you or I have opposite opinions, we still should be able to respect those with opinions that differ. Overall the forum members are still Disney's biggest supporters and biggest buyers of DVDs, even if they sometimes don't always have positive opinions about the product Disney is putting out. As I said, I've seen so litte of the Pixar product in the theaters (watching the Incredibles on a crummy 13-inch TV is no way to judge the impact or the artistry of a Pixar film, for example) I've nothing to compare it to and having seen even less of anything else, I'm not capable of giving any type of critical opinion. I just know that I LOVED the film and plan to see it again; if some of my fellow forum members are not as charmed, that's ok. I'm sure they'll be buying the film when it comes out to add to their collections anyway, and if not, there's always the next Disney DVD they'll be buying. I tend to think the general public is alot less discerning (sophistcated) than some of our fellow UDers here.