Thursday, June 08, 2006
'Cars' open at Gaisano Mall cinema Thursday
THE biggest CARtoon ever is here.
Gaisano Mall Cinema joins today's worldwide release of Cars, the newest flick from the champion of computer-animated features Pixar Animation. It will open at Cinema 3 Thursday morning.
Cars, like all Pixar films, is full of in-jokes from the very beginning.
This finely-tuned, fun-riding flick does for auto-racing what Pixarï¿1/2s preceding masterpiece The Incredibles did for comic-book superheroes. Pixar's originals, starting with 1995's Toy Story, were all box office mega-hits and critical darlings.
Cars, is the story of Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson), a hotshot racecar whose career stock is rising. On his way to a tie-breaking race for the esteemed Piston Cup, an interstate accident leaves him stranded in the long-forgotten community of Radiator Springs.
Lightning finds himself under the scrutiny of the Route 66 town's law enforcement thanks to a sly attorney and soon-to-be love interest, Sally (Bonnie
Hunt). While carrying out his sentence, he gets to know Doc Hudson (Paul Newman), an older car with a mysterious past, and befriends a beat-up tow truck by the name of Mater (Larry the Cable Guy).
Most of the movie unfolds inside this "Hillbilly Hell," where Lightning learns what it means to be a star and a friend.
The movie does not just provide a near two-hour yarn for all ages with plenty of thrills (ala racing sequences), but also takes the casual viewer into the wonderful and exotic world of automobiles and auto-racing.
The casting plays on pop and car culture. A number of characters are voiced by actual race drivers, McQueen's sponsors are voiced by Ray and Tom Magliozzi of NPR's Car Talk.
Cars, in terms of character animation, art direction, and story is Pixar at its finest. The animation is absolutely incredible. When close up, backgrounds are realistic. At a distance, they take on the air of old 1940's painted postcard of southwestern vistas.
The characters look like the Micro Machines line of toy cars from the 1980's, but with fine detailing and texture.
As for the story, the late Joe Ranft, to whom this film is dedicated, has been given on-screen credit as co-director with John Lasseter, and the film shows why. Equal parts humor - there's references to everything from the anti-establishment disobedience of the 1960's to newer pop culture standards like The Fast and the Furious - and tenderness, the packed house openly combined laughter with tears. During a very touching scene about how the Interstate Highway system decimated towns along Route 66, there was barely a dry eye in the house.
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (June 8, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
