Cars

Dir: John Lassiter, 2006 (8.5*)

I loved this Pixar animated movie, from the same crew as Toy Story. The plot involves a young Nascar racer (the cars are characters), voiced by Owen Wilson, who gets dropped out of his trailer on the way to the next race, somewhere in the American southwest, and is basically lost along Route 66, in small town that somehow survived the freeway being built. He becomes trapped in the town, with some wonderful characters: Paul Newman as an old pickup truck who’s really a former Nascar champ, Bonnie Hunt as his lady friend, and a host of others (Cheech Marin, John Ratzenburger, Katherine Helmond, Larry the Cable Guy, George Carlin, Richard Petty) who have various businesses around a town that no longer has any tourists. Randy Newman wrote a beautiful song called "My Town", an Oscar nominee sung by James Taylor, about living in a small town like that time and freeways (and therefore people) have sadly grown beyond and passed by. Great script for me since I’ve been all the way across Route 66 twice, and crossed on the freeway (I-40) once, so the nostalgia of this story really hit home for me. For that reason, it's probably going to mean more to adults than kids, who won’t understand the references to America’s greatest highway. Look for the closing credits and all the towns the producers thanked, it reads like the songs "Route 66" and Little Feat’s "Willin" put together: Tucumcari, Tehatchopee, Winslow, Wynona, Gallup…

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Toy Story

John Lassiter, 1995 (8.5*)
Terrific animation from Pixar, their first full-length movie done with computer animation. In this story, the toys of a boy named Andy come alive with the arrival of a new one, Buzz Lightyear, an astronaut voiced by comedian Tim Allen, while the "leader of the gang" of old toys, a cowboy named Woody, voiced by Tom Hanks, is not only jealous but confused. Buzz and his miraculous 'high tech' stuff, like a laser beam, threaten Woody's status as smartest toy, and thus the natural leader.

This is a wonderfully human story with terrific visuals and an enjoyable plot for all ages. When you suspend your belief and buy into the fantasy, the toys become human and elicit our feelings as if they were real. The sequel, Toy Story 2, is almost as good, and deals with the poignancy of discarding old toys that were once best friends..

Winner of 19 awards and 33 nominations, ranked #147 on the IMDB 250

Update: here is our review of 2010's Toy Story 3, a very worthy sequel and perhaps best of the trilogy, nominated for five Oscars®

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