Automobile Month: Can We Talk about Cars

Welcome to a very special Can We Talk about kicking off Automobile Month. That's right over the next month, I will be taking a look at some classic Disney automobile material.  Including my very first review of a Disney film that isn't an animated film.  Now this will not affect Music Fridays what so ever, they will remain the same and so will Classic Shorts Showcase but I do have some Autombile Month themed Music Fridays and Classic Shorts Showcase planned. Anyways, let's begin.



Now Cars is one of my favorite Pixar films, I'd rank it as my second favorite right behind Toy Story 2. Yet people seem to hate this movie and while I can understand that it is the weakest, I don't think it's a bad movie. But the insults really came in when the reviews of Cars 2 came out. For the most part, Cars 2 has been getting bad reviews. There have only been so few good reviews of the film. One such person that gave it a good review though was Roger Ebert saying that the film took him back to the days of his youth playing with his toy cars. That's wonderful and had me excited to see the film.

While one reviewer who clearly had a disdain for the film called Mater, Pixar's Jar Jar Binks. I'm sorry but I think that is going a little too far.  Now maybe this is just my opinion but I in no way agree with that because while Jar Jar ruined the Star Wars prequels, I do not feel that Mater has ruined Pixar.

 

Although this does bring me  to something I have noticed with Cars and it something I refer to as "Franchise Overload".  Franchise Overload is when you see so much merchandise based around a character or film and it feels as though it is everywhere and in the case of Cars, there is a butt load of Cars merchandise that has been released since the first film came out.  I mean it is as though you can't go anywhere without seeing some type of Cars merchandise these days. Be it a video game, a Lego set, a book, a Lighting McQueen Halloween costume. There is so much Cars merch that it is a little crazy but this was most likely done to keep the characters of Cars in the public consiocus and not have them fade out.

Perhaps I'm wrong in thinking this but my thinking is that with all of these Cars items, people may have gotten sick of seeing these characters. Which is a shame because is a good film and the sequel is decent. It's a wonderful film about overcoming one's ego and if you liked the first film and you like Mater, I think you'll like the second film.

Now I think another thing that is hurting this film is that people keep on wanting to call it a spy parody and from the outside, I could agree with that but after reading an interview with John Lasster, the man in charge of Pixar, he has stated that Cars 2 is not a spy parody but a spy film.  I can see where he is coming from but I do have to admit that it is kind of hard to take this film seriously as a spy film especially with Mater being one of the spies. Look, I love Mater but he isn't the type of character that you would expect to see in a spy film.

In the end, I think people are being too hard on Cars 2 and if the merchandise had been toned down a little bit maybe people would not have been so annoyed by the film and if John Lasster hadn't said it was supposed to be a spy film not a parody, I don't think I would feel as akward watching it because it comes across as a parody. Anyways, these ate just my thoughts and the start to Automobile Month. Before I end this I want to share with you this really cool picture as Pixar chief John Lasster as a Cars character as he apparently had a cameo in Cars 2.

Join me next time, when I go in deeper and actually review Cars.