I hadn’t been all that psyched to see Cars. One of my friends from college had recommended it, and he knows what sort of things I like. Even still, something about the visuals, and the concept as a whole didn’t scream, “must see,” to me.
I was wrong – it’s awesome.
Not, say, Incredibles awesome, but probably my second or third favorite Pixar movie – in the running with Toy Story. Great stuff.
But man, those guys at Pixar must *love* a challenge. Making the cars relatable, sympathetic, interesting, complex characters… that’s not easy, and it takes some time before you really “buy into” the notion, and aren’t weirded out by it all the time. Sure, the characters are largely stereotypes, and you could say maybe that’s one of the things that Pixar uses to make them more accessible – but it’s so well done, I didn’t mind at all.
The “small town = better than the city life” story, I dunno – it’s easy to wax nostalgic about the simpler life, and ignore the things that came with the simpler life in the real world – but as utopia goes, this wasn’t a bad thing to aspire to.
Yeah, the visual style may not sit well with you at the start, and the whole thing’s just so utterly bizarre it takes some getting used to, but give it a shot – it’s definitely worth seeing.
I had the same feeling. But it was pouring here yesterday and Bats and I were bored, so we saw it. And I liked it a lot more than I expected to. The visuals were pretty jaw-dropping. And the story was surprisingly good, if a bit clicheed. So, yeah.
I thought the visuals were amazing, the characters were very well-acted, etc etc, but it just seemed to be missing that Pixar twist. Every Pixar movie has always brought new life to an old story or a new way of looking at something (toys, bugs, superheroes, etc). To me, nothing in Cars made me look at cars in a new way. It was simply a story about people who happened to look like cars =\
That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed it. To me, it’s in 4th place or so behind Incredibles, Finding Nemo, Toy Story, and probably tied with Monsters Inc, but it’s still way ahead of a lot of stuff other companies produce.