In case you didn’t know, I’m really a big kid at heart and to be perfectly honest I don’t do the best job of hiding it. And that kid in me never ceases to be amazed when watching a good animated flick (whether drawn by hand or computer animated), and I’d almost always prefer to watch a good cartoon than a great live action flick. Just because that’s what I know and love the most. So that’s why practically everything Pixar has made been golden, not only do they cater to the kid in me but they also satisfy the adult sides humor.
Cars, while another great Pixar flick, doesn’t exactly satisfy my adult sense of humor. What this movie did do was provide a nice little cute (albeit a tad predictable) story about Lightning McQueen a hotshot rookie race car in the Piston Cup and his journey on trying to win the Cup. As the movie starts we see Lightning as a cocky kid who doesn’t listen to anyone or value anyone around him (so much that he fired his crew chief before the film started).
The opening scene involving the race has proven that Pixar continues to push three steps ahead of the rest of the industry with their animation. The way the light bounced off the cars, and how they moved on the track, I was in sheer awe of everything my eyes could capture. With appreciation for how much work that took, it kind of made me amazed at the work ethic of this company.
The race which opens the movie is for the Piston Cup but it ends in a three way tie, and a tie-breaker race is set for a week later in California. On the way there, things go awry as Lightning finds himself in a heap of trouble and having to repay for damages he caused. What lessons can a hotshot racecar learn from a dead town which rests on Route 66? Apparently enough to fill almost two hours of movie is about.
Some complained that it drags on, but I felt that it worked, but not in a way that made me laugh. I was able to sit back and enjoy the film, smile at some moments, and take in the stunning visuals. This is a similar movie to Robots in many ways, but I feel that this was better done. My major gripe is that it didn’t work as well on both levels as other Pixar films, with that said I still really liked the film.
