Better than ever, good as always

Rating: 9/10 (11 July 2006)

Man, I cannot believe Pixar. I felt they were going to start to slip when they released The Incredibles and I thought it was just another superhero movie, when it turned out to be an exploration of discovering your identity and knowing who you are and what you can do. Then I thought Cars looked kind of uninteresting and reviews that called it derivative didn't help. However, though this movie may be a bit derivative, it still is a huge helping of Pixar heart.
Everything about this movie exceeded my expectations. I thought I'd hate the characters, especially Lightning and Mader because Lightning is selfish and Mader is voiced by Larry the Cable Guy, but I ended up really liking both (and all of the other characters too). I didn't believe Pixar could have made their animation even more stunning, but they did, both with high technological neon lighting animation and gorgeous natural vistas. Heck, I thought the movie would feel preachy, but it still feels very caring.
It's also a slight return to form after the Incredibles in that it returns to homages of cinema past and tie-ins to other Pixar works, something that is both fun to look for and shows how much the crew working at Pixar really love their job. These films are still really magnificent and I can't wait for Ratatouille coming in 2007.
--PolarisDiB