Good, but not great; strangely unfulfilling

Rating: 6/10 (26 June 2006)

To mix my metaphors, Pixar has been something like the engine on a '57 Chevy: Big, good, and reliable. As many in Hollywood will tell you, the cost of entry in the game is the story, not the money any more. "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" is a good example (though ultimately a wretched green-screen joke, unfortunately) that anyone can muscle their way in with a Mac and a dream. Given this, Pixar's storytelling prowess has consistently rated second to none: Toy Story, Toy Story 2, A Bug's Life, Finding Nemo, Monsters, Inc., and, in my opinion, their best, The Incredibles, Pixar seemingly couldn't miss a mark in the 20+ years now of leading the vanguard of computer animation. And, with John Lasseter helming again in "Cars", such achievement seemed a natch.
But something in "Cars" is missing and I see a real chink in Pixar's armor being exposed. Certainly it's not for lack of love of the subject matter. Certainly it's not for lack of brilliant animation: Yet again the competition with its me-too Madagascar clones (how many CGI movies do we need of animals escaping from... whatever?) is left wildly in the dust. And certainly it's not for lack of voice acting quality, which Wilson, Hunt, Newman, Shalhoub, et. al handle amiably.
It's for lack of story, that ever-impossible cost of entry in the Hollywood game. For Pixar, the master of the story, to miss is a scary proposition.
The story, like Owen Wilson's Southern drawl, feels thin and weightless. Revolving around a town of broken dreams, Radiator Springs, Wilson's Lightning McQueen finds a kind of redemption around the motley crew and Doc, its "doctor of internal combustion," gruffly voiced by a joyless Paul Newman, who seems to be constipated--or does his carburetor just need tuning?--throughout.
It feels like a kind of harp on zen philosophy--life's the journey and all that--that in the end feels rather dreary. Maybe Pixar's style has come to settling in like a comfy chair where one muses on life over a glass of brandy, but it doesn't work for a G-rated family flick. Maybe this is their "Godfather III."
If you watch the DVD extras for "The Incredibles" you'll see that Brad Bird was brought in to shake things up at Pixar, to consciously get them out of their comfort zone. He did so and did it brilliantly. "The Incredibles" didn't fail to key in on the meaning of life, personal identity, and conformity, yet it all worked together so brilliantly in the story that you barely even see it. That, dare I say, is great art.
And, dare I say it, Pixar needs to be shook up again.