Cars is an animated tale of a world much like ours with one major exception – there are no people, everyone is a car or some variation there of. It is another in the line of extremely well liked and extremely successful films from Disney and Pixar studios. In my opinion it is the worst film in the Pixar line; but of course the most wrinkled 100 dollar bill in your wallet is still a 100 dollar bill. It is the story of a hot shot rookie driver voiced by the always entertaining Owen Wilson. He is all about winning and all about instant gratification. It isn’t until he gets stranded in a small town that is no longer on the beaten path does he realize there is more to life. He finds out that are more important things such as friendship and enjoying the journey along the way.
The movie is still a lot of fun. It is carried by some fun voices and smart witty humor. There are numerous cameo characters from other famous race car drivers and other celebrities. Mix that in with an energetic soundtrack and it all comes together nicely. The attention to detail is incredible. It seems as if Pixar can take any subject and create an amazingly fun world full of interesting characters. And of course a heart warming story is the backbone of the movie.
Video
Disney is truly doing everything they can to show the full potential of the Blu-ray format. They used the MPEG-4 AVC encoding for the 2.40:1 transfer on this 50 GB release. This film sets the bar on what animated films should look like. A majority of the time the cars themselves looked absolutely real, and the grass and concrete also looked real. The colors were extremely sharp and practically popped of the screen. If there was a flaw in the film I couldn?t find it. This is without a doubt a new reference disc for your collection. Later in the film when they reopen Radiator Springs, the neon lights are so bright and perfect. There isn?t an ounce of grain on the screen at any moment. It is pure shiny color throughout.
Audio
Get ready to rev your ears up with the sounds of the movie. Being that the film is entirely created in a studio means that they could create and add whatever sounds might be necessary to make the scene sound as realistic as possible. Crowd noises were full and elaborate, and the engine noises were full and complete. The audio of choice on this disc is either a PCM 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit) or a Dolby Digital 5.1 track. As with the video, the audio is perfect. It comes at you from all angles at perfect levels. They made sure that no matter what was going on, the voice levels remained perfect. You can set your volume level at the beginning of the movie and never touch it again.
Special Features
Would you expect anything else at this point other then a 5-star treatment in the special features department. Although there weren?t a huge amount of extras on the Standard DVD release they were all included on here along with many new extras created specifically for this release. There was one 15 minute featurette, 4 deleted scenes, and a couple of animated shorts. Those animated shorts are always excellent.
Of the new stuff they added and my favorite of the extras was the Car Finder game. It runs the same length as the feature film. It is a game you play as you watch the film and try to spot certain cars as they appear in the film. Different cars are worth different amounts of points. With so much menu space you can stop and start the game at your convenience and save your score for later. As you unlock more and more cars they are added to your showcase where you can access more info about them. An excellent use of the BD-Java technology.
There are 2 full-length commentaries and both leave little dead air. The first is a solo effort from Director John Lasseter. The second includes about a dozen different members of the production team. They give you almost every detail you can ask for as they are responsible for a majority of the film. There are 7 behind the scenes featurette that run about 5 minutes each. Just like the rest of the extras they are all in High Definition and look great. There is another deleted scene to go with the original 4 from the Standard disc release. None of the scenes are fully rendered and are hand drawn. They all are good but are understandably left out. Overall there is a lot you can do and see in regards to the special features.
Final Thoughts
Overall, this is a really great release – Especially for a catalog title even though it is still relatively new. There isn?t an audio or video flaw during the film and those that enjoy extras will be totally impressed. I recommend driving your car out to the store and picking one up immediately.
