Hard for kids with ants in their pants syndrome

Rating: 8/10 (11 June 2006)

OK, it's a horrible association, but I wonder why Chevron didn't sue Lassiter for copying the ideas of their cars... but who cares now? I'm sure this new addition from the Pixar pen (Digital, I'm sure) will make it's costs and then some. But before I get into actually reviewing this film, I want to part my observation from the spectator side. I realized this was going to have lots of kids seeing it is actually for kids, but for a kids movie, there was a lot of restlessness in the seats. It wasn't engaging them as a cartoon should engage a kid. Either ADHD is at an all time epidemic level, or maybe they were bored with the first part of the film. One mother actually took their 5 year old to the side isle and let them run up and down the steps. A parent behind me tried desperately to "shhhsssh" their 1st grader into submission. It didn't work. Even during the latter third of the movie, the conversations amongst the kids seemed more about everyday things that the movie. So, what was the target audience of this film? NASCAR enthusiast? Chevron toy car collectors? Pixar CGI enthusiast (I grimly raise my hand)? A little bit of everything, but not enough on one thing in particular. The one thing that went against this cartoon was it's running time. At 4 minutes less than 2 hours, no kid should be expected to sit through something like this. The apparent nature in kids is to move around and be active. So, this is testing even the most committed parent with a 3 - 6 year old. However, cars is still Pixar, and charming in it's own way. I have to admit, I gaped in awe as McQueen speeds through the mountain tunnel to reveal the waterfall on the other side. Particularly realistic, it could match anything Yosemite Park has to offer, and to think it took down entire computer server when they tried to render the shot in real time, you know they were jammin those bytes by the millions. The sheer magnitude of the study of reflection, color and texture warrants applaud all by it's self. It was a simple plot: Car gets lost, car meets girl... err, chick-car umm, future soccer mom... (whatever) , car ends up making lots of new best friends and setting up shop in depressed town of Radiator Springs. Mater (Larry, The Cable Guy) really pitches his voices to create a great beat up buck toothed tow truck, even managing to slip in a "get 'er done" near the end of the movie. Funny thing about this film: it really has no villain, no promoter of evil... all there is is competitive egos. Man, sometimes that can be enough too! I didn't mind the corny name droppings, but the pace of this film is uneven, and even drags for quite a while. Happily, it picks up pace though in the final third, and the action resumes to what one expects of Pixar. If you see it, stay for the credits: They didn't do out-takes, but seems to snip in some funny stuff that one could have imagined the characters doing in the side lines... especially the car versions of previous Pixar films. I would recommend you not take any kids under 5 or 6 simply because some people may be really involved with the film, and a young kid not engaged in a movie enough to shut them up would make a bad viewing for some. Not me, of course!