The Green Goblin Blog

Just been to see the Pixar/Disney movie "Cars" and it was excellent. It is really amazing how they can produce films this good - not just from an animation point of view but with such great story-telling. The finale had me with a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes. This is all the more surprising because all along you know what's going to happen, more or less. As soon as arrogant, uncaring Lightning McQueen appears, the movie has to be about turning his personality around and after that there is little deviation. The good win, the bad lose, and we all go home satisfied.

Highlights for me are:

The Italians (Luigi, a 1959 Fiat 500, and Guido, a Isetta-style forklift - they are a fantastic stereotype that only know about Ferraris. The flies - occasionally there are some bugs flying around which are tiny little VW Beetles, a lovely touch. The Arizona-style scenery is lovely and well created. Right at the end, there is a drive-in-movie scene where they pay homage to other movies - very well observed comedy.

Low points

• In real racing, does anyone actually find going round a simple oval for 100+ laps interesting? I suppose I'm just too used to Formula 1.
• One scene has a wheel-clamped car being hooked up to be towed away; the clamp is at the front but the hook is at the back, which obviously not going to work well in reality.
• In a similar way to it being weird that Pluto, Mickey's pet, is a dog that acts like a dog, unlike ALL the other characters, there are tractors in "Cars" that are dumb critturs, unlike all the other vehicles which are intelligent, talking characters.
• Also, I didn't realise for a long time after the credits that Steve McQueen (actor in some of the greatest car and racing movies, and avid motorcycle/racing car enthusiast) could be in ANY way connected to the name of the main character, Lightning McQueen. D'oh. [[and, after reading Steve McQueen's wiki, also former Pixar animator Glenn McQueen who died in 2002.]]

Labels: Movies

# posted by John Breakwell @ 9:27 PM