Cars

Did I not like Cars because it was aimed at a younger audience than the other Pixar movies, or is my dislking of the film more simple than that? Is it not simply because Cars isn't a very good movie?

That's the question I've been trying to answer all week and I'm still left undecided. The concept of talking cars isn't nearly as appealing to me as the concept of real life toys or a family of superhero's so I went into the film with the frame of mind that I wasn't going to like it. From the trailers and promotional bits I saw of the film I wasn't all that impressed. They didn't seem to convey a sense of story or magic to draw you in like the other Pixar trailers for their other movies, which were wonderfully crafted together.

So I watched it and the biggest problem I had was that the whole world in Cars is made up of vehicles, with no humans in sight. In Toy Story, it was fantastic that you were shown this little world where toys lived and interacted with each other (you know they held their own weekly meetings and had their own community and stuff) which made them seem special and brought you into a world you could believe in. For example, When I was watching Cars all I could see was other vehicles in the stadium's seats. There was no sense of this magic community that I could get drawn into.

Cars is visually nice but the character designs look awful. In Toy Story and The Incredibles each character had their own fun character traits that you could recognize at first glance but with the appearance of the characters in Cars, I found understanding each character quite difficult.

rating: 2.5

In the end then, Cars does have a half-decent story but it's a shame you can't get all that involved in it because of the bad character designs, long winded running time and the wrong choices about the world they occupy. I have a feeling that kids will go crazy over this movie, but for me this is the most disapointing Pixar movie to date.