Merrick here...
Adventure Dude just this sent this review via carrier pigeon from ShoWest, happening now in Vegas.
When I first saw the teasers for this film, I wasn't particularly convinced. Something about the movie smelled...'off'. Fishy. I was concerned that Pixar may, at long last, have dropped the ball.
But the more I hear and the more I see of CARS, the more I'm becoming a believer -- I'm really looking forward to it now. Adventure Dude's review makes the wait even tougher.
Here's Adventure Dude...
I'm here in 'beautiful' Las Vegas for this year's ShoWest convention. I wanted to take a moment and give you my impressions of Pixar’s new film, "Cars".
I've never seen a Pixar movie I didn't like (not that I loved "A Bug's Life"), but with the noticeable exception of "Monsters Inc." I've never thought any of the premises were too exciting. Somehow each and every one has managed to turn me from the cranky age wearied skeptic into a 8 year old filled with joy and excitement.Cars is no exception, at the end it really touched me in some profound ways.
Probably more than any other Pixar film this film plays on an almost entirely emotional state.
The script decisions are creative and meaningful, they characters behavior make sense (with a notable exception), and Lasseter has once again managed to created a world with reasonable conflict, without stereotypical "good guys" and "Bad Guys". There are a few exceptions to everything I've written (which is why you can believe it's truth).
John Lasseter spoke briefly before the show. He talked about how his inspiration for the film.
After a large amount of work helping others finish their films he wanted to start a movie based on “Cars”, but his wife mentioned that they had had a few children and that maybe he should take some time to enjoy them, before they grew up and moved away. So he took the summer off and drove in an RV with his family and grew closer to them. It’s kind of saccharin reading this on the web, but knowing that part of his emotion really helped me connect with the vision, so I share it with you.
The Movie is about a Racecar that is going off to the big race and has to spend time in a small dessert down where he learns a valuable lesson about life. I hope that’s spoiler free enough for you (Maybe you didn’t want to know he learned a valuable lesson, but it’s Pixar you can take that to the bank).
As for the animation, they were demonstrating new Digital projection system and I think they had the colors turned up a bit ‘hot’, but the film looked great. Once again the guys at Pixar managed to make a fully realized world that makes sense (in its own twisted way). They only complaint is an odd one.
There is a sequence in the mountains that is too realistic. For plot purposes it kind of needs to be, but the terrain is so convincingly beautiful and gorgeous that it actually distracts you. More to the point, it doesn’t really match the slightly more toon-style.
Also on a final note, not since the original Bad New Bears have I seen a Hollywood sports movie that ended in a way that was creative, believable, and seems so ‘right’.
