If nothing else,
Pixar manages to tap into incredible marketing bonanzas.
Their only misstep on that front might have been A Bug's
Life, because, let's face it, even cutened up, bugs
are creepy.
Not
so with cars. We love them. So Cars
channels that love of sleek, shiny metal, speed and loud
engines, and provides one heck of a great toy line. But
let us not forget that Director John Lasseter also gave
his creations heart, combining our love of cars with a sweet
nostalgia for small town America.
In the extras
on the DVD reaching stores tomorrow, Lasseter gets a chance
to explain his motivation. A sixteen-minute documentary
provides some behind-the-scenes faces and cursorily documents
the fabled road trip that the Pixar creative staff took
along Route 66.
It's maddeningly
short, a summary of bigger ideas, especially when it noodles
off into interviewing older store owners in those small
towns along the highway. These men and women sparked a lot
of unexpected inspiration; their stories could have been
expanded.
Unlike previous
Pixar discs, this DVD release keeps its focus tight. Actually,
it's also just one disc. Perhaps the studio thought that
their earlier releases had pretty much exhausted viewers
in learning about the process. We already know all there
is to know, therefore we can just watch the movie at last.
Perhaps I'm
just fooling myself.
In addition
to the short documentary, the disc includes "deleted scenes."
Mostly with scratch tracks, these are really storyboards
with some animatics work thrown in. For older kids and fans
of the process, they might hold some interest. One scene
takes a pretty dark turn as Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson)
has a nightmare about having his brain transplanted into
the asphalt mixer while Mater takes over his sleek body.
That's jerkier
than Mater ended up being, though the Pixar guys backslide
him a bit with a bonus short cartoon, "Mater and the Ghost
Light." In this, the tow truck plays practical jokes on
the denizens of Radiator Springs, until they conspire to
pay him back.
It's entertaining
enough, but more plot-oriented than the other "extra" short
film, "One Man Band." That Academy-award nominated short
played in front of Cars theatrically, and it has
a lot more chaotic creativity.
When played
on a television, the most rewarding extra is the epilogue,
surrounded by closing credits in the film itself. The small
screen (heck, even if your small screen is actually a big
screen) makes that epilogue seem really tiny, so having
it blown up separately is a treat.
All right. So
we know that down the road that two-disc hugely laden version
will appear, though considering the ad Disney threw into
the Sneak Peek section, it's more likely they're saving
that for Blu-Ray. In the meantime, it's a decent DVD that
will hold kids' attention. Because in the end, it's all
about the movie, and for those of us who love movies more
than cars, Cars is worth it.
