Cars - EDITED

I went to see Cars last night and found it to be Pixar-good, which means in comparison with what the rest of “The Industry” churns out, it was very good.

Granted, the premise is as old as the hills: guy in the fast lane get forced to slow down and smell the roses by being trapped in a small town, but Pixar tells it well. I didn’t walk out of the theatre with the same emotional “Wow!” that I did with Finding Nemo, but it was still a good and entertaining story. You pretty much know where he's going to end up, but the journey does take some interesting turns. I think this is the only feel good movie I can remember that involves cow-tipping, for instance. As always the gift of any Pixar film is the assortment of odd characters populating it and Cars is no exception. From the delightfully-sweet-but-numb-as-a-stump ‘Mater the Tow Truck to the stogy-with-a-secret-Doc Hudson (a Hudson Hornet), you will definately be entertained. Cheech as a pimped out low rider with a different look each day and Chong as the left-over-flower-child VW Van are great supporting parts as is Guido the silent but uber-efficient forklift.

The only character that fell flat was sadly also the main characters foil/romantic interest. Sally the Porche is just...boring. She's nice but in the middle of a Pixar crowd she's is rather colorless. Perhaps that is where the film failed itself but if it is, it’s a minor failure. The plot and the rest of the characters compensate.

And as always, you have to keep your eye peeled for the little background details that just enrich the film.

But Pixar’s real gift to racing fans were all the in-jokes. Of course, everyone knows “The King”, a powder blue Plymouth Superbird, was voiced by Richard Petty (which a cute turn by Lynda, his wife playing herself on screen as a powder blue station wagon) and Dale Jr. makes a couple brief walk-ons as “Junior”, a red #8 stockcar complete with the Earnhardt “Racing E” along the sides. Darryl Waltrip plays one of the booth announcers in his #17 Chevy Monte Carlo Coupe (with I believe it was the Tide paint scheme), Mario Andretti also puts in an appearance (interestingly, not as a champ or formula one car but the stock car he won the Daytona 500 in) and Michael Schumacher makes a really great comic turn poking fun at himself speaking Italian. Lightening’s sponsors are played by Tom and Ray of NPR’s Car Talk and so on. The snobbishness Stock Car fans encounter from Formula One fans is also noted to great amusement.

The animation is...incredible. There is a scene where Lightening and Sally take a drive through the California hills that the background is photo-perfect. It’s amazing. And not only is the detail exquisite, the balance of reality and cartoon-y characters struck in Cars is simply perfect. So while this film lacks the emotional punch that Finding Nemo did, I think it actually hits a high mark by being the best animation Pixar has ever done.

So despite what the official reviewers say, this is definitely a film to spend the 10$ and see it on the big screen when you can. It's very good. Not great, but very good.

EDIT: What Kind of Sports Car Are You?

In the spirit of Cars...

Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

I'm a Chevrolet Corvette!

You're a classic - powerful, athletic, and competitive. You're all about winning the race and getting the job done. While you have a practical everyday side, you get wild when anyone pushes your pedal. You hate to lose, but you hardly ever do.

Actually, that looks more than kinda like Lightening McQueen...