Hey folks, Harry here with that candied cutie confection, Junior Mintz. What a swell gal. Here's the sort of gal that slinks to a revival showing of WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT. That's not fair? Where do dese goils come from? I mean, save for every girl I have ever known, I can't think of any! So maybe someday you'll plop down next to Ms. Mintz and get your hand sticky in her box of carmel delights! Yum, they're finger licking good!
Hiya Harry,
Disney's flagship Hollywood movie house the El Capitan hosted a revival screening of WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT over the Memorial Day weekend. It was great for me to finally see Roger, Baby Herman and Jessica on the big screen for the first time, but just as exciting was catching the debut of a new theatrical Pixar short called MIKE'S NEW CAR.
As the title indicates, the all-CGI cartoon stars Mike, the green one-eyed critter from MONSTERS INC. along with his big blue-furred pal, Sully. The setup is Mike has gotten a new car and proudly wants to show it off to his friend. Most of the gags deal with situations inside the cool, demonic-looking new auto, such as Sully's fascination with the electronic seat that moves up, back and all around, Mike's troublesome seatbelt, the rearview mirror that snaps off when Sully innocently touches it and the car door that (of course) locks the second Mike steps outside. It's a funny premise and the storyboard artists and animators mine it for all it's worth, but even at around five minutes (I'm guessing) there doesn't seem a whole lot going on to warrant a return to the land of MONSTERS INC. The idea of Sully and Mike tooling around town in a new car is filled with potential, but as they never even drive down the block (at least not on camera) the viewer becomes aware that the filmmakers probably did the cartoon on a severe shoestring and didn't have the budget to create any new locales or show any monster characters other than the wickedly looking car itself. This is unfortunate, for with a limited backdrop of the MONSTERS INC. world to play in, Sully and Mike risk becoming two generic yakky CGI characters, the slow-talking big guy and the excitable angry little guy, and I see enough of that in those dumb m&m commercials. Still, there is enough appeal in the animation of the characters and the voice work done once again by John Goodman and Billy Crystal to sustain the cartoon, which no doubt got its brief theatrical run in order to qualify for next year's best animated short Oscar. It will probably win as even an amusing trifle from Pixar is better than an "A" effort from anyone else.
The short will be included on the MONSTERS INC DVD which hits stores on Sept 17th, adding to the list of bonus features on what already promises to be a must-have release.
Junior Mintz
I'm not bad, just drawn badly. (Sorry Cartuna, I couldn't resist. :) )
