A couple of days ago, Pixar released the third official trailer for Cars 2 – which seems weird because I feel like I’m already seeing commercials and exclusive clips of it everywhere.
For your benefit, I’ve included it here:
The reaction among most of the online movie blogs was typical. People were licking their chops writing up their best disses.
“If Pixar is the standard by which we inevitably, unfairly measure all other cartoons,” wrote FilmDrunk “Cars is the franchise that proves they’re still human.”
“Eh, it’s Pixar,” opined Pajiba “You’ll see it eventually. What choice do you have?”
Look, I’m not blind. I know that Pixar capped this trailer with a bidet joke. If this were a Dreamworks movie, I’d be worried.
But Pixar just came off their best year ever with the largest-earning, best reviewed Academy Award-winning Toy Story 3. You really think they’re going to take a dump in the punchbowl now?
I get it. People don’t like Cars and they don’t understand why Pixar would line up for a sequel – especially when there are more deserving properties to explore like The Incredibles or Monsters, Inc. I’m with you. BELIEVE ME, I’m with you.
But frankly, this kind of snark is nothing new. People have been predicting Pixar’s downfall ever since they hit their stride. I know I’ve said this before, but I remember people bad-mouthing Finding Nemo when it’s trailers first hit the internet. Where are those critics now. Yeah. Shut up.
I freely admit to being a Pixar fanboy and drinking the Kool-Aid. But that’s only because all of these other critics are so damn intent on asserting themselves as being above-it-all. And should Cars 2 tank critically or financially?… They’ll be the first to say “I told you so!”
It’s really unfortunate because no one ever calls these guys out when they’re proven wrong. “Remember when you said that Wall-E looked like garbage on wheels?” There’s no accountability.
I’m guilty of the same cynicism. I won’t pretend like I’m not. I see a movie like Beastly or Red Riding Hood and my eyes roll so hard they nearly fall out of my head.
But there’s a difference between bargain-basement movie making and a studio with an artistic pedigree. To quote Star Wars (for no reason at all), “I find their lack of faith… disturbing.”
Cars is basically, merchandise wise, their most successful movie to date. They have not stopped producing toys for this movie since it originally came out. as compared to most of their others where the toys disappeared almost instantly.
From that standpoint they would be insane not to produce a single.
what the internet also needs to remember is that although Pixar loves them when they buy tickets and they try to make their movies appeal to adults as well… They are not the target audience!
CHILDREN ARE!
Won’t somebody please think of the children? Oh wait, Pixar does.
I cannot get myself to watch Cars.
My character hierarchy is:
Movies featuring Humans/Humanoids/Aliens.
Movies featuring Anthropomorphic (checks google…YES!) animals.
Movies featuring Anthropomorphic Robots/Inanimate Objects.
For that reason I still haven’t seen any Transformers movies.
Iron Man doesn’t count! (There’s a human in there and those movies are awesome.) Neither does Blade Runner.
I won’t say Cars 2 is a bad idea – a hit is a hit – which used to be followed up by direct-to-dvd sequels, such as Return of Jaffar, etc.
One of the biggest problems I had with Cars initially is that I didn’t understand the “rules” of the Cars universe.
The have mouths, so do they eat? And if they eat, do the poop? I couldn’t fathom the size of the stadium where everyone gathered to watch the race at the end. It looked like a logistical nightmare. Also, HOW WAS IT BUILT.
Totally stupid, but I’m obsessive compulsive that way.
Anyway, eventually I came across this cross-section of Lightning McQueen that answered at least a couple of questions.
Cars 2 will make a butt load of money and be nominated (and probably win) an oscar for best animated feature. For no other reason than it’s Pixar.
Sorry, I have a dislike of Pixar. Mainly because I’m told that I should love the movies they make and that just hasn’t been the case (with the exception of The Incredibles)
I’m not saying they make bad movies or anything, just not great ones.
I’ll take Dreamworks over them any day.
I’m not sure I totally understand your line of reasoning.
I mean, I can understand you rejecting the hype. I’m not exactly warm on loving things I’m TOLD to love.
But, by your own admission, they don’t make bad films. So is it the movies you dislike… or the hype?
There are just little aspects of each movie that keep me from getting on board the Pixar train.
People praise UP as an amazing movie, and I feel like all they remember are the first 10-15 mins of the movie.
That opening is very powerful and emotional.
Yet by the end of the movie there are talking dogs flying airplanes and a 100+ year old explorer fighting an octogenarian on a zeppelin. It gets very,very goofy and generically fluffy the more it goes along.(yes I’m saying a movie with a floating balloon house is goofy)
WALLE- Great animation, but to many times during the movie I could feel the filmmaker telling me I should be crying at certain spots with out actually earning those tears. You can call me evil, but that little robot should have never gotten his memory back.
Toy Story- Just never really liked the movies, never did anything for me.
I might just be being nit-picky. There is no one movie that please everyone, that’s why there is such a wide variety of them.
To answer the question, I guess it’s the hype.
I don’t think any of them are bad movies, just not nearly as good as they are advertised/hyped to be
I agree with your assessment of Up. I like to think the first 10 – 15 minutes socked people in the gut so hard, they were ready to embrace the goofier aspects of the film. But how many films PERIOD are capable of wringing that kind of raw human truth out of mass entertainment? Very few, these days.
That said, without Michael Giacchino’s score calling back to Ellie’s Theme, the movie would have come completely off the rails.
How about an eh? I think it will be a decent movie, and all the monetary reasons in the world to do so, but it is like you said one of their weaker movie franchise’s from a strictly storyline basis. That said their target audience is kids and those kids love Cars, so give them Cars.
Basically, In Pixar I Trust, but not a lot of fan boy glee is oozing from me for Cars 2 as there was for Toy Story 3.
Ok, one more full disclosure and I am done, I did grow up on Toy Story, I was 6 when it came out and remember getting the toys from some fast food place and totally knowing that Tim the Toolman Taylor was Buzz. Thus began my movie nerdom!
There’s a line that was once used for the Warner Brothers cartoons of the 40s, 50s and 60s that I believe applies quite well to Pixar over the last 15 years. And I apologize for screwing it up, I don’t have the source in front of me…
Their best was a work of genius, and their worst wasn’t a waste of time.
Granted, I never saw Cars, mostly for the same reasons as Tom. The universe simply contained too many contradictions for me to really get into it. However, the animation that I saw was tremendous for the time, and the story, what little of it that I know, would work quite fine in a universe I actually understood.
BTW, I just saw Up and Wall-E in the last two weeks and in that order. I made the comment immediately after I saw it that Up was the single cutest, most thought-provoking movie that I had ever seen, and nothing else that I’ve ever seen has really come close. And then I saw Wall-E. Up is now the 2nd cutest movie I’ve ever seen. Quite simply, Dreamworks is not capable of that type of story telling, at least, not on that level. They do very well with humor and action, especially pop-culture mirrors like Shrek and Ice Age. I walk out of their movies laughing and generally enjoying their films when in the theater. But I haven’t seen a film of theirs that left me emotional, on the verge of tears, asking questions and critically thinking about what had just seen like a good Pixar film can.
And, yes, I believe that the worst films that Pixar has made are Cars, the Incredibles, and A Bug’s Life. Cars for the universe. Incredibles for basically being a Dreamworks knockoff (although succeeding better than anything Dreamworks other than Shrek, Ice Age, and HTTYD). A Bug’s Life for the excessively kiddy early presentation. When those are your worst 3 films in 15 years of filmmaking over 11 feature-length films, that’s truly saying something.
I REALLY have to disagree with your assessment of The Incredibles as a Dreamworks knock-off. If you’re a fan of comic books at all, it’s practically the best comic book movie ever made. Especially when you think about how well the power-sets of each of the characters align with their roles in society.
The hyper-kinetic young boy, the teenage girl who just wants to be invisible, the mom that’s stretched too thin and the indestructible, super-strong father who has been marginalized by conformity. Even the baby with his multiple-power set representing unlimited potential.
The Incredibles is a film with family dynamics on its mind and what it’s stance against mediocrity and complacency is one of the best lessons a film for children could ever hope to impart.
It’s not like a Dreamworks movie at all. Like you said, their films are basically mirrors to pop culture. The Incredibles is much, much more.
It looks like this one is faster paced than the first, and given that the ambling nature of the original is what made it really hard for me to get into (though by the end, I was enjoying it), for my money, it might actually be *better*.
Not to mention that the Cars movie and franchise is a John Lasseter pet project. He LOVES cars (in general) and is a real gear head. Why do you think that nearly half of Pixar shorts now are Cars/Towmater related?
It performed well in the box office, still sells merchandise, is primed for a theme park ride and the head of the company has a personal interest in the property. All that spells sequel. And it’s Pixar, with thier typical creative flow, story oversight and commitment to quality.
I am neither surprised nor am I worried. I’m sure it will be a fun movie.
Not just a theme park ride, but a whole Cars LAND at Disney’s California Adventure in 2012.
THAT’S commitment to a franchise.
Dude, I’m gonna be honest with you. This trailer is the first one that actually makes me think the movie might not be so bad, even with the waste removal trailer gag and the bidet closer. All the trailers up to this point seem to make this less of a “Cars 2” and more of a feature-length “Mater’s Tall Tales.”
I’m sorry, it could be a deep rooted dislike of Larry The Cable Guy, but Mater is probably one of my least favorite Pixar characters. Ever.
Point being, I have no hatred for “Cars” or “Cars 2.” I really wish I was still working at the park in CA so I could have had a chance to be part of the opening crew in Cars Land. What I would have a hatred for is “Cars 2” being a guise for “Mater and Other Folk.”
I sympathize with your feelings toward Mater. The fact that it’s Larry the Cable Guy behind the mic REALLY makes me dislike him.
But I think once you divorce Larry the Cable Guy as a redneck stereotype from Mater – who is an otherwise genuine, caring, fun-loving creation – it gets easier.
I think Cars is the worst movie Pixar has made to date, and it’s still better than 99% of the family films out there. Add to that the fact that the Toy Story movies have gotten better each time (a rarity for sequels), and there is absolutely no reason to assume that this won’t be an entirely entertaining and well-made movie.
Wait, people didn’t like Cars? Score another point for my “bad taste” card, I guess. I had no idea.
(It’s strange though. I loathe Larry the Cable Guy’s brand of humor and yet somehow I didn’t mind his character in Cars.)
I’d agree that it’d be cool to see more of The Incredibles though.