Yet, as he said, he did experience an emotional connection to the story or characters of several other Pixar films. That’s always been their great strength; that they appeal to adults as much as children.
This sentiment is exactly what I expressed to my son (nine year old) as we left the theater not an hour ago. I told him the movie lacked a soul, which is something most Pixar films are known for. The Toy Story short film at the beginning was hilarious, though.
Yes…exactly. Not bad, not good, a good looking film to be sure, but overall…eye candy.
Oh yeah. We saw it in 3-D and the movie is definitely eye candy. Sadly, not a lot more. Still worth the price of admission, but ultimately forgettable and I doubt whether either of my boys will want me to buy it on DVD like they have wanted for other Pixar movies. The trailer for Brave looked pretty sweet, though.
I’m so not the target demographic for Cars, 1 or 2, but I totally loved the first, and really liked 2. And yes, I choked up at the lack of Hudson Hornet.
As a frame of reference, Wall-E is my Pixar favorite.
I saw it, and was disappointed. It was the first Pixar movie in recent memory that had no emotional impact (I haven’t re-watched A Bugs Life or the first Toy Story in a long time). They really should have released this one direct to video, rather than damaging their previous track record.
Pros:
[ul]
[li]Glorious IMAX 3D. Dust motes! [/li][li]In the Tokyo night scenes the lighting and detailed reflections off of the paint jobs was incredible. [/li][li]Turturro’s character was amusing.[/li][/ul]
Cars was the first movie my son wanted to watch every day and will therefore always be special to me. Speed. I am speed. Ka-chow!
Favorite quote:
Lightning McQueen: I’m serious! He’s won three Piston Cups!
Mater: [spits out fuel] He did WHAT in his cup?
I estimate that without even trying we have accumulated $2000 worth of Cars merch in our home in the last 3 years. Four sets of grandparents.
My main objection (among many) to the Transformers movies is that the giant robots very loudly fight, and fight, and fight… and they’re all OK by the end. It’s combat without consequences.
I took my 11- and 8-year-old boys to see Cars 2 on Sunday, and we all liked it OK. Some amazing visuals, but it was an odd and not entirely convincing hybrid of race and spy movies, and lacked the emotional weight of other Pixar films. Not the studio’s best (that would be The Incredibles, of course), but not its worst, either (Ratatouille, IMHO).
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Okay, so I’m super late to this party and probably 4 Dopers will read this, but whatever. I just saw this yesterday with my 5yro vehicularly obsessed son. Here is all about good guys-bad guys right now, so he excitedly told me when he had to step out to the bathroom, “Mommm! There are bad guy cars and I hate them!”
He was passably entertained, but seemed to quickly forget about it. Mack is his favorite, and he was practically invisible in this film. Mater is one of his least favorites, and this movie focused so much on him. Interestingly, I asked which of the new characters were his favorite, and he paused to think (as he put it) before saying “The white tanker truck.” Huh? Yeah, that’s my semi-tractor-trailer obsessed boy there.
A few months ago, I ate up the clearance items at Target when they were phasing out the Cars 1 merchandise to make room for Cars 2. They had a huuuge displaiy, and I warned hubby we ought to avoid Target for a while to avoid the “Mommy please!” But, interestingly, Boy 1.0 has essentially no interest in Cars 2 merchandise. I even had coupons from cereal boxes that let him get 2 die cast cars for free, and he really didn’t care which ones. In fact, he was so interested in the truck he bought for his Good Choices box, he forgot about the free Cars 2 vehicles. They’re currently tucked away with the clearanced Cars 1 merchandise, awaiting Christmas.
I say this to point out that, at least with my eldest, they missed the mark merchandising-wise. If there had been new semis, our pocket book would have been SCREWED. But a spy car? And lemons? <Boy 1.0 yawns>
He was passably entertained and loves the Cars 2 backpack Grandma got him to take to kindergarten next month, but he (like I) liked it about as much as the Ice Age sequels…good, but not fresh; moments of clever and amusing, but not memorable.
His favorite movie is indeed the original Cars (though I was bored by it at first, the more I watched it with him, the more I was entertained by it), with the Homeward Bound movies next (as well as watching Dinosaur Train and Chuggington every freaking day, or several times a day if we allow it).
Pixar-wise for me, my favorites are Finding Nemo, Up and The Incredibles, in that order.
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I have to agree that it wasn’t just a money grab. It’s obvious a lot of care and attention to detail went into this movie.
I think I would’ve really liked a James Bond movie in the Cars universe, but I don’t think the original Cars movie characters really worked for this. Especially using Mater to tie the race car movie to the spy caper movie. A little Mater goes a long way.
I don’t agree that this is Pixar surrendering to Disney, but do agree that it was “four genres (buddy picture, spy caper, car race and environmental consciousness-raiser) shoehorned into one incoherent plot”. The bad guy reveal was really obvious from the beginning.
There are problems with the movie, but still a lot to like about it. I loved the look at the different cultures in the Cars universe. It was beautiful to look at and lots of the little details were wonderful.
The Toy Story short was great too.
The two aren’t mutually exclusive. It can still be a money grab while allowing the artists to invest hardwork into it.
I actually know the screenwriter (not well, but we have friends in common.) I was at a backyard party the opening weekend and he was a little down in the dumps about the reviews. Ben strikes me as a pretty nice guy, so it’s kind of a bummer.
If you’re trying to create something of quality, that’s the exact opposite of what I understand a “money grab” to be. Otherwise the term isn’t very useful.
I don’t think Pixar were ever in need of a money-grab. I think this was a genuine case of indulging the CEO with continuing the adventures of his characters.
So you think that everyone on a project (whether they be artists, writers, etc) spontaneously gives up when a company makes a ‘money grab’ decision that they’re likely not even privy to? That simply doesn’t make sense.
In summary: The whole can be less than the sum of its parts. Hence why Cars 2 can have strong artistic merit, while being poor film overall to many.
No. But a company making a grab for the money won’t commit the resources, money and time to give the people working on the project a chance to do anything special. And will not put top writers and artists on the project.