Sunday, June 11, 2006

Movie review: Cars

If you've seen the trailers then you know the basic plot. It's an old one that's been done to death. Big city so-and-so with everything in the world gets stuck out in the middle of nowhere for a week or two and he discovers all that was missing in life.
I saw the early trailers and was not at all impressed. The later trailers made it look better, but still I felt that Pixar had finally flubbed it. I should have known better than to doubt Pixar. With them it's not about the celebrity voices or the digital technology. With them it's all about the story. The others forget that most of the time.
Disney hasn't put out a good story since... well, it's been awhile. The contract with Pixar ending, Disney tried to do their own digital movie - Chicken Run. After seeing how poorly that did they turned to the heads of Pixar and then Disney, the all time cartoon master, paid the heads of Pixar to take over Disney. Disney knew when they were licked. They made Steve Jobs the majority stock holder, put Pixars head movie guy in charge of the whole animation department, and threw lots of money at them. It wasn't "we're buying you" it was "please take over".

Anyway, Cars, it's a great movie. I'll have to get the DVD just to catch all the little jokes they threw in. Be sure to sit all the way through the credits.

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