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Post by Librarian on May 3, 2006 13:02:20 GMT -5
Thumper, That is a very good point! ;D ;D ;D
I love that featurette! Thanks Remi. Owen seems very natural and relaxed. I love that he found the skateboard on his first visit. ;D
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Post by Remi on May 4, 2006 19:20:55 GMT -5
There are two new featurettes on IFilm. Click Here and scroll to the last two at the bottom. No Owen in the first one, a little bit in the second one.
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Post by britgirl on May 5, 2006 10:56:22 GMT -5
Of course I'll be at the reception with him later that night, so I think I'll be all right! Thumper, I really hope you get to see Owen close up and maybe even have a bit of a chat with him. I also can't wait to read all about your glitzy and glam night out at the premiere. By the way, thanks for the link Remi.
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Post by Remi on May 10, 2006 19:22:26 GMT -5
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Post by flygirl2000 on May 12, 2006 20:22:41 GMT -5
Thumper, I hope you enjoy your night at the reception of the year!
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booboo
Air Kentucky Flight Attendant
Posts: 256
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Post by booboo on May 16, 2006 3:11:00 GMT -5
This is a really fab review from Time Magazine...
Get Your Motor Running
John Lasseter grew up in Southern California, where driving is people's passion and second career, and a car their church and fortress. So if you ask Lasseter about car love, you get an impromptu prose poem. "Car love," he says, "is the sound of a throaty V-8 rumbling and revving, the acceleration throwing you back in the seat--especially when you get on a beautiful, winding road and the light's dappling through the trees. For me, it's a combination of enjoying the beauty of cars, classic or cool modern ones, and also the actual driving: getting out on the open road, whether it's a family road trip or driving by myself on a nice windy road and enjoying the ride."
Lasseter, 49, is also the Dale Earnhardt of computer animators, the first name in a mammothly successful form of popular art he pretty much created, beginning with his short Luxo Jr. in 1986. From the start, he's been the soul of Pixar Animation: he directed its first three hits (Toy Story, A Bug's Life and Toy Story 2) and executive-produced its next three (Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo and The Incredibles). Early this year, when Disney bought Pixar--basically paying about $7 billion for Lasseter's brain--he became boss of the grand old animation studio as well as the most revered modern one. His job: get both groups to make great movies.
They couldn't have a model that's smarter, snazzier or more moving, kinetically and emotionally, than Lasseter's Cars, which opens June 9. "I love having inanimate objects come to life," he says, ever the boy who can't stop tinkering and dreaming. All the characters are cars, but they're engagingly human. The lands they inhabit are richly detailed (thanks to years of research by Lasseter, co-director Joe Ranft and their team) and worlds apart: the NASCAR circuit, where autos and egos collide at 180 m.p.h., and a 1950s-ish town, keeping a sense of community far from the superhighway rat race.
Owen Wilson voices Lightning McQueen (as in speed and Steve), the hottest rookie on the circuit, and doesn't he know it! He's got drive, heaven knows, but no perspective. Who needs friends, or a pit crew? He's a one-man show! Ka-chow! Lightning's main rivals in the movie's opening race are "the King" (racing legend Richard Petty), who's going for one last win before he retires, and a dirty-driving mug named Chick (Michael Keaton), who's so rotten that one of his sponsor decals reads htB, for Hostile Takeover Bank.
An unexpected detour lands Lightning in Radiator Springs, a southwestern hamlet off Route 66 that lost its bustle and prosperity when the Interstate went up ages ago. The town's pulse--does it even have one?--doesn't suit Lightning, who's itching to get to L.A. for the biggest race of his young career. But he's stuck in nowheresville, obliged to repave a road he had torn up on his way through.
Up to now, Cars has been motoring at a Mach pace, as gags and characters flash by. Once in Radiator Springs, the film moseys to the tempo of a town time forgot. Even the songs slow down (yes, this is also a musical), from John Mayer's vigorous take on Route 66 to James Taylor warbling Randy Newman's gorgeously plaintive Our Town. Not that Cars ever idles, for the townsfolk constitute a sweet if improbable rainbow coalition of vintage vehicles. They support the trio that will retool Lightning's egotism into community spirit: gruff Doc Hudson; lovely, sensible Sally; and--the movie's breakout car-actor--an endearingly yokelish tow truck named Mater.
It's Mater who teaches Lightning the truth of any Lasseter film: friendship is family. "To Lightning," he says, "Mater represents pure friendship. Like a dog: 'I'll be by your side forever.'" (Mater was the inspiration of Ranft, whose story-tweaking genius infused every Pixar movie. Tragically, he died last August, when the car he was in missed a turn on that beautiful winding road, California's Pacific Coast Highway.)
Lasseter is an old hand at humanizing machines. Cars does it in large part with the detailing of "facial" features. Most car 'toons anthropomorphize their characters by having the headlights serve as the eyes. Lasseter, following a charming Disney short, the 1952 Susie, the Little Blue Coupe, made the windshield the eyes. Cars also has fun turning hood ornaments into mustaches, grilles into mouths. More important, it evokes shifts of mood by the subtle shift of body weight, the low growl of an engine.
All this speaks to the unmatchable narrative and graphic ingenuity Pixar brings to its projects. "In computer animation," says Lasseter, "every detail has to be thought out, designed, modeled, shaded, placed and lit. The more you add, the more computer memory you need. We brought computer memories to their knees with this one."
A brief stay in Radiator Springs brings Lightning to his senses: to the recognition that the old have tricks to teach the young, that winning means more than coming in first and that speed can't top taking your time to savor the scenery--that, as Lasseter says, "the journey in life is the reward."
As the new hydra-head of animation, Lasseter may have an uphill journey: not just keeping Pixar on track (Brad Bird's Ratatouille, about a gourmet rodent in Paris, is next, probably followed by Toy Story 3), but also in steering the Mousemobile back to speed. In 1994, when The Lion King capped a series of animation hits, Disney's bright future seemed as sure a bet as Pixar's does now. Then Toy Story came out, and computer animation took over. Before buying Pixar, a desperate Disney had scuttled its traditional animation unit. Lasseter may restore that. "Of all studios that should be doing 2-D animation, it should be Disney," he says. "We haven't said anything publicly, but I can guarantee you that we're thinking about it. Because I believe in it."
Reconciling Pixar's postmodern culture with the Disney tradition seems tough. But if high-tech Lightning McQueen could find his destiny in retro Radiator Springs, why can't Lasseter find a way to turn yesterday into tomorrow at Disney? He's surely shown opposites can attract in his wonderful new film. Existing both in turbo-charged today and the gentler '50s, straddling the realms of Pixar styling and old Disney heart, this new-model Cars is an instant classic.
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Post by texasgal on May 16, 2006 5:52:39 GMT -5
Wow, thank you, booboo, for copying all that.
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Post by Remi on May 16, 2006 6:01:00 GMT -5
Thank you booboo! Here's a Podcast about the soundtrack. Headsup Rascal Flatts, Brad Paisley, James Taylor, and John Mayer fans! Click Here
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Post by IMAQT on May 16, 2006 8:45:36 GMT -5
Headsup Rascal Flatts... fans! Joe Don! *swoon* #faint#
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Post by Remi on May 16, 2006 15:31:41 GMT -5
You can also sample the soundtrack on the Cars website. Just go to the gallery, and enjoy! Here's a linkThere are also some new contests and features. If you click here, it will take you to the State Farm Countdown page. Click on where it says "Wallpapers" on the marquee, and there is a calendar of wallpapers to download. There are other features, too. But I haven't played with them all yet.
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booboo
Air Kentucky Flight Attendant
Posts: 256
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Post by booboo on May 16, 2006 16:07:45 GMT -5
Wow, thank you, booboo, for copying all that.
As much as I would like to claim the title of typist of the year, I have to fess up to the fact that it was a cut 'n' paste job.
Thanks anyway Tex!
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Post by texasgal on May 16, 2006 17:45:24 GMT -5
Aw, thanks booboo. You didn't have to be so honest. And I still like you even though you cut & pasted. ;D
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Post by thumper on May 16, 2006 18:42:55 GMT -5
Wow! I can't believe it. It's only 10 days away!!!!!!
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Post by bubbles4play on May 17, 2006 10:20:35 GMT -5
I just had to share a funny thing that happened to me last night. I was frying up some taco meat last night & the tv was on. I really wasn't paying attention to the commercial, but apparently it was a commercial for the cars movie...becuase all of a sudden I heard.."and Owen Wilson". My reaction was one of surprise for some reason hearing his name because I fliped around...spatula still in hand...meat on the spatula....meat flying. God, what a mess. It's a good thing no one was around....
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Post by texasgal on May 17, 2006 22:09:45 GMT -5
I totally understand. Owen Wilson: the guy that makes women twirl around and fling meat off their spatulas!
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