Talking cars rediscover the quirky originality of middle America in this inventive animated film from the folks at Pixar (TOY STORY, FINDING NEMO). Owen Wilson does the voice of... more
Cars (Pixar) DVD
Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson) is a cocky rookie race car. Speeding on his way ... more
to a big race he crashes into Radiator Springs destroying lots of the inhabitants' belongings! In order to make up for what he did the raucous roadster is s...
Good CGI, interesting characters, nice concept, quite heart warming
Disadvantages:
Quite long, story is a little slow half way through (may bore younger kids)
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
- 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...
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!
Advantages: Excellent animation, great characters, brilliant cameos Disadvantages: Weak(ish) storyline, obvious direction
...Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Cars takes the flexibility of animation one step further, however. Whereas other animated box office successes have always kept one toe in the real world, regularly referring to animals or humans or depicting real life creatures, Cars has moved on to create a make-believe world of its own, where human beings don't actually exist and the car really is the Star.
The story revolves around Lightning McQueen, an upstart racecar ... ...and the animation of the cars is nothing less than you would expect from Pixar. Each one emulates its real-life counterpart with clever touches from the animators to give the appearance of a face and exceptional flexibility to portray emotions. Despite the animated vehicles being the stars of the film, you can't help but feel a liking and an emotional link to each and every one of them.
As with all good cartoons, comedy abounds. The humour is excellent ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Great film and fantastic characters - What a film Disadvantages: None - Just make sure you watch it!
...did not want to watch Cars for several minutes because I thought it would be a terrible film, my brother put the film on anyway. It was his choice. He is 5 years older. How lucky was I that he decided this for us. What a film.
Cars is again a great hit by Pixar and one I would recommend to all families, for kids and adults. It is a fantastic film with great cast voices and is full of hilarious characters. I cant remember the last time I had so much ... ...a world filled by anthropomorphic cars and other vehicles. The plot is about a rookie car racer called Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) who is part of the infamous 'Piston Cup Tournament'. Upon his travels to the last race he falls out of his truck and due to having no headlights and wing mirrors he finds it hard to find where he is going. While nearly the entire nation is searching for him, he winds up at a rundown derelict town known as Radiator ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: The soundtrack Disadvantages: The characters aren't very strong
...a whole load of different cars so I would say it's much more appealing to young boys like Noah. There are female characters in the film but I don't think it's enough of a pull to keep a girly girl interested for the whole hour and a half. The characters in the film aren't particularly strong in my opinion. I actually think that the two main characters are pretty weak and it's the other characters in the film that make it what it is. Some of these ... ...before, it has grown on me but I still don't think it's brilliant. If you have a young boy who is into cars then I would recommend you watch it with them but apart from that it's not one that you should bother with, you're not missing out on much. ...
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Advantages: Original Plot Disadvantages: Not for everyone
Cars is an animated film produced by Pixar and Disney in 2006. It revolves around ‘the piston cup,’ a fictional racing trophy and the cars that are involved in it. Lightning McQueen is the new, yet favoured car. At the finale of the trophy, it turns out that for the first time there is a draw, and so a compromise is reached: whoever gets to the next race first will win the trophy, title and sponsors. However, Lightning gets stuck on route 66 in a ... ...Disney dvds for £15, and Cars is included in this offer so this is a better deal. Compared to other pixar films it is quite similar, as it shows a different point of life, showing racing from the point of view of the cars, like how the pixar film A Bug’s Life shows bugs having an adventure. Also it is similar in that it has a wide range of main characters, and a message. The film had a massive amount of success, and it even managed to win the first ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Excellent animation, Fantastic Characters, Great story ! Disadvantages: none (Unless you include watching again and again and again !!)
...hr 52 min
Disney-Pixar Cars is an entertaining family film the whole family can enjoy together. With a easy to follow plot and plenty of laughs along the way, racing-car fans and car obsessed little boys will love it. The tale begins with rookie race car Lightening McQueen racing for the Piston Cup, which ends up as a tie and the race must be run again. On the way to the race in California, McQueen manages to fall out of his transporter and he ends ... ...boy, even if they are cars there are great voices and like-able characters. They are all fantastically done, not just the famous Lightning McQueen. Favorites include Mater the goofy tow-truck, and the wise old car Doc Hudson who is not what he first seems. There are plenty of catchy lines in the film, plus plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, especially the tractor tipping !!!
As you'd expect it has the classic Disney 'happily ever after' influence ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Excellent documentary about the biggest conspiracy in the auto industry Disadvantages: Will no doubt make you angry and outrage that electric cars are not still existing
...******************************************************************
TITLE: Who Killed The Electric Car?
RATING: ****½
DIRECTOR: Chris Paine
SCREENWRITER: Chris Paine
NARRATOR: Martin Sheen
STUDIO: Sony Pictures Classics
RUNNING TIME: 93 min.
RATED: PG (US) & U (UK); for brief language.
DVD AVAILABILITY: 5 GBP from Amazon; ASIN #B000MGBPHO
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INTRODUCTION
******************************************************************
In 1996, electric cars began to appear on roads all over California. They were quiet and fast, produced no exhaust, and ran without gasoline. Ten years later, these futuristic cars were almost entirely gone. What happened? Why should we be haunted by the ghost of the electric car...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Sweet and funny story with lots of clever touches Disadvantages: Possibly not as funny as other Pixar animations
...of a cuddly character for younger children may make "Cars" one of the lesser favourite Pixar films for them. However this is a minor blip. With the uniqueness of the characters and the light comical moments this film will do well.
The soundtrack compliments the film perfectly. Rascal Flatts cover of Life Is a Highway is catchy and I can imagine kids would like it. There are also songs by Sheryl Crow, James Taylor, and Chuck Berry's cover of Route 66.
I would recommend this film to all, even if it is just to see how wonderful the graphics are. It is a sweet simple story with a worthy message to be learned. I thoroughly enjoyed the film and Mater and Luigi stole the show for me. I would even watch it again when it's out on DVD.
LINKS
http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/cars/...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Frightening and insightful look into an Environmental Conflict and Political Response Disadvantages: Critics may consider it one sided
...put in place only a decade earlier - on 24 April 2003 - a day the Electric Car was effectively sentenced to death.
So why on earth would they do that? The facts, as explored in this documentary, are actually very shocking, extremely short sighted and even quite upsetting and disturbing.
The Film "Who Killed the Electric Car" was directed by Chris Paine - himself a former driver of the Toyota EV1 plug in car whose birth and death we witness in this film. The film is narrated by Martin Sheen. This film was released in 2006 and was the third highest ranking documentary of the year, and was released on DVD in the UK in 2007.
It begins with a mass "funeral" of electric cars, an act of civil protest undertaken by many of the drivers of these vehicles within the State of California. What follows is a shocking story...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Plot: CARS is the story of Lightning McQueen; a spoiled race car with a bad attitude. On route to his next event, he crashes in the small, backwater town of Radiator Springs. Forced to stay until he has fixed all that he destroyed, McQueen will have to learn that the world does not revolve around him, if he’s to leave in time for the race.
Release details
DVD Region: DVD
Studio(s): WALT DISNEY STUDIOS HOME ENTERTAINM; TECHNICOLOR DISTRIBUTION SERVICES
Release date: 27/11/2006
No of Discs: 1
Catalogue No: BUA 0031701
Barcode: 8717418095376
Screenwriter: Owen Wilson, Bonnie Hunt, John Lasseter, Kiel Murray, Phil Lorin
Voice: Bonnie Hunt, George Carlin, Bob Costas, Michael Keaton, Paul Newman, Owen Wilson
Languages
Main Language: English
Subtitle Language: English
Hearing Impaired Language: English
DVD Description
Talking cars rediscover the quirky originality of middle America in this inventive animated film from the folks at Pixar (TOY STORY, FINDING NEMO). Owen Wilson does the voice of arrogant rookie racecar Lightning McQueen, who winds up stranded in the small desert town of Radiator Springs on his way west to a big showdown. Sentenced to community service after literally tearing up the road in a high-speed chase, at first all Lightning can think of is getting back to the world of corporate sponsorship and merchandising tie-ins he loves so well. Eventually, however, the eccentric residents of Radiator Springs begin to grow on him, especially the attractive lady Porsche lawyer (Bonnie Hunt) and a rusty old tow-truck (Larry the Cable Guy). There's also a hippie Volkswagen (George Carlin), a low-riding T-bird (Cheech Martin) and Paul Newman as the gruff, curmudgeonly Doc Hudson, the town judge who harbors his own checkered-flag past. The story may not be new, but Pixar's precision-engineered animation brilliantly illuminates the town and its surrounding cactus-studded vistas down to the minutest detail, and director/writer John Lasseter keeps the film's satiric wit and generous heart in perfect alignment. Adults in the audience should appreciate the film's celebration of old-school American eccentricity, and the kids will dig all the thunderous grit and high-octane wheel burning.
Technical information
Special Features: The Inspiration for CARS, MASTER AND GHOSTLIGHT - animated short, ONE MAN BAND - Theatrical animated short, Sneak peek at RATATOUILLE, Deleted Scenes, Commentary,
Aspect Ratio: 2.35 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Animated: Animated
Professional reviews
Review: The voice-cast is given a lift by Paul Newman, whose deep tones dignify his character....Its eye-boggling giant stadiums and desert vistas fill the biggest cinema screen (Sight And Sound, 20/09/2006)
As a technical achievement, CARS is peerless....[The cars] are alive and the team has faithfully crafted an environment for the characters (Total Film, 20/09/2006)
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This product has not yet been reviewed. 
01.05.2007
