Cars

Thanks, Pixar. I love you guys. Cars, the first movie not completely and utterly leave me disappointed. I admit I haven’t seen the Da Vinci Code yet, but something tells me that will probably leave me disatisfied.

But how could Pixar, the hero of all animation studios, possibly disappoint me? Of course they didn’t. Aaron had mentioned that perhaps the animation wasn’t up to par after viewing the first few trailers, and I have to admit, the trailers were pretty bare-boned. But I remained confident til the end, and I was rewarded with a great movie, the first to make me all sniffly in a while.

The plot wasn’t the most original in the world. A character starts out arrogant, is humbled, and gains morality and a rich spirit. He has to learn a number of life lessons. But Pixar does everything with such inherent cleverness that the “typical” plot can be accepted. Lightning McQueen, the hot shot racecar voiced by Owen Wilson, develops real heart. Unlike the characters in other movies such as Shark Tale and Over the Hedge, his character is not tied exclusively to the actor. How refreshing to see animated objects brought to life by voice talent, not but actor/actress reputation. Mater was by far the cutest character, even though he is basically a sloppy redneck. He has a lot of great lines, and also is brutally honest.

The animation was lovely, and I didn’t mind the super shiny-ness of all of the cars. The animation world has come a long way in terms of trees and water, so of course those looked great. How many hours did those scenes take to render?

I was also really amused by the popularity of NASCAR, evident in this movie. Attention was given to a lot of race details, which I only managed to catch because Aaron’s dad watches a lot of NASCAR. Who knew that knowledge would come in handy? And of course, cameos from Mario Andretti, Richard Petty, and Dale Jr.

I guess the biggest con was the somewhat generic plot. Even though this movie was really clean and clever, it didn’t come up to the standards set by Toy Story, The Incredibles and Monsters Inc. That’s ok. The other con was the trailer reel before the movie. Blech. Practically every movie featured smart-mouth asinine animal characters who are crude, generic, or representitive of some ethnic group. Ugh. We’ve reverted to the crows found in Dumbo.

Stay for the end credits, though. Definitely.