No applause this time

Rating: 1/10 (27 July 2006)

I'm a huge fan of animation movies, especially Pixar work. I've followed them up since Luxo Jr, Tin Toy, etc and probably seen everything since. I must say I'm quite disappointed with Cars. I couldn't be less interested in Nascar racing, but what it matters is the story, right? So, let's see what we have here: a cocky young boy that only cares about himself, ready to learn a life lesson from the experienced but troubled old man. And then characters: It looks like they just grab one from each category and mix them up with the blender. We have the silly, the shy, the old lady, the "couple of Italians", the soldier, the cheater, you name it, it's there Some might see this as an amazing creativity, but to me it's only lucking so much of story that they're just adding whatever character, having saying the line that corresponds to that profile, and they're happy with it. My favorite one is in the old town, each time something happens, the camera pans from side to side so each character say whatever comment suits the profile. It gets extremely boring and predictable after the first run Then again, the casting. How could the story be any different if Owen Wilson is playing the young guy, and Paul Newman the old guy. Haven't we seen them a million times playing the exact same roles? Please. I normally don't enjoy waiting until the end titles to see something new. And what's up with the names? Toys, Bugs, Monsters, Cars? Maybe if they weren't so obsessed in making sure their movies can sell all type of merchandising they could focus in writing a better story. Not that they shouldn't try to make money, but I definitely prefer when they have a great movie to justify all. Pixar to me is all about innovation, creativity and imagination, just not this time. I should have left after One Man's Band short, which is a perfect example of what they know how to do. My guess for the next title: "Socks!"