Cars
I've only seen four Pixar movies so far (skipped the first few) and every time they've turned out better than I expected. I expected to hate Monsters Inc, and loved it. I thought a movie about a fish couldn't be that great, and then also fell in love with Finding Nemo, and although I was expecting pretty good things from The Incredibles I was even surprised by how good it was. The same can sort of be said about Cars. I had heard good things, but didn't expect anything as good as the previous films, but it was better than I thought it would be, but not by much.
It was still an entertaining movie, and worth seeing, but it just didn't quite have the same umphf as the previous releases from Pixar. The story wasn't overly clever (famous hot shot gets stranded in a town of completely random other people, needs to get out to get to his race, but falls in love with a woman and the town, meets an old idol who hates him at first but teaches him an important lesson and helps save him at the race, is going to win the race but realizes some things are more important than winning, gets the girl, makes the town prosperous again).
But there are still those Pixar moments that make it both entertaining and visually pleasing. There are even those jokes in there aimed at the older audiences (I don't know many younger kids who will get the "Freebird!" joke for example). And most movies now a day are rather perdictable, so although I've come to expect a little more creativity out of Pixar I can't hold it against them too much.
So lastly let's talk about the voice talent. For me this was a mixed bag. There are plenty of big names, but I'm just getting sick of Owen Wilson (and it is so obviously him). And although Bonnie Hunt was decent as well, it was just a bit creepy thinking about a romance between Wilson and Hunt, they just don't go together in my head. But there were also the good surprises, like Larry The Cable Guy. Normally I'm not a big fan of him, but he did a fantastic job in his role (only once slipping in the tired "get 'er done" line). And Paul Newman fit his role rather well too, although he didn't seem to bring anything all that special to the part.
And we can't forget about all the great lesser voices (that you may or may not pick up on) such as:
-Cheech Marin as the Hispanic lowrider
-Tony Shalhoub as the Italian Ferrai loving tire salesman (can you believe that this guy was born in Wisconsin? Crazy).
-George Carlin as the hippie stoner car
-Katherine Helmond (Mona) as the senile grandma of the town
-Jeremy Piven as the faceless agent
-Richard and Linda Petty as the old racing couple (The King and his wife, in and out of Cars)
-Michael Keaton as the asshole rival (I'm evil BATMAN!)
And of course last but not least that great staple of Pixar voice talent, John Ratzenberger as the Mack truck. He was great in Cheers (as well as all his other cameos I've seen), and it's good to see him still working. It was also funny to see them play off of how he's been in every Pixar movie during the credits too. And as an added trivia/awsome fact side-note, did you realize that Ratzenberger was in Superman I and II (arguably the only good ones so far), as well as Episode V (arguably the best of the Star Wars, although I'll take up that arguement with anyone), coincidence? I think not.
But back to the important stuff. It was a good movie, maybe even more, but not a great movie like the previous Pixar films. Still, it was way better than most of the crap I've seen out there this year (but still not as good as it's animated rival Over the Hedge).
RATING: Worth a Full Price Ticket, Worth a Rental (but probably not a purchase).