The official 83rd Academy Awards Nomination and Predictions Thread - Page 6

Maybe Cars is Pixar's Manhattan -- their most stunning visual achievement. :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Russell G 

The story doesn't make sense, which is not a typical Pixar trait, and the world the story takes place in makes even less sense then the ridiculous nonsense story (the cars can't possibly take care of themselves!) I have NEVER had a problem suspending disbelief with a Pixar film, except for "Cars" where the entire premise is so stupid that from the opening frames I'm out of the film, never to get wrestled back in.

But you were OK with a reality-based world where a rat was an intelligent gourmand and could control a human by pulling his hair, or where a house could fly to Brazil using children's balloons (not to mention dogs flying fighter planes)?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aaron Silverman 

But you were OK with a reality-based world where an intelligent rat could control a human by pulling his hair, or where a house could fly to Brazil using children's balloons (not to mention dogs flying fighter planes)?

 

Yes, because in those fantasy based worlds, Ratatouille it was established that the mouse had human characteristics, and yeah, the hair pulling bit was a bit much (I did shake my head at it), but not so far out of the world already established in the opening to blow the movie. Same with Up, with steam punk zepplins and talking dogs, a floating house isn't that far out again, in the world established within the film. The worlds are close to our own so we recognize them, but with a fantasy twist. Most movies (fantasy or not) pull some crap that make you go "what the hell?" so you can forgive a few and still enjoy them.

Cars though, the world is run by these cars, there are no humans in sight, and none of it would work since the "world" of cars is still significantly like our own! They have no hands, they can literally not look after themselves. so you give them the caveat that they have psychic powers that allows them to change their tires with the power of thought, and refine oil, build stadiums (it's already a bit much to forgive at this point...). Fine, but then then opening shot of the stadium shows an impossible situation. It is absolutely IMPOSSIBLE for any of those cars in the spectator seats to get where they are. It's a logistical, parking impossibility since while we are to pretend theyhave psychic powers allowing them to rebuild them selves, the cars in "Cars" CAN NOT FLY. But fine you let that go... and that's the problem with "Cars". Story wise, it's so piss poorly thought out that you're constantly having to brush aside things that could be chalked up to "lazy bullshit writing to serve a story that makes so little sense this film shouldn't have been made at this stage".

And that's my problem with Cars, everything about it betrays the film. I'm fine with fantasy, love fantasy, but the film has to make sense within the world it was created. A clever "Cars" film would of created a world where these characters could actually interact in. As it stands, it's simply lazy story telling. I mean, the main criticism of "Avatar" is how lazy and common the story is, but at least Cameron created a proper world to tell that story on, and it made sense within the film despite being overly familiar. "Cars", not by a long shot.

Um, they didn't bother trying to come up with explanations for how the cars in Cars refine oil or build stadiums because NONE OF THAT WOULD BE RELEVANT TO THE STORY!  (The hair-pulling, on the other hand, was integral to its story, and the single worst idea in the history of Pixar.  How is that "not so far out" of the established world?  The established world is a real city with normal human characters!)

I would argue that the absurdities in Ratatouille and Up are *harder* to swallow because they're inserted into worlds that are otherwise "close to our own."  They create inconsistencies.  Cars is simply a world where the people are vehicles.  You don't have to reconcile it with anything in the real world.

We're drifting way off the Oscars.   I don't recall walking out of Avatar and saying "Floating mountains, how stupid, even if magnetically suspended they'd be unstable and just flip around... and water would never make a waterfall from them, because where would it originate?" 

And I don't recall saying "how the heck can Mary Poppins dance with Penguins?   Penguins aren't anywhere near England, and they certainly couldn't build a Merry-Go-Round", and I really didn't put that much effort into "spells are ridiculous" which would trumpcard most myths.

As to the Oscars, I stand by my thought:  Backup the money truck to Billy Crystal or pay off Neil Patrick Harris.   Just don't make us suffer through this again