After my disappointment with Pixar's
The Incredibles, I was very stand-off-ish with their latest contribution to the impressive legacy of Disney films,
Cars. I wasn't expecting much, but I was more than pleased with Pixar's finished result.
The Plot In this world created by Pixar, there are no humans, only cars, trucks, planes, helicopters, trains and probably boats (although we never see one in the film). Even the insects are small little love bug Volkswagens with wings.
This animated film opens in the middle of an exciting NASCAR-like race. The excitement for all watching is primarily stemming from the fact that rookie racer Lightning McQueen is winning again. In fact McQueen may be the first rookie in racing history to win the coveted Piston Cup championship. Lightning McQueen has at least one fault which is apparent from just about the beginning of the film; he is too much of a hot shot to work well with a pit stop team. This fact almost cost him this very first race, he luckily eked out a tie with two other cars.
After the three-way tie, the cars must travel to California for a tie breaker involving only these three cars, Lightning McQueen, Chick Hicks and the racing car with the bad attitude The King. Lightning McQueen's "trailer" is a MACK truck, named Mack. McQueen takes a nap as Mack drives him to California for next week's tie-breaker one late night. Mack begins to dose off while on route, and with the help of a couple of teenage car 'hoods', they shake up the truck a little, and the rear door opens which allows Lightning to roll out onto the highway. When he wakes up, he cannot find Mack, and ends up chasing after a truck, who he thinks is Mack, but ends up just getting more lost along Route 66.
Lightning is speeding through a sleepy town called Radiator Springs when he catches the attention of a police sheriff named, well, Sheriff. During the chase, fate steps in and Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson,
The Wedding Crashers) ruins the town's only road. His fine is to remain in Radiator Springs until he repaves the road. While he is stuck here, he hates it at first, but of course he meets some great car people and becomes good friends with everybody in the town. He especially warms up to a cute little blue Porsche named Sally Carrera. Will Lightning be able to get to California in time for the race? Find out while watching
Cars on Blu-Ray.
My Analysis One thing I was worried about was the fact that all the characters were cars. This fact actually did not hinder the likeability of the characters at all. Lightning McQueen voiced by Owen Wilson starts off in the movie as a hot head, big shot know-it-all. Despite these flaws McQueen was a character that I rooted for and cared about since the very beginning of the movie.
When the setting changed to Radiator Springs, the characters were even more endearing. We have a rusty old tow truck named Mater (voiced by Larry the Cable Guy). Mater is a goofy, simple, small-town type of folk who always has fun, and who always sees the good in all cars he meets. Doc Hudson (Paul Newman) is the town judge who has a hard exterior, but he eventually softens up to not just McQueen, but the whole town.
When compared to other recent Disney movies like
Ratatouille or
Meet the Robinsons, (and even Pixar's
The Incredibles), the cast of characters is much more loveable within
Cars. In fact, Pixar hasn't done such a fine job at developing characters since
Toy Story.
Above, I compared
Cars with
Meet the Robinsons and although there may be better character development within
Cars, this movie lacked what
Meet the Robinsons had plenty of - a factor of emotional connection the viewer makes with the story.
Cars had some emotive surface value, but is noticeable lacking when compared to a film like
Meet the Robinsons which had an abundance of heart.
Cars was very funny, yet this animated Disney film pushed the limit of adult themed innuendos more than any other animated movie from Disney I've seen. With such lines as "I'd give my left two lug nuts to work with something like that!" - I would say it's OK and I would be able to shrug it off. It's no surprise that this next line was in the movie since George Carlin voiced the Fillmore character. "It's a conspiracy, man! The oil companies got a grip on the government. They're feeding us a bunch of lies, man!" I don't know about you, but I think it's greatly out of place for left wing political propaganda to be within a children's movie. The last was just downright offensive with a line voiced by the dimwitted Edie McClurg "Oh, for the love of Chrysler! Can we please ask someone for directions?"
I understand that Pixar is trying to follow Walt Disney's blazed path by creating movies that are entertaining for both child and parent so that they can watch movies together. But with the inclusion of agenda based pinhead celebrity input - Pixar goes too far. Director/writer John Lasseter should have his exhaust pipe washed out with soap.
I give this movie 3 1/2 stars rounded up to four.
The Blu-Ray Difference If you have been looking for a disc to show off your home theater system, then look no further.
Cars on blu-ray has such incredible eye-popping video, a real feast for the eyes. The graphics of the races especially do not fail to impress. The hi-def video transfer is presented in 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 and in its original aspect ratio of 2.40:1, so you can be sure you're not missing one iota of the amazing video.
The audio is almost equally as impressive. You get one of the best examples of discrete channels of audio ever found on a disc for home entertainment. The audio is presented in PCM uncompressed 5.1 and Dolby Digital 5.1.
The Supplemental Features were quite enjoyable here. We have some deleted scenes and a game as well. There were some features that were very enjoyable called
Radiator Springs Featurettes. There are in fact four featurettes that were engaging and funny, and since they are all presented in Hi-Def, they're just as fun as the main feature.
Also there is the feature called
Cine-Explore. This is basically like a glorified commentary but with pop up photographs and art ideas.
So is it worth it to upgrade your standard def DVD for this blu-ray? I say 100% yes. The standard DVD does look and sound very good, yet it still does not compare to the blu-ray. And as Disney likes to go all out with their blu-ray supplemental features, you're sure to enjoy the blu-ray disc for many more years.
Movie: *** 1/2
Blu-ray: *****
Related Epinions
My Top Ten Disney Movies The Little Mermaid - Deluxe DVD Toy Story Box Set The Haunted Mansion - Blu-Ray The Santa Clause 3 Blu-Ray Meet The Robinsons Blu-Ray Viewing Format: Blu-Ray
