Shine sees Cars

Not often I go to a full house screening.
Why? because I don’t have to - a cinema all to myself is about as good as it gets and it gets that way a lot where I live. However I went against this preference for Cars because sometimes, just SOMETIMES it’s great to see a film with a cinema full of it’s target audience.
I wasn’t wrong!
Got to see the trailer for Rat.a.too.ee (i wonder where they are going on that one, but that’s for another day…).
Got to see ONE MAN BAND!
- something I have been awaitin’ for since I got hooked on Mark Andrew’s talent when I saw the extras for The Incredibles. One Man Band was lovely! A fine wee tale, well crafted with story and visuals to match.

The strings guy’s shirt was AMAZING! (although this shot doesn’t do it justice at ALL!)
The main feature’s opening sequence was probably lost on the target audience however this kind of sophisticated story telling is the perfect sort of thing for appealing to film connoisseurs, future creative-genuises-(genuii?)-in-the-making and normal everyday movie going plebs alike. Great to note that before this beginning sequence was over I knew that Pixar has yet again taken another leap in computer animation. They consistently raise the bar - it is so mind boggling to think of where they could possibly go next that I only let my mind flick over that thought for a nanosecond then got back into enjoying the multilayering this film offers (and by multilayering I am not just meaning the technical ones I am about to mention!).
The huge array of textures are so well executed but the star is certainly the animation of the metalic surfaces (of the cars for instance). There was such a glorious contrast between the glossy shiny cars stuff and the dusty dirt and rust stuff that it made me hanker for a drink - fantastic! The backgrounds were so finely constructed - especially the sweeping surrounds of Radiator Springs with it’s car bonnet and tail fin land features.

I just know I am gonna have to go again at least once before I purchase the dvd - how much must I have missed! (and not just because of the spoilt little girl next to me whinging because her mum wouldn’t tell me to give up my arm rest - which I actually thought about but decided I deserved it seeing as her and her three sisters and one brother and cellphone-flashing-texting mother took my centre row seat and I decided not to disturb the whole cinema making them move and just took the one on the end - literally a FULL session).
Again I noticed those tell-tale signs that have become a staple of the Pixar feature. The strong use of colours and symbols to represent the “neg” (urban) and “pos”(rural) landscapes (also the juxtiposition of fast pace and slow pace, loud/quiet, to illustrate the same point). The attention to detail in all areas of the animation (which is second only to Aardman in my opinion). Unique and memorable voice casting (even though I have only literally just seen an Owen Wilson film I didn’t register it was actually him until he starts talking to Sally in the court house - this is from Shine who wrecked the Usual Suspects for herself having just seen Seven and recognising a voice I wasn’t meant to in the opening mins). Excellently executed characterization. Well crafted family values message/moral (including a touching tribute to all those now forgotten small towns bypassed by the world’s highways). Other productions might have some of these elements but Pixar has developed this into a uniquely sophisticated trademark style (NB: Aardman/Wallace and Gromit - I need to have a think about this further. Do I think that Aardman is second to Pixar? Or are they apples and oranges? hmmm!)

All in all it’s another grand Pixar film - in the Pixar tradition; it’s a grand movie not just because the animation is more than a few steps above anything else out there but because Pixar knows how to tell a great story. Pixar never lets their movies hang off fancy animation - they always make sure the story is equally grand (NB: I also believe firmly that this is true of Aardman… certainly where The Curse of the WereRabbit is concerned).
Having said this The Incredibles (the BESTEST Superhero movie EVAH although Batman Begins is pretty close in the superhero movie stakes for Shine!) STILL is my fav animated feature (with Curse of the Were Rabbit a close second, depending on the day because sometimes they swap and change). There are many roads to Rome, as they say, and I am pleased for y’all out there that have grown in appreciation for my fav company through this flick but for me I didn’t bond with the characters here liek I did with The Incredibles. I know Lightning grew and developed and changed throughout the movie but I never developed ‘like’ for him. Sally did nothing for me nor Mater either. I thought I was gonna like Doc but then I didn’t
(The two tyre guys were probably about as close as I got to fav chars).

The colours/environments didn’t grab me as much and the story didn’t get me as much either. In fact there were some bits that made me move about in my seat with tinges of ‘uncomfortable’ - for example the tractor tipping and every time anyone mentions gas/petrol (with the current gas price issue and the ridiculousness of our dependence on this non renewable resource we all know is outdated and bad for us all… but I digress). Although the animation is better in some regards (although each of the Pixar films so far have had a different kind of main animated topic to focus on and in this regard are really apples and oranges) I think that is just the way it is - they learn and improve in regards to animation as a matter of course because they are a dynamic creative company. There also didn’t seem to be as many little aside bits of humour as I was used to in The Incredibles. My really favourite bit was the Car-ization of other Pixar films. About the only area I can think of that it might just inch out Incredibles for me is soundtrack. Good story for Randy Newman’s work. I just didnt’ get as much out of the story. Maybe it was just me.

I don’t want y’all to think I didn’t liek it or am giving it a bad review. It’s ALL good. Comparing Pixar films is really comparing the best to more of the best. Perhaps really the difference for me is a lack of Brad Bird. The Incredibles was really a great story that just happened to be animated. Cars is a story that HAD to be told with animation.

Even if overall I think The Incredibles is just a (teeny tiny weeny) bit better (and that’s not just because superhero families beat Nascar/dry dusty sweeping landscapes for Shine) than this latest offering, this miniscule fact matters not when Pixar films are so far ahead of their nearest competition across the board…this movie in no way tarnishes the love, respect and admiration I have for one of my fav companies! (I am itching right this second to finish this review so I can cozy up on my bed and watch The Incredibles - after all I am monologing!!)
Last note - it was heart warming (and a little wrenching) after the film to be taken by the hand and led by extra footagey tidbits to a touching tribute for Joe Ranft and if I hadn’t wanted to savour my tears I would have responded to the queries about it from behind me with the sad and tragic story behind the tribute…

The only really bad thing was that most people left after this tribute and didn’t stay to the very very VERY end… but that meant I got to enjoy a little bit of Cars all for me on my own in my cinema, just how I like it!
THANKS PIXAR!