I've been meaning to post about these for over a week now, but visiting family and a crazy work schedule have taken up my time and drained my energy. Apologies for the crap quality of my writing.
Lou (Dave Mullins, 2017)
Imdb
Date Watched: 6/22/17
Cinema or Home: Cinema
Reason For Watching: It’s Pixar
Rewatch: No
This is the short that appears before
Cars 3. The visuals in this didn't blow me away like
Piper did and the basic story it tells - of a bully made to see the error of his ways - isn't particularly original. However,
Lou has a very unique take on the tale and presents its themes in a very creative and entertaining way. As was the case when I saw
Finding Dory, I found myself more impressed by the short than by the feature that followed it.
* * *
Cars 3 (Brian Fee, 2017)
Imdb
Date Watched: 06/22/17
Cinema or Home: Cinema
Reason For Watching: It’s Pixar
Rewatch: No
Despite it often being maligned by other film fans, I've always really loved the original
Cars. I appreciated how everything the characters did felt really familiar and yet still was very car-like, if that makes any sense. Then Pixar kind of threw that out the window with the spy-themed
Cars 2 - which I enjoyed but it was definitely a let-down. Now Lightning McQueen and company are back with a film that returns to that more car-like world and basically puts blinders on to the existence of the second film.
Unfortunately, though, it too fails to quite capture what the original had. Some of the new characters don't quite seem to serve much purpose and there are wasted opportunities for some real excitement, like the demolition derby that leaves Lightning dirty but without a single scratch on him. There's also a sort of Girl Power theme running through the second half in particular that feels a bit forced and culminates in an ending that I don't quite buy.
I also found much of the soundtrack irritating and the inclusion James Bay's lackluster cover of Tom Petty's "King's Highway" didn't help matters
This is a film that will never make any future favorites lists of mine, but I had fun with it and it's certainly something I'll revisit later on.
P.S. Among the trailers that preceded the film was one for
Olaf's Frozen Adventure - the short that is set to run before Pixar's
Coco when it hits theaters in November. The damn trailer for the short was just as long as the one for the feature! Also - Really Disney? I f**king hated
Frozen and I look forward to Pixar's shorts just as much as I do their features and you're gonna stick the audience with this s***?! I'll have to try to remember to show up late to the cinema so I don't have to suffer through it.