I don't think it was a bad movie at all. It's better than most of the crap in theaters these days, and you can tell Pixar put a good deal of thought into creating an alternative universe in which people are replaced by machines. Compared to the other Pixar films, however, I think it was the weakest. That's just my opinion though, and is probably just down to me not really being a car kind of guy. July 2011 will bring Disney's new Winnie the Pooh movie. They've gone back to the basics with traditional cel animation and what at first look seems to be a good story. I've already made plans to take my daughter to the theater for that one. While I share your love for Studio Ghibli, what really makes their movies so strong is not the quality of the animation (though it certainly doesn't hurt). Miyazaki uses the animation as a tool to tell a good story. I have nothing against computer animation; for me it's just another tool. If the story is good (e.g. Toy Story, Laputa: Castle in the Sky), how it's told isn't as important. I recently streamed The Secret of Kells on Netflix. Although hand drawn, the animation is very basic, almost rudimentary. Nevertheless, it was a beautiful movie.
What's worrying me at the moment is the trailer for the new CGI Yogi Bear movie, starring Dan Ackroyd & Justin Timberlake as Yogi & Boo-Boo. They're doing the correct voices!
Be interesting to see how it does, though with most of the animation films its the toys and merchandise that make the profit.
Cars I thought was considerably underated. I'm not sure why, it just didnt sell well at first. Personally I really like it and cant wait for the sequal. Monsters inc 2 would also be very good.
I loved Cars and it was one of the few pixar films we didn't see in the cinema because of its lukwarm reception. When we got it on DVD i was surprised by how under rated it was. I really enjoyed Ratatouille too. Wasn't the Princess and Frog hand drawn?
Full length trailer: This is looking great - but I'm biased as I loved the original. My only nitpick is that as great an actor Michael Caine is (and I'm sure he's done a great job on this), the Finn McMissile character needed to be voiced by Sean Connery. Caine = Charlie Croker, Not James Bond.
That's actually a fair point, and is something I hadn't considered before. It also doesn't hurt that Cars is John Lasseter's favorite. I guess I'm just not a car person, because I think the trailer looks terrible. It looks like they binned all the charm of the first movie and turned it into the same "country mouse in the city" story we've seen a million times, complete with all the usual stereotypes. Also, I think Pixar did a very good job creating an alternative universe in the first movie, and the cars-as-people idea was treated well enough that I could accept the reality as presented. Having a James Bond car swinging from wires seems a little far fetched to me. For a moment I thought I was watching a trailer for The Incredibles 2.
Cars 2 will hopefully be great like the first one - Owen Wilson was a spot on choice for McQeens voice.. Having said that, I would have definitely picked a different movie to the sequel of (probably Incredibles or Wall-E). And for the record, in my opinion Ratatouille was epic. What's not to like? It's got rats, food, Frenchness and a sinister looking food critic.
Word. I've been trying to find a film like Akira ever since I saw it. It amazes me that nobody has exploited the style/genre more. Studio Gibli are very cuddly and happy, even Mononoke (the darkest and most violent of the lot, AFAIK). I wish there were serious, adult films done in animation. Akira's the only one I know of. (Ghost in the Shell is too far embedded in the sci-fi genre to have wide appeal.) Cars was the first Pixar film to really disappoint me. I think I just hated the premise - the film itself was well-made, but the idea of anthropomorphic cars pissed me off as being inane and too childish to have adult appeal. Also, I hate to point it out, but Pixar are turning into Disney in terms of formula. Their films, more and more, follow painfully obvious and predictable story arcs, tropes and character types. Cars was 90% Disney, 10% Pixar; as formulaic as an Adam Sandler film.
I want Monsters Inc. 2. Nothing else will satisfy me. That said, this'll likely be pretty good, all of Pixar's films have got at least that rating from me so far.
