Cars, 2006 ★★★★★

As if on a whim, we decided to go for a movie [day-before] yesterday evening and since nothing else was interesting, we chose Pixar's Cars. Brilliant as they might be, I prefer watching animated movies on DVD instead of the big screen purely for economic reasons. The big screen is usually reserved for larger-than-life movies that look pale on your small screen TV.

However, it ended up being a smart choice because Cars was phenomenal. I know that the critics have panned the movie somewhat for not having the heart of earlier Pixar movies or even for having hackneyed plot lines that replace the usual clichés with daily objects. The primary reason that I enjoyed Cars was the tremendous leap in technology that Pixar seems to have taken in animating their productions. The level of detail in every scene regards effect of light & shadows and motion are realistically created. You get glimpses of animation excellence right from the beginning of the movie i.e. during the car race and McQueen's journey to the West. The urbanscape and the American wilderness next to the highway have been painstakingly created. Notice the level of detail in the aerial scene when the truck carrying McQueen travels over a spaghetti interstate intersection.

Another aspect is transposing human emotions and body language with inanimate objects like cars; the way the cars move their wheels are similar to our leg movements but only adapted for circular movement. Each vehicle has a character that typifies the condition and the make of the car e.g. Porsche for sophisticated, Jeep for military, tow truck as a hillbilly, etc. You can easily associate the characterization of people that would typically drive such vehicles.

Of course, the plot lines are threadbare and leave nothing to imagination but we must understand that these movies are basically children's' tales filmed with a blockbuster budget. They will, naturally promote standard cultural values like respecting your parents, valuing friendships, thinking beyond yourself, etc. I believe that these standard and predictable plot lines let us enjoy the movie experience better as we sit back and enjoy the pun-infested humor or simply admire the animation. I wonder how long would it take for animation movies to completely replace real-life human characters.

I came away in a far more pleasant and relaxed mood than I had gone in with. For me, that is a movie ticket worth paying for.