DVD Review: Cars

DVD Review: Cars (John Lasseter, 2006, USA).

Pixar, the animation house which could do no wrong. After the massive successes of their previous films, the man who started it all with the Toy Story films came back to make what he regarded as his most personal project yet. Ironically, my biggest problem with the film is the impersonal feel which runs throughout.
Lighting McQueen, voiced by Owen Wilson, is an arrogant young racer who wants to win the biggest prize in racing, the Piston Cup. in doing this he can live his dreams and sign for the biggest sponsor there is and become the most famous car in the world. While on his way to a decisive race he finds himself in the sleepy of town of radiator Springs where he leanrsa that life doesn't need to be raced through, sometimes you have to slow down..... If that sounds trite, thats because it is. That's all there is to this film, a cocky arrogant youngster finds out that life isn't about pursuing success in your field, its about friends and appreciating whats around you. Like hicks and desert plains.
This film feels manufactured, like something which has come of a conveyor belt, and if this was just a Disney film, I wouldn't be surprised, but this is Pixar! Makers of Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc and The Incredibles, some of the most original, satisfying, funny and downright great animated films there have ever been. And so for a a film like Cars to come from them, is such a crying shame. McQueen goes through many standard narrative tropes. Cocky kid learns lessons slowly, is faced with a stumbling block, gets though it and becomes a changed person. Success isn't everything, friends are important, these are pure cliche. While it could be argued that other Pixar films have extolled these values, I would argue that they have never done so while pushing them down our necks through montages and songs, they have done so through very clever writing and inspired plots. While the writing through this film si sharp at times, and Tow-Mater voiced by American comic Larry the Cable Guy, gets some very good stuff to work with, the whole thing felt flat with me. When the most exciting thing in a film happens in the first 15 minutes (the brilliant race which opens the movie) you know you are in trouble. All the technical aspects are brilliant, the cars themselves look incredible, the landscapes terrific, but with Pixar, the storytelling always shone through. It's just to bad they seem to have forgotten their own rules while making Cars.

Extras: Pretty light for a Pixar film, could be a sign that Disney accept that this didn't do so well in comparison to the other films. We get the obligatory shorts, one created for the DVD, Mater and the Ghostlight which is funny without being memorable, and the short which preceded Cars in the cinema, One Man Band, a funny little thing which while entertaining, you would never feel the urge to watch again. A few standard featurettes fill the disc out and they just go to further emphasise the flatness of the whole package. Bitterly disappointed.

Back tomorrow with my review of Pan's Labyrinth.