This past weekend, my family all went to see Cars. It probably comes as no surprise that as the latest Pixar creation sets new standards in terms of animation quality while maintaining their trend for fantastic, entertaining stories. If you liked Toy Story, Monsters Inc., the Incredibles and the like, you'll love Cars.
Cars is a very good blend of mind-blowing animation, fantastic sound effects, a star-studded cast of characters, wrapped around a nice, simple story.
The animation in Cars was simply unbelievable. Separate from the characture-type vehicles, everything else was nearly real-life. Truly, there were times I was second guessing myself that what I was watching was animation cut into real lift footage. It wasn't.
The second thing I noticed was the amazing use of sound in this movie. Of course, in many cartoons, there are plenty of opportunities to make whatever scene use whatever sounds desired. Since Cars built on the topic of racing, the ability to use engine sounds that are different based on the type of vehicle really made a nice effect. It sounds goofy, but it was really cool.
Third, the story of Lightening McQueen is very easy for kids to grasp. However, this is the same sword that could make this movie seem simplistic (ie, Sesame Street and the like) to adults (or especially teens, who would probably be intolerant of such things). That simplicity is especially contrasted against the more complex storyline of the Incredibles. But that's OK to me.
The issue we had is related to my rant against the MPAA. This is a G-rated film folks, yet at least on a couple of occasions, the characters in the movie used God's name in vain ("Oh my God," specifically). I heard it, my wife heard it, and my 3 year old looked over at me and said "We don't say 'dat." I agreed.
Unfortunately, those "dings" leaves me with a bad impression on what is a fantastically enjoyable film. Admittedly, most folks would zip right by the few language infractions and not notice them. Fine. I certainly don't think they should stop you from seeing this film. I'm sure it will be added to our collection and viewed 80 or 90 times in the week it's brought home...
Later.