"Cars" - better every time

[wmenorr67]

I wish someone would bring back and show all the old "Loony Tunes" but they are not PC enough for todays society.  However, most if not all are available on DVD. 

[Felonious Monk/Fignozzle]

While I don't quite have the deep, abiding love for the movie that you do, Brad, I DO think it's extremely well done and heartwarming.

I hate anime.  Japanese animation (and SciFi, for that matter) since the days of Speed Racer, Kimba, Ultraman, and some other foolishness has always just turned my stomach; not sure if it's the quick scene changes, stupid looking humans, or motion scenes that are the same 6 or 8 frames looped over and over and over and... until it makes you want to kick the dog.

And I agree about those CREEPY investment commercials, but not so much re: Polar Express.

[Brad Johnson]

I wish someone would bring back and show all the old "Loony Tunes" but they are not PC enough for todays society.  However, most if not all are available on DVD.

Wish granted - Looney Tunes Golden Collections, volumes One through Four.  Compilations of shorts spanning the entire Looney Tunes era, digitally restored and in un-edited original theatrical presentation.

Brad

[Laurent du Var]

"I find myself watching the movie constantly, usually when I'm up late at night and the only thing on TV is Discovery Channel reruns.  That time when all is quiet and I don't have to worry about the phone ringing or a neighbor stopping by to chat.  Just me and the cats curled up in the easy chair.  I kick on the movie and let my mind wander, drinking in all the subtle essence woven into the background of the visuals and, more important to me, the story."

Brad, I really enjoyed your post. Very much.

My son, who is five years old, keeps watching : Toystory 1&2, Nemo and Cars endlessly, all the time as long as I let him, which for him is not enough and for me is way too much.

Sometimes he asks me to watch with him and if I do he just sits there silently starring at the screen, no comments or explainations for me, he just wants me to sit there without moving and within minutes I'm distracted : cellphones, fax, E-mail, bills, the wive my daughter who is three and doesn't care much about films. It is like I never get to enjoy the magic and I've only seen those films ripped into a million scenes 

Now if I waited until midnight to watch Cars from the beginning to the end
without disturbance I would just have a bad concsience because I had no time to see it with my son....   
   

[Manedwolf]

While I don't quite have the deep, abiding love for the movie that you do, Brad, I DO think it's extremely well done and heartwarming.

I hate anime.  Japanese animation (and SciFi, for that matter) since the days of Speed Racer, Kimba, Ultraman, and some other foolishness has always just turned my stomach; not sure if it's the quick scene changes, stupid looking humans, or motion scenes that are the same 6 or 8 frames looped over and over and over and... until it makes you want to kick the dog.

And I agree about those CREEPY investment commercials, but not so much re: Polar Express.

Uh. Heh. Japanese animation has advanced as much since those days as Hollywood has since 1960's detective shows, keep in mind. Watch one of the real-world-weapons shootouts in "ghost in the shell" and see what you think. You're talking about a style that existed forty years ago. You might as well be comparing "Cars" to "Herculoids" or some of the worst cheap hanna-barbera drivel from way back then.

Like this trailer, for the next Ghost in the Shell movie... Watch this, see if you think differently http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i3jT95NExE

[BrokenPaw]

Manedwolf,

That trailer looks interesting, but one thing I noticed about it was the combination of what appeared to be rendered elements (like the cars) and the obviously hand-drawn bits (like the people).  The rendered stuff looks too much like it's an animated trace of a real object, and the people look too obviously like they're cartoons, to be combined together into one movie.

I have liked hand-animated movies, and I've liked fully-rendered CG movies, but I've always found that movies that mixed hand-animated characters with real or realistically-rendered backgrounds are...jarring, and distract from the storyline.

YMMV.
-BP

[zahc]

Indeed, it is a delicate balance. The trend seems to be to draw the people (to avoid creepiness) while using cg backgrounds. Sometimes it works.

[brimic]

I like Cars, its a watchable cartoon that isn't annoying or insulting to watch.
I'm glad my son loves Cars, if I had to watch Open Season or one of the LIon King movies more than occasionally, I'd have to eat the business end of a shotgun.

[LadySmith]

I havent seen Cars yet. I loved Kimba and Warner Bros. cartoons as a kid, and All Dogs Go To Heaven was the first movie to ever make me cry. As for anime, I watch Gunsmith Cats repeatedly and the Ghost In The Shell series. I made the mistake of seeing Final Fantasy-The Spirits Within because I dont play video games and always said if they made a movie out of one instead, Id watch it. Theres one cartoon I saw only once years ago and wouldnt mind seeing again: Its A Dogs Life, Charlie Brown. It was dark for a Peanuts movie and was the first time I saw Snoopy act like a dog.

The problem is, you just don't "get it".  The tentacles, the androgeny, the rape...   

Carebear, steer clear of hentai. That crap will rot your brain.

They might cry over the death of Spock in Episode II, like I did.  That's different.

I dunno...I took it a lot harder when they blew up the Enterprise.

[Manedwolf]

I dunno...I took it a lot harder when they blew up the Enterprise.

Interestingly, there's been bits mentioned about that as being symptomatic of Hollywood culture. The producers quite literally said, at the time, "Who cares? They can get another one that's newer."

This from people who never served in say, the Navy and grew to love a ship, and never owned a car for more than two years...they lease the latest and shiniest, then trade it in for next year's newer and shiner model. They had no concept of how a mass of machinery you ride or live in can have a soul and personality of its own. They had no appreciation for what was the ONLY redeeming feature of the series up to that point... that the Enterprise was a modern storytelling version of the Greek Argo, which was just as much a character as the Jason and the rest of the crew who sailed on her. This has continued in the series, when they wrecked the Next Generation Enterprise as well, because they thought it'd be "cool". For all you can fault George Lucas, he did, at least, keep the Millenium Falcon around all through the films, even in a cameo in the first ones, and has issued strict orders that no matter what happens in the books, it will never be destroyed.

I suppose those sorts of shallow people also wonder why they bother to maintain the USS Constitution in Boston harbor instead of just scrapping it and putting a new shiny party boat there.

[tyme]

If you saw The Spirits Within and hated it, rest assured that everyone hated it.  Give FFVII: Advent Children a chance if you want to see some groundbreaking cgi.  For the "morally bankrupt": {torrent}

I've never watched Ghost in the Shell anything, unfortunately.  I'm going to give the first movie and 2 SAC seasons a try.

I can't stand Pixar.  All this talk of anime and cartoons has got me about to buy one of my favorite childhood cartoons, though... Dungeons and Dragons.

[zahc]

A word of warning, both GitS movies suffer from (or benefit from, depending on opinion) Oshii's rather distinctive direction.

[Manedwolf]

A word of warning, both GitS movies suffer from (or benefit from, depending on opinion) Oshii's rather distinctive direction.

Ghost in the Shell Solid State Society is the third movie, and has nothing to do with the first two, especially the odd second one. It's based on the Stand Alone Complex TV series, same detective-story plot, and picks up after Season 2 ends.

I'd personally recommend watching the first movie, which has scenes, like the chasing of a terrorist through a crowded Asian marketplace, that just have to be seen to be believed. SKIP the second movie, Innocence, which wasn't very good. And watch the SAC series, which is just incredible. The series has none of the quasi-psycho-mystical bits of the end of the first movie, either, it's just a cop drama in 2034. Plus they have a near-fanatical devotion to depicting the actual operation of real-world firearms. Even the characters have some neat ones. The detective named Togusa carries a Mateba autorevolver, and the main character is sometimes seen with either an IMI Jericho or original-design bullpups that look like they'd actually work very well. (A lot of people have half-jokingly suggested that FN copied the P 2000 from the series designs!)

Oh, yeah, and watch the subtitled versions. The dubbing sucks, especially in the first movie.

[Nightfall]

Carebear, steer clear of hentai. That crap will rot your brain.

I'll second that. I watched some hentai, thinking "Hey, I like anime. I like sex. Awesome!" Yeah, not so much. Let's just say the Japanese and I aren't on the same page when it comes to sexuality...

Messed. Up.

[Matthew Carberry]

Now I know...

[zahc]

Let's just say the Japanese and I aren't on the same page when it comes to sexuality..

I would be more careful about typecasting an entire nation of people like that.

I certainly hope nobody in japan thinks I like Oprah because I'm american.

[Manedwolf]

Let's just say the Japanese and I aren't on the same page when it comes to sexuality..

I would be more careful about typecasting an entire nation of people like that.

I certainly hope nobody in japan thinks I like Oprah because I'm american.

Yes. For the record, the Japanese stereotype of American men in depicted media tends to be either horribly hirstute excessive-testosterone gorillas, grotesquely obese waddlers with thinning hair and multiple chins, or flaming prancers.

Stereotypes of an entire nation's populace are seldom helpful, and it goes both ways.

[brimic]

Yes. For the record, the Japanese stereotype of American men in depicted media tends to be either horribly hirstute excessive-testosterone gorillas, grotesquely obese waddlers with thinning hair and multiple chins, or flaming prancers.

Thankfully I fit into the first category at first glance.

[Phyphor]

They might cry over the death of Spock in Episode II, like I did.  That's different. 

Spock died?

4 words:
"Vulcan in a microwave."

 

[Phyphor]

Carebear, steer clear of hentai. That crap will rot your brain.

The lady doth spoketh the truth.

They might cry over the death of Spock in Episode II, like I did.  That's different.

I dunno...I took it a lot harder when they blew up the Enterprise.

[/quote]

That was seriously kinda sad, especially after all Kirk went through to get her back...and then to give her up again just to try to save his best friend.

Those were the GOOD Trek movies...after 6, they largely just sucked.

YMMV

[zahc]

Spoiler warnings please

[Matthew Carberry]

Spoiler warnings please

For a movie from 1982 that was referenced in the next two films in the series and been talked about endlessly in pop culture since then?  

It's 25 years old. 

Empire Strikes Back?  Vader is Luke's father.

Old Yeller?  Dog gets rabies, kid has to lock the dog in a corn crib and shoot it.

Citizen Kane?  It's a sled, "Rosebud" is a sled.

[Cromlech]

 

While spoiler warnings are nice, carebear has a point. The only person who might need spoiler warnings for movies that old, is Fistful. I mean, who the hell hasn't seen 'The Great Escape'?

[Perd Hapley]

You'd be shocked at what I haven't seen.  For example, just about any horror movie.  And despite my wife's insistence, I've seen NOTHING with Barbara Streisand.   

[LadySmith]

You'd be shocked at what I haven't seen.  For example, just about any horror movie.

I am genuinely shocked! 
No vampires? No slashers?? No zombies?!?

I've seen NOTHING with Barbara Streisand.

Come to think of it, neither have I.