CARS

[areaseven]

For those watching The Incredibles today, you'll get a first-hand look at Cars, Disney and Pixar's release for November of next year. Despite its cartoonish appeal, Cars makes Days of Thunder look like a go-kart ride.

IGN FilmForce's Article on Cars

[Jemstone]

Most race movies are better than Days of Blunder......

[bsu legato]

Oh god....so that's what the clip I saw was from? Still, I'll give Pixar the benefit of the doubt.

[JRock]

Hey! It'll have Paul Newman, Richard Petty, and Larry the Cable Guy in it.

Looks pretty good.

[gerwalk25]

I saw Incredibles last night and seen the Cars trailer but no Revenge of The Sith, WTF? I can't help but think of the old MGM animation where the car gives birth and it grows up to be a Hot Rod. I might be wrong, it might have been airplanes and could it been done by Warner Bros.?

[bsu legato]

I saw Incredibles last night and seen the Cars trailer but no Revenge of The Sith, WTF?

Aha! So I wasn't the only one to miss it. Apparently Manitoba's rating for the trailer was too severe to go along with The Incredibles.

[Shmitty]

Incredibles has now become my favorite Pixar film, I just liked everything about it. Hopefully they'll keep up the good work with cars; which so far seems promising. Also, that really sucks for you guys that missed the Revenge' teaser, for it was quite awesome on the big screen.

Edited November 7, 2004 by Shmitty

[eugimon]

can't say I'm too impressed with cars so far... I kept thinking to myself, "they made a movie out of the chevron commercials?"

[mechatek]

Cars? What about Toy Story 3?

[madmacks]

i saw the star wars trailer with incredibles... oh yeeeah

[Mercurial Morpheus]

can't say I'm too impressed with cars so far... I kept thinking to myself, "they made a movie out of the chevron commercials?"

My toughts exactly. Though I have seen the old Disney carttons that were similar, this just screams:

Chevron with Techron - The Movie.

[Solscud007]

Actually not really. Disney has an older cartoon that dates back to I think the 60's or even 50's. Remember those old timey cartoons of a little boy car who wanted to be a hot rod? And did so at the expense of his parents approval? The father was a taxi cab. The little hotrod had some altercation, I think with the law, as if some kid had gone astray and was in trouble with the law. got into an accident and had to go to a hospital/garage. Came back out as a taxi cab but kept the motor and his racoon tail antenna thingy. Signifying that although he willingly drudges to work to become and upstanding citizen as a taxi cab and doing his part by contributing to the workforce, he is still the rambunctious little hot rod/angst teenager at heart.

anyway this CAR (Nascar Pixar film) looks like that.

its just a shame that since Chevron's ad campaign is ever present and popular it over shadows the true origins.

Edited November 8, 2004 by Solscud007

[reddsun1]

I think that was an MGM cartoon--Tex Avery directed, IIRC. They also did one with the two old prop. airplanes; they had the baby jet who wanted to grow up to be a jet fighter.

Any screens of this CARS anywhere to be found? Paul Newman's gonna be in it? that should be cool. Newman's going back to Daytona too? Cool! Wish I could be there for that one. I hung out in the pits next to him at Watkins Glen a couple seasons ago--man, people look bigger on TV. Man, he's a wiry little cuss. I bet he wouldn't weigh 100 lbs soaking wet in his driving suit...

[BoBe-Patt]

eh, I wasn't too excited about that one as I was with the Incredibles. I guess if I see more trailers, then maybe.

[areaseven]

Pixar's Cars Page

Disney's Cars Page

[Fortress_Maximus]

Going to do well, lets watch the stock go up!

[bandit29]

The movie is going to premier at Lowes Motor Speedway May 26th...

hooray... I think I will pass on this when I'm there that weekend. The movie will probably have more interesting racing though....

http://www.thatsracin.com/mld/thatsracin/14169857.htm

Cars," the latest animated offering from Disney and Pixar, will premiere May 26 on four giant outdoor screens at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in suburban Charlotte, studio and track officials said Thursday. The debut will come two nights before the track hosts the Coca-Cola 600, with proceeds from the 30,000 tickets benefiting Speedway Children’s Charities.

The film will be projected on Texas Instruments DLP Cinema projectors and a special sound system is being installed for the event.

[EXO]

I wasn't that excited about Finding Nemo and Bug's Life, but those turned out to be pretty good. I have the same enthusiasm about this movie (none) but I'm still gonna check it out. At least it's not about a bunch of animals escaping from some zoo.

[Solscud007]

i love pixar and from the toys I saw at Wizard World. this looks like a cool movie. they got all the genre of cars. Tehhy even have a parody of a rice rocket. it looks like the Green and blue colro scheme of Paul Walker's character's car in Fast and the Furious. The Mistubishi Eclipse.

But it has like a 5 element stacked spoiler. haha

[Lightning]

the main character's name is Lightning, oh yeah! (he's voiced by Owen Wilson too, it's bound to be funny)

[areaseven]

As we await the nationwide premiere of Cars, Disney and State Farm Insurance are giving away 25 Ford Mustangs.

State Farm - Countdown to Cars

[areaseven]

Just came back from the theaters. Cars is nothing short of an excellent animated film. Even if you hate NASCAR, you'll really get into the movie. Just make sure to keep watching during the ending credits.

Also, as with Pixar's other works, there's an opener for this one. It's called One Man Band, and it's freakin' hilarious.

[azrael]

For some reason, I don't feel interested in this one....maybe when it comes to DVD.

[UN Spacy]

I'll probably check it out tomorrow....can't really go wrong with Pixar flicks.

[JsARCLIGHT]

I actually just got back from seeing the 10:30 show here. Wife actually went with me this time.

I'm too tired to give a review but I will say this much, this movie follows in the trend of The Incredibles in that it is a more "mature" Pixar effort. I bet kids will not follow half of this movie... add to that that it is 2 hours long.

I loved it myself. My thought it was "cute".

[myk]

I'll have to DVD this one. I hate people, I hate them even more in theaters, and I hate them the most when they're screaming kids who, as 'Jsar pointed out, won't be able to stay focused on the film...

[areaseven]

I'll have to DVD this one.  I hate people, I hate them even more in theaters, and I hate them the most when they're screaming kids who, as 'Jsar pointed out, won't be able to stay focused on the film...

406873[/snapback]

Tell me about it. I used to work as an usher at AMC Theatres, and the worst time to clean up is after any kids' movie.

[areaseven]

Anyway, going to the subject of the movie itself:

What did you think of the random cameo appearances by racers like Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Mario Andretti and Michael Schumacher? Personally, I thought it really didn't do much to the movie other than the fact that they were there. Dale Jr. had some really bad lines, though.

Also, it's good that Pixar dedicated the film in memory of Joe Ranft (Red and the Peterbilt in the movie), who also played Heimlich in A Bug's Life, Wheezy in Toy Story 2 and Jacques in Finding Nemo.

Edited June 11, 2006 by areaseven

[JsARCLIGHT]

Now that I'm rested and coherent I'll give my traditional Good, Bad and Ugly style of review for Pixar's CARS:

The GOOD

- The visual look of the movie is outstanding. From the glint on the car paint to the lush, rolling southwest countryside the appearance of the movie is grand. Every little detail is in place, prooving once again that in a market that is becoming saturated with cheap, quick turnaround CGI movies, Pixar is still the king.

- The cast is well chosen and well acted. Much like just about every Pixar movie, the voice cast fits perfectly. I felt that the main cast (Owen Wilson, Bonnie Hunt and Paul Newman) delivered their roles well, and when I say "well" I mean I was able to forget that Lightning McQeen was Owen Wilson and Sally Carerra was Bonnie Hunt just as I was able to forget that Woody was Tom Hanks, etc.

- The story, while being a tad on the cliche side, is also classic Pixar. It has several layers of "where are they going with this?" in it that all wrap themselves into a nice package at the end. While by no means as emotional as Toy Story 2 (which I consider to be their best writing effort to date) it does not come off as contrived as Bug's Life did (which IMHO is their weakest effort to date).

- The inside jokes are EVERYWHERE. Not just the typical Pixar fare either, this movie is jam packed with automobilia inside jokes, pop culture references and all manner of hidden goodies that reward the observant viewer with a good "oh hey, that's pretty neat" when you notice them.

- I found the concept of an entire "car centric" world to be great. Pixar went to so much effort to sell us on this world that revolves only around cars. Everything is car themed, even natural landmarks and insects.

- Also in traditional Pixar fashion, DO NOT LEAVE THE THEATER when the credits are rolling. Cars has a good extra 5 minutes of original animation during the first part of the credits as well as a "stinger" segment after all the credits have rolled. Stick around for the John Ratzenburger "Good Luck Charm" tribute, it's well worth the wait.

The BAD

- This movie, while colorful and happy, is probably NOT best for kids. Unless your kids are just soooo into racing and cars they will be squirming in their seats and asking "is it over yet?" within 45 minutes... which is sad because at that point the movie has well over an hour and fifteen minutes plus left to go.

- The movie takes a massive plot speed downshift halfway through which basically takes the movie from the breakneck pace of the Piston Cup race to the plodding, slug pace of Radiator Springs. While this massive thematic story speed change IS INTENTIONAL it will jar some people, esepcially those with ten second attention spans. You better hope by this point you are into the story and the characters (like I was) or you, just like all the kids in the audience, are going to be squirming in your seat praying it gets back to the race soon.

- A lot of the dialogue humor in the movie is cute at first but after about an hour and a half of the same "style" of jokes, you start to get tired of it. Certain background characters started to actually piss me off after their fourth or fifth carbon copy scene with roughly the same jokes. This is actually a testiment to how LONG this movie is in that Pixar probably started to run dry on material for their less developed characters and just decided to let them keep spouting the same things over and over.

The UGLY

- Larry the Cable Guy. If You enjoy him and his humor then you are in for a great time... for people like me who he wears thin on within ten seconds it was a fork on a chalk board. I think that Pixar went a little TOO overboard with this character and half of the time he wanders into stereotype and just plain unfunny idiocy. Out of all the Pixar characters to date, this one grates my nerves the most... and seeing as he has so much screen time, I found myself focusing on other characters a bit too much trying to ignore him.

In a nutshell, that is about it. I would seriously tell everyone who is interested in seeing this movie to go see it in the theater. This is definately a big screen movie... if for no other reason than to allow you the large image size and high film resolution so you can see all the tiny details Pixar painstakingly put into this film. A true automotive fan will find something somewhere in this movie to love... HOWEVER if you are NOT a fan of cars, Route 66, NASCAR style racing or Pixar in general this movie will wear thin on you like a set of bald tires. ESPECIALLY children... I have to give Pixar a hand for making this movie as it is right up my alley, but I know for a fact that there are herds of kids out there (their intended audience) who are going to squirm in their seats, ask "Is it over yet?" and generally not like this movie. This movie is simply not "for them" as much as it is one long 2 hour love letter from Pixar to the heyday of Route 66 and cars in general.

If I had to give this movie a rating, I would have to actually give it THREE different ratings depending on who you are:

If you are a automobile nut, a Pixar fan or an adult with a childlike whimsy and wonder, this movie is easily a must see with a 8/10 score.

If you are NOT a fan of automobilia, like the occasional Pixar effort and prefer movies like The Matrix, you are not going to like this movie and would give it a score of 5/10.

If you are a typical American kid with an attention span of twelve seconds and only a fleeting interest in automobiles or NASCAR style racing then this film will be 2 hours of "time out" for you and you would give it a 1/10.

[JsARCLIGHT]

What did you think of the random cameo appearances by racers like Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Mario Andretti and Michael Schumacher? Personally, I thought it really didn't do much to the movie other than the fact that they were there. Dale Jr. had some really bad lines, though.

406929[/snapback]

Well, when you think of all the terrible "celebrity name play joke" characters they had like Jay Limo and Bob Cutlass, the actual race driver cameos where not that bad as most of them where not "obvious" in the movie and where only on screen for a few fleeting seconds. Dale Jr. didn't bother me... Bob Cutlass bothered me.

[Lightning]

Just came back from the theaters. Cars is nothing short of an excellent animated film. Even if you hate NASCAR, you'll really get into the movie. Just make sure to keep watching during the ending credits.

Also, as with Pixar's other works, there's an opener for this one. It's called One Man Band, and it's freakin' hilarious.

406837[/snapback]

I agree. The animation was incredible.

[KingNor]

i dug this movie, but i'm a car nut.

did anyone notice that the Rust-eze guys on the stage were "Click and Clack" from Car Talk on NPR?

didn't notice? well they were..

[areaseven]

i dug this movie, but i'm a car nut.

did anyone notice that the Rust-eze guys on the stage were "Click and Clack" from Car Talk on NPR?

didn't notice?  well they were..

406972[/snapback]

Well, you have to be a major car nut to know the voices behind most of the supporting cast. I don't know those two guys, though.

And why did Disney/Pixar put Bob Costas (Cutlass) in the movie if he's not even an auto racing announcer? They should've gotten a real racing announcer for that role instead.

[Jemstone]

Well, you have to be a major car nut to know the voices behind most of the supporting cast. I don't know those two guys, though.

And why did Disney/Pixar put Bob Costas (Cutlass) in the movie if he's not even an auto racing announcer? They should've gotten a real racing announcer for that role instead.

407003[/snapback]

I'm not comaplaining but it would have been kickass if they had Dr Jerry Punch for that part.

[JsARCLIGHT]

My guess would be there was no obvious car wordplay name for Jerry Punch... plus Bob Costas is a whore, he'll do anything for cash.

Then again I have a very nasty personal history with Costas and my opinion of the man is about as low as you can get. He did a voiceover narration for a client of ours for a captial campaign video once. You should have heard all the condescending and downright mean and cruel comments he made between takes that we have to this day on the audio cut. Costas is a galactic inflated ego azzhole.

Edit to sidestep the filter.

Edited June 11, 2006 by JsARCLIGHT