Reviews

I saw a sneak preview of this film last night, which played to a packed auditorium in an area theatre, comprised of an audience who won tickets from various media outlets. I must say that I was completely impressed with this latest Pixar outing and I almost dare say it was among the best animated features I have ever seen. It is almost hard to say "animated", because it looks like the bar for computer animation has been risen yet again by Pixar. There was the well-animated details of the cars, with great expression and fluidity, and the backgrounds and scenery was just jaw-dropping and nearly seemed photo-realistic.

The movie is incredible on so many levels. It is easy to forget that the cars are just cars, and you begin to relate to them on a people-like level. They are made to have easily identifiable facial expressions, which are animated well.

Going into the movie, I thought that it would focus too much on racing, since NASCAR related stuff seems to be all the rage now. But, the back story of learning to do things like not taking bad shortcuts with life and not being so selfish and inconsiderate, really takes the fore in this film. We could all learn from these "car-acters".

I definitely recommend this film, no matter if you're into racing or wouldn't even know what a "bump draft" is.

And, of course... remember to stay until the very very end of the movie, otherwise, you'll miss some cool stuff.

I think this movie had great potential, but I suppose there's decent problems in trying to stretch out an essentially rather short story.

The great potential was that the sets and the characters were well implemented and well chosen... I felt they were mainly an extremely creative and detailed combination.

Well, perhaps one exception on the characters, and what mainly ruined the film's potential.

I think that they shouldn't have chosen Mike Myers for the main character -- he seemed to be a bit over the top and didn't exactly always stick to the character portrayed in the original Seuss story. He seemed to be a bit like Austin Powers in a cat suit, really.

I really liked the sets, particularly the town, and the cozy, somewhat 50s-ish ambiance of the house was cool, too.

Overall, I think the film might be worth a matinee... or perhaps a rental.

I recently saw this movie (that naturally, the Disney Channel's pushing *real* hard, it's been on multiple times a day for the last several days (or so it seems)) and I can state with clear certainty that I am glad it wasn't released in the theatres (unlike the much glossier Lizzie McGuire movie).

There's a certain plodding to the entire script (obviously inspired by all that Reality TV lately, and sprinkling in some rhetoric from THE TRUMAN SHOW), it feels very laboured and drawn out a bit.

Perhaps it could have been shortened to an hour (that's with some commercials) or filled with a bit more substance. For that matter, the whole movie would have been better if the premise of the characters being on a Reality TV show wasn't exposed nearly as soon as it was.

Still, it seems to follow that same Disney formula of funny moments, love and everything ending happily everafter. I think that if you're a big fan of the TV series, you'll like this movie, since you'll see familiar characters pulling off bits of their familiar antics. If you have never seen the TV series, you'd be best waiting to see regular episodes first, then trying this movie later (knowing Disney's broadcast schedule, this will probably pop up repeatedly at random intervals for the next year or so).

It seems that while watching this movie, it was even harder to suspend the belief that this was a fully computer generated movie. Harder, compared to any previous Pixar work. The fish portrayed seemed so amazingly fluid, so lifelike, so believable (well, other than the talking, but of course, they were talking amongst themselves).

I thoroughly was surprised by this movie. It was much better than I had initially expected. The previews that I had been seeing for perhaps the last six months or so seemed so empty, like you had no idea what the movie was going to be about. Advertising consisted of little clips of the fish that were completely taken out of context. You knew that there'd be something different, based on new levels of animation that were evident... but you didn't have any idea what the movie would be even about. Even to the ads most recently, you'd have no idea. I have no idea why they'd approach it this way. I think that this film is clearly being driven by word of mouth, more than anything. Now that I've seen it, I'm glad it is doing well in the cinema, and I can't wait for it to come out on DVD.

Adding the little feature clip at the beginning (the 1989 short "Knick Knack") was delightful to see. Most people haven't seen this one, and I think it's a good example of where Pixar was, and how they still have the creative knack (no pun intended) after all these years.

Overall, a great way to spend about 100 minutes. Don't forget to stay until the very very end, the credits and accompanying animation are rather interesting.

This rather entertaining, silly, dark movie was a rather subversive delight to watch.

There are plenty of subtle jokes here and there that you may need to be quick to pick out.

Perhaps not totally inventive (seems like Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Cool World, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and some other movie or two that doesn't come to mind immediately all thrown together), but I believe it still had a great dose of imagination and funny moments.

I'd recommend it for at least a rental if you're looking for nothing better to do tonight.

*** of ****, 75%

This film is definitely a pleasure and a joy to see, a very well done sequel. I wouldn't be surprised if it would spawn yet another sequel, raising the bar even more for computer animation, such as this film has done. Toy Story 2 looks even more lifelike and realistic than its original, I found myself several times 'forgetting' that it was computer animation. Definitely a must see for all ages.

I just returned from a late night showing of this film at one of the local multiplexes. While I was impressed with the visual dynamics (reported to consist of a record setting 95% of the movie) and while my ears are still ringing from the nearly constant, intense sonic blasts presented by Lucas' latest effort, the movie woefully lacked the 'spark' of the previous releases. I simply hope this is just a start of better things to come... and that more of what was only barely touched on in this movie gets expounded upon better...

I wasn't expecting another TOY STORY, naturally... nothing will likely compare to this movie for some time. However, the animation is definitely superior and the characters definitely fit the vocalizations... but I guess that's what three years of additional computer technology will buy you. I thought the concept was interesting and unique (despite the upcoming Pixar offering...), however, the plot and pacing of the movie seemed to be a bit slow at times... it "felt" longer to me than the actual running time.