Obsession
My one-year-old is obsessed with Cars. "Car! Car! Car!" I hear that about twenty times per day since Grandma gave us the movie for Christmas. Actually, all three of my Gremlins are obsessed. The four-year-old got a bunch of Cars merchandise from Grandma as well - a fuzzy blanket, three miniature hot wheel-type cars, and a larger wind-up Mater. He knows how to find Cars online (www.carsthemovie.com - in case you missed it), and all three of them walk around singing the music from the movie (they especially like the Sheryl Crow title track - Real Gone).I've never been a racing fan. I've never had the urge to watch Nascar or Formula 1. And when the movie was first released, I didn't take the kids to see it - simply because it didn't interest me. But after watching the movie on DVD, I find myself totally interested. Everytime we watch it, I find something new to ask my DH about - like who was that famous voice? Why did Luigi recognize the Ferrari and not Lightning? And why do they all slow down when that yellow car drives out on the track? (Yes, I'm racing green). So you could say my kids (and DH) are educating me about racing - in the animated, kids version, anyway.
Of all the kids movies I've seen lately (and a lot of the adult ones, too), this is one of my favorite movies of 2006. A total surprise for me. Regardless of how you feel about the movies Disney pumps out, their animated ones are good. Pixar's in particular. I love Lightning's character arc in Cars. I love the budding romance (of course!) and the subplot with Doc. What I love most about it though is that it's a very simple plot at heart. No big fancy bells and whistles, and totally driven by character.
Did you see Cars? And what other movies of 2006 rank high on your list?
Labels: Popular Culture
posted by Elisabeth Naughton at 3:16 PM
16Comments:
Elisabeth, my husband has always been a F1 fanatic, and I somehow got hooked on a particular radio show on my way home from work on Fridays many years ago whose sole purpose was to discuss the F1 time trails for grid placing on Saturdays and the race itself on Sunday. My brother gave my 4 yo daughter Cars for Christmas, and I have to agree with you. We all love it. One movie I watched last year that I particularly enjoyed was Lucky Number Slevin.
My daughter brought the movie Cars over on Thanksgiving and it was great! She thought her dad would get a kick out of it. He did and so did I. You gotta love the tractor tipping and Mater! And you're right about the Character arc for Lightning.
It is the best animated movie I've seen in a long time.
Cars was my favorite movie of 2006. And I don't even have little kids! At first, I thought it would be dumb, but I loved it!
Michelle, I LOVED Lucky Number Slevin. Great great movie. (And Josh Hartnet's not bad to look at either.)
Paty, Mater is the best. Although I had to explain to my four-year-old that you do not spell kissing k-i-s-s-i-n-t.
Ditto, Mary. ;)
Yes, ol' Josh is certainly not hard on the eye :)
I missed it! But then my kids are teens so it doesn't surprise me.
Teri
I'll start by saying I don't watch kid cartoons or Disney movies or anything. Never do, not even when I worked at DisneyWorld. But when Cars came out my coworkers dragged me to it and I loved it!!! I was in tears from laughing so hard. It's a great movie. I may buy it even. Great stuff.
Yes, Cars is an adorable movie. I didn't want to see it when it came out, but I have 5 kids, so good luck with that. We went to see it while we were on vacation in Arizona; it was a great escape from the heat and I laughed a lot. It's funny how being a writer makes you analyze the movie as you watch it.
My favorite movies from 2006 in no particular order...
Nanny McPhee
Eight Below (oh yeah, Paul Walker is sooo hot.)
She's The Man (great flik)
The Pink Panther (Steve Martin)
The Ant Bully (surprised me how good it is)
The Benchwarmers (always like stupid stuff like this)
Failure To Launch (cute)
X-Men The Last Stand (always enjoy)
Pirates-Dead Man's Chest (always enjoy)
The Lake House (LOVED THIS!)
Click (I love Adam Sandler's stuff)
Stranger Than Fiction (excellent)
A Good Year (loved this, there's something sexy about Russell Crowe)
Superman Returns (he's so cute!)
My Super Ex-Girlfriend (funny)
The Illusionist (excellent!)
Movies that sucked for 2006...
Lady In The Water (major lameness)
Beowulf & Grendel (so disappointing, But I LOVE Gerard Butler)
Devil Wears Prada (stupid book, stupider movie)
The Fast & The Furious-Tokyo Drift (lame)
Ice Age The Meltdown (okay, but not like the first one.)
Movies I still want to see from 2006...
The Work And The Glory III
Eragon
Flicka
Marie-Antoinette
Man Of The Year
One Night With The King
The DaVinci Code (loved the book)
Tristan & Isolde
The Holiday
Gee, that was fun. Thanks for the prompt. :)
Cars was great! One of my favorite 2006 movie was Stranger Than Fiction. Another good one was The Inside Man. I just saw The Lake House on DVD and it was really good.
I'm sure there are other movies, but my mind is blank. I'd like to see Dreamgirls but my husband doesn't want to. I'll probably see that on DVD.
Oh, Teri. Forget the kids. You have to see this one.
Lisa, all my kids love the movie. Today they got Cars for the PS2 and we've all been playing it tonight. I'm not big on games, but this one is great, too!
My head is spinning, Piper. You saw a lot of movies this year! (I can't wait until my oldest is babysitting age...in like FOREVER).
Okay...I completely agree with Eight Below *siiiiiigh* And yes, Paul Walker...hold on while I go fan myself.
Saw the Lake House a few weeks ago. I liked it (even without a suspense plot, go figure). Thought the ending had a nice twist.
The rest...very few on your list I saw. Pirates was okay (not as good as the first) and Benchwarmers was just baaaaad. Don't think I saw any of the others.
Edie, I loved Stranger Than Fiction. DH thought it was a little slow (but then, he's not a writer and there was stuff in there only a writer could love).
I've been a huge Pixar fan from the beginning -- but I almost didn't go to see Cars because of the trailer for it (which I saw when I went to see The Incredibles). I have lived in North Carolina my entire life -- NASCAR is huge here, to say the least (I grew up in Charlotte, home of the Lowe's Motor Speedway; I remember when it was the Charlotte Motor Speedway!). I'm not a NASCAR fan, though, so I really didn't want to go see a movie about racing or cars in general. But I went because I'm a loyal Pixar fan -- and I was blown away. The ending made me cry (and I love movies that make me cry, since I'm not easily moved by films). I couldn't stop thinking about the movie for days afterwards, so I went back to see it. Then I went to see it again. Then it became a summer ritual -- I went to see it ten times between June and September. (And that's a first for me -- I almost never go to see a movie twice, let alone ten times!) I have the DVD and the computer game from Target -- and lots of Cars toys.
But perhaps the best part is that I was so inspired that I decided to pursue a career in animation (in my 30s!). I enrolled in graduate school last fall, where I'm working on an M.A. in film (taking distance classes), and I'm teaching myself Adobe After Effects. (I'll work up to Maya eventually.)
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