The author also loved Finding Nemo:

http://archive.salon.com/ent/movies/2003/06/06/finding_nemo/index.html

Which became the biggest animated hit in history. Interesting that it's beat for beat the same laments too.

The "City Slicker Goes To A Small Town Where He Learns What the REALLY Important Things Are" movie. Why are we constantly subjected to this cynical, hypocritical and untrue premise? It's not like "Cars," "Doc Hollywood," and "Sweet Home Alabama" (to name a few) were made by some theater troupe from a small town in Iowa. They were made by people who would slit their wrists before moving to a flyover state. And it's insulting to people who live in cities that one needs to move to Smalltown America to find themselves.

Pixar was an anomaly for a while there... a lone bright light in a world left dim by the once-brilliant Disney. 3D animation had always been sterile and odd and ugly. Somehow this small group of creators had bridged the gap and connected with "animation" in the classical sense.

But money changes everything.

I know several people who work at Pixar -- very smart, extremely talented artists -- so I want to careful how I say this... but Pixar jumped the shark with The Incredibles which was driven by focus-groups instead of by creative impulse.

As far as Cars is concerned I concur with Stephanie's analysis except I'd like to remind everyone that cute, anthropomorphic cars were perfected by Aardman (for Chevron's gain) and those designs were stolen by Pixar's staff and bastardized into this inferior derivative form.

So I'll treasure my copies of Toy Story, Monster's Inc. and Finding Nemo and try not to lament the passing of what was really an anomaly to begin with...

Intelligent cars? "Trucks" by Stephen King, anyone? Now THAT would have made a good movie.

Actually that was made into a movie, starring Emilio Estevez, about 15 years ago. The director? The hack himself, Stephen King.

It's saying something when the author of a book can't direct a movie version of same without sticking his own head up his ass. But then King has been doing that for years now. Anyone catch "Rose Red" on TV??

Cars was born as the last project Pixar was going to make for Disney, and there always was a feeling about it as if it was being forced, as if the heart of Pixar wasn't really in it. It wasn't all that long ago that there were rumors of Pixar going into 2D animation once free of Disney, and pundits were betting that Pixar was going to steal the animation crown.

I'm not surprised that Cars isn't all that great. Pixar may have had other ideas, but I'll never shake the feeling that they made this movie not because they wanted to, but because they felt forced to. It has this odour about it of a movie made for the merchandising and spinoff cartoon series, not that of a story in and of itself.

What interests me more is what will happen now? Will Disney kill the soul of what Pixar once was, or will Pixar's old emphasis on the story over technical trickery return and infect the rest of Disney? Let's hope it's the latter.

Let's not forget the related trend: preaching about how "prestige and riches" are not what matters in life by people who'd kill and eat their grandmothers for a buck and/or a small step up the foodchain...

Hey, I've lived in big cities all my life and would never want to live in a small town, but if you really think that small-towners aren't nicer (in a day-to-day interaction kind of way) that people in big cities, you're smoking something. Are they better, happier people? Who knows, some are, some aren't. Are they more pleasant to buy groceries from? You betcha.

And the families will love it. It's not crass or overly smart-assed. It's got a sweet little soul at its heart, even if that doesn't appeal to people who think their choice of city life is being ridiculed. (as if).

Well clearly if you are leading an empty lonely life in the city, the idea of escaping to a small town filled with "Real Folks" of the sort one finds in Lake Woebegone is sure to appeal. This is why we see the story a lot, it makes sense to the guys with empty lives that write it, it makes sense to the guys with empty lives who produce it, and it makes sense to the people with empty lives who keep on watching it.

An equally common theme is of course the small town kid, dreaming of the big city where no doubt all his dreams will come true. These are usually written and produced by former small town kids who went to the city where all their dreams came true. People in small towns; of course love this film because they are hoping to one day move to the big city where all their dreams will come true.

It's a movie about cars, written for children, and designed to sell lunchboxes. It looks cute, and will no doubt have a joke or two about excessive exhaust, and the kids will like it, and parents will endure, and maybe secretly enjoy it.

It's a simple Hollywood movie; don't get too worked up over it.

Seeing as one of Paul Newman's many careers is a race car driver, I really do want to hear his voice from a Hornet.

But hey, I'm just a car guy.

Maybe the reviewer needs to calibrate her expectations regarding children’s entertainment. I mean, if you want gourmet meal, opening a can of Dinty Moore beef stew is probalby not the best place to start. And if you want intellectual stimulation, maybe cartoons aren't your best choice. I'm sure the intended audience will love it. I’m just wondering why Salon would even bother to review it. Do a lot of 8 year olds read Salon?

SZ-

I've been reading a lot of reviews of Cars this week, in the hope that critics might point out the red state/blue state theme that I saw in it. You're the first.

I don't disagree with much of your review, but I would like to counter that one point. Because what fascinated me was the film's subtle reversal of the typical location of opposing American values. Who represents elitist urban narcissism? Nascar culture! And where do we find multicultural tolerance and progressive ideas? Small-town middle-America. Of course, this clever twist is mostly ruined by the nostalgia for fossil fuel culture and the glorification of Nascar.

Plus the music sucked.

-DC