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Filed Under: Film, Reviews | Article Tags : DVD review

 

By: The Dweeb

 

December 2006

DVD Features Video: 2.35:1 Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital 2.0 Mater And The Ghostlight One Man Band Hilarious Animated Short Film Inspiration For Cars Creator John Lasseter Gets His Kicks On Route 66 Deleted Scenes Theatrical release: 6/09/2006 DVD released on 11/07/2006 by Disney/Buena Vista Running time of 116 minutes Starring: Cheech Marin, Paul Dooley, Larry The Cable Guy, Bonnie Hunt, George Carlin, Paul Newman, Owen Wilson, Michael Keaton, Tony Shalhoub, John Ratzenberger Director: John Lasseter Plot: Hotshot rookie race car Lightning McQueen is living life in the fast lane until he hits a detour on his way to the most important race of his life. Stranded in Radiator Springs, a forgotten town on the old Route 66, he meets Sally, Mater, Doc Hudson, and a variety of quirky characters who help him discover that there’s more to life than trophies and fame.

 

Kachow! The latest installment from Pixar animation has made its way onto DVD this fall, and as my son can attest, its a winner! Pixar has again outdone themselves again, each installment seems to get better and better. The secret must be churning out simple movies with fantastic characters and paying attention to detail right down to the last pixel. I will have to admit that on first viewing in the theater (and my sons first ever movie theater experience by the way), I was not that impressed. But with repeated viewings (do DVD’s wear out?) with my obsessed 3 year old, it has definitely grown on me. I catch something new almost every time, there are so many things buried in there.

Its a fairly basic story, similar to all the other Pixar themes dealing with personal change involving some kind of journey or challenge. This time, we’re on the ultimate journey, a small town on the fabled Route 66. A brash self centered race car gets sidetracked in a small town and is forced to slow down (literally) and smell the roses. But what makes the film more interesting are all the crazy inhabitants of this sleepy town, the most prominent (and heavily marketed) being Mater the Tow Truck (Larry the Cable Guy). A hit with the kids, the rusty old tow truck is hilarious and has this innocent charm about him. Just like any Pixar flick, the cuteness factor has been pulled off again. I mean come on, they made a bunch of talking cars look cute!

As with every new film that Pixar makes, the computing power just keeps going up by leaps and bounds and it shows in this film. Wow! Its almost as if it were taking place in the real world in some scenes, especially on the race track. As usual they have outdone themselves yet again. As for choice in soundtrack, they decided to forgo the Randy Newman music, although he did write some items, but most of it is rockin road tunes. Its a nice change of pace for me at least.

As far as extras are concerned it seemed to me to be fairly light in this area. I’m guessing there will be a hi def collector’s edition sometime around the corner filled with a lot more stuff. They did include the short shown in the theatre and a brand new short clip featuring Mater. The documentary about the inspiration for the movie is an interesting back story on how this flick came to be. I guess whatever John Lasseter wants to do gets green lighted, too bad he’s a suit now at Disney. Still, not a terrible selection but it left me wanting to see more. The other films had so much more to them it seems like this edition was shortchanged. Ah well.

Reviewer’s Opinion: BUY IT!!