Cars (DVD)

...Nemo, Monsters Inc., this movie, Cars and the latest one called Ratatouille.

During the Christmas holiday period, I saw a couple of these Pixar movies on terrestrial TV (the BBC), these being Finding Nemo and Monsters Inc. I hadn't really watched any of these movies before, at my age I do feel I'm a little old for these but I'll admit that I did find them quite charming and fun. Of course, knowing that the movie Cars features my favourite ...
...cast) -

Cars tells the story of a bright red racing car called Lightning McQueen, which is voiced by Owen Wilson. Lightning is a newcomer on the racing track and is doing surprisingly well, managing to get a place to compete for the Piston Cup in California, something he'd always dreamed about!

However, it doesn't all go to plan, when he ends up accidentally being let out the back of the lorry (called Mack, voiced by ... more

- Introduction -

Okay, I have an admission to make, please don't think too bad of me but its true, I am a closet Disney fan! lol when I was 8 years old, I started to collect Disney items. Mainly vintage stuff, interesting old collectables and I now have quite a big collection, full of different items. As well as collecting the toys and games and so on, of course, as a child I was enamoured by the movies and I would always get excited about rushing down to the local WH Smiths (or J Menzies as it used to be!) store on the Saturday morning to spend my last few months pocket money on the latest official 'Disney Classic' VHS release. Oh the excitement! from The Little Mermaid to Beauty and the Best, all of those films I used to love and still have somewhere... so yes, I have been a bit of a fan of Disney, its fair to say.

In the 90s, CGI, or computer generated imagery, became more popular and films like Toy Story came out, as you probably already know. This was a bit of a turning point, as Disney were previously known for really only doing 2D animated movies but now thats changed and the collaboration with Pixar has brought about many CGI based movies, including Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc., this movie, Cars and the latest one called Ratatouille.

During the Christmas holiday period, I saw a couple of these Pixar movies on terrestrial TV (the BBC), these being Finding Nemo and Monsters Inc. I hadn't really watched any of these movies before, at my age I do feel I'm a little old for these but I'll admit that I did find them quite charming and fun. Of course, knowing that the movie Cars features my favourite actor (Owen Wilson) as the voice behind the main character did kind of push me towards wanting to see this and as I'm still on an unlimited DVD rental scheme, I thought what the heck, lets give it a go! I'd heard good things about it, so I added it to my rental list and I watched it last night.

- Main Credits (non-actors, which are mentioned further on in the review) -
Source:- IMDB (see:- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0317219/fullcredits)

Director - John Lasseter, Joe Ranft (co-director)
Story - John Lasseter, Joe Ranft, Jorgen Klubien, Brenda Chapman
Screenplay - Dan Fogelman, John Lassete, Joe Ranft, Kiel Murray, Phil Lorin, Jorgen Klubien
Additional screenplay material - Robert L. Baird, Daniel Gerson, Bonnie Hunt, Don Lake, Steve Purcell, Dan Scanlon
Producer - Darla K. Anderson
Associate Producer - Thomas Porter
Cinematography - Jeremy Lasky

- Story (incl. main acting cast) -

Cars tells the story of a bright red racing car called Lightning McQueen, which is voiced by Owen Wilson. Lightning is a newcomer on the racing track and is doing surprisingly well, managing to get a place to compete for the Piston Cup in California, something he'd always dreamed about!

However, it doesn't all go to plan, when he ends up accidentally being let out the back of the lorry (called Mack, voiced by John Ratzenberger). When he wakes up, he realises that he's lost sight of Mack and rushes to try and find him. Looking to try and join the interstate, he ends up at a quiet old town called Radiator Springs, where he accidentally causes havoc and seriously damages the town road.

The residents (all cars of course!) don't take too kindly to this and Lightning gets sentenced to as long as it takes to repair the damage he caused to the road. Of course he's less than pleased, knowing that he's missing vital time to prepare for the big race for the all important Piston Cup and at first, he tries to get the better of the residents of Radiator Springs and attempts to drive away and escape, however the residents had already thought of such a situation, so, he realises that he'll have to serve his sentence if he's to leave.

Its not all bad, though, as his time spent in Radiator Springs lets him get to know many different characters, from the sheriff (voiced by Michael Wallis), the older car Doc Hudson, who has a secret identity (voiced by Paul Newman), the rather feminine and attractive Sally Carrera (voiced by Bonnie Hunt), two italian characters and of course the not particularly intelligent but still very loveable Mater (voiced by Larry the Cable Guy).

It turns out that Lightnings rival racer, Chick Hicks (voiced by Michael Keaton), is getting alot of attention and threatens his chances at the Piston Cup too, so his chances don't look too good.

Will Lightning get to finish his sentence in enough time to be in with the chance to win the Piston Cup? what will he learn from the citizens of Radiator Springs? you'll have to watch the movie to find out, of course.

- Genre/Themes -

Cars is very much a typical Disney movie. Its aimed at kids but adults may enjoy it too, I quite enjoyed it. There is the odd joke that adults may enjoy thrown in there (nothing rude just things that are mildly amusing to adults which children wouldn't really pick up on).

The movie has themes of friendship and acceptance and of of coming together as a community, I guess.

- Thoughts/Opinions/Extra Information -

I thought this was a well made movie. I have to say, the CGI was very good, I was quite impressed with how good it looked on screen. I remember the earlier days of CGI, where it really didn't look at all realistic... of course this is hardly a movie all about realism, of course every car is a real person with eyes on the windscreen and so on but it doesn't look all square/blocky and a bit ridiculous, like older CGI efforts sometimes seemed to be.

If you've seen other Pixar/Disney movies, then you should know what to expect. It is a rather heart warming movie, touching on the somewhat usual themes that such movies cover, like mentioned above such as friendship and acceptance. I suppose it is quite a moral story and I think that some kids may be turned off by that but I don't feel that its made in such a way that it felt like it really tries too hard to drum into you any morals, yes it does try to teach you that you should think of others and that your career isn't everything, those sort of things but it didn't feel as if it was really trying to be over moralistic (is that even a word? lol you know what I mean).

I noticed that the movie is pretty long at around 1 hour 50 minutes, which I felt is probably a bit long for young children. Younger kids, under 7 or 8 perhaps, may get a bit bored with it in parts, as the story is a bit slow moving in the middle, I felt too. Otherwise, though, I thought that it was quite a charming and quality made movie though, with some pretty good CGI. There are a few good shots of the mountainous panoramas, which I did think were pretty good. I imagine it would look good on a large screen.

Also I guess I should mention, since part of the reason I wanted to see it is because of Owen voicing Lightning I guess lol, that I thought he was a pretty good choice for that character, in that his voice carries the arrogance and excitedness of the character.

- Certificate -

Cars is rated PG in the UK. This is due to one case of mild profanity, very mild violence, one potentially frightening scene (with an angry looking combine harvester chasing Mater and Lightning) and a mild sex reference. For more details on this, if needed, to help decide if this is right for your (esp. younger) kids, see:-

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0317219/parentalguide

- DVD -

Okay I decided I'll go into a bit more detail to make this a DVD review.
As well as the movie, on the DVD you also get a couple of short cartoons, one to do with a character from the movie and another unrelated one, plus other bonus features. These are as follows:-

Mater & the Ghostlight - This is a cartoon/short (around 6 minutes) where it starts off with the cars in Radiator Springs being told a ghost story, that scares Mater, when he thinks it comes true.

One Man Band - This is another cartoon/short, which doesn't feature any of the Cars characters. Instead its about a young girl who has to decide which out of two One Man Band buskers, to give her money to... she's a bit mean though!

The other bonus features include an epilogue, a documentary about the inspiration for the movie (quite interesting) and some deleted scenes. The deleted scenes are shown not in CGI but like life like storyboards, presumably because they never made it as far as being made into/with CGI. These are quite cute, I quite like the storyboard/drawing form its shown in actually. Also the subtitle and language options are all just English, so there's nothing much to detail there...

- Official Website -

The official website for Cars can be found here:-

http://disney.go.com/disneyvideos/animatedfilms/cars/

On this website, you'll find a few games you can play, along with information on the movie, the movies trailer. If you click on 'Enter Showroom', you'll be taken to a site where you can find more information on Lightning McQueen. The accessories section offers wallpapers, animated signatures and AIM icons. There are more games available under 'Test Drive Games' and you can play clips from the various songs present in the movie, under 'Music'.

- Conclusions -

This is another quality Pixar/Disney collaboration movie, that I'm sure many slightly older children will (and do) love. The characters are all slightly different and have their own charms.

It features the usual good themes and morals of such a movie, although it didn't feel to me as if it was being too preachy and is pretty much what you'd expect of it. The CGI is pretty impressive, the technology has certainly improved from that of 20 years ago, which makes me feel old lol.

If there are any downsides to this movie, I'd say that these are the fact that it is quite a long movie, which may mean that its not great for really young children, as they may lose interest midway through it but this shouldn't be a problem for older children. Also, it is a bit slow in the middle but I didn't feel that it was too boring, it kept enough interest for you to want to watch to the end and see if Lightning could make it back in time for that all important race for the Piston Cup.

Otherwise, this is a very good movie that of course doesn't offend and should be fine for entertaining slightly older kids, as well as adults. Any closet Disney/Pixar fans should also enjoy this, at least I did anyway!

As always, I hope this review proves helpful for some. Thanks for reading! 

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