Originally Posted By davewasbaloo And we loved it. Sarah, Mikey (our 3 year old) and I went to the 11:15 showing of Cars this morning. Jessica (our 1 year old), stayed at home with Nana. Now I have been looking forward to Cars for a long time, ever since I heard about it 4 years ago. As the time has been creeping up, I have been buying Mikey Cars toys, clothes, and Mamma even bought me some Cars socks. The minute the soundtrack was released in the States, I had it imported as I liked the samples on Amazon, and I really do like the soundtrack. Yesterday, to get us in the mood, I went and testdrove the new Dodge Caliber released here in the UK last week, and the Chrystler PT Cabrio. I suspect I am going to order the Dodge just after we get back from Fla. Anyway, on to the movie. The trailers were all for CGI features and the only one that appealed is the one about the bear going into the wild? All the others did not push my buttons, including Ratatoulle. I was worried I got overexcited about going to this movie (after all, since having kids, the only cinema trips have been for PotC Curse of the Black Pearl and Star Wars Episodes 2 & 3). Then One Man Band came on - I really loved this short, I thought it was beutiful, and they would make for great walk arounds in Fantasyland. Really cute. Then for the main event, Mikey shouted WOW CARS!!!! clapped and jumped for joy! And I wanted to. We watched the movie and I loved every minute of it. The Pathos, the characters, the stunning visuals, the great soundtrack, the redemption themes - it was a fantastic film, perfect length and great for all the family. I loved the credits scenes, and I have to admit, I actually did shed a tear when Joe Ranft's tribute came on. I don't know what's not to like about this picture. I really loved it, as did my DW and my son. The end had that great Cool runnings feel good factor in there. The only downfall - no aircon at the cinema, and only about 40 people in there with us (2 days after opening - but I suppose it was early). And then when we went to Toys R Us to buy some more Cars toys, they were virtually out oif stock on the die cast (that were stocked up on Friday), so that's a good sign at least. For me, I think Cars is one of my fav animated features and much better than Finding Nemo or Bugs Life IMHO. I am keen to see how it lasts. Also, many of the jokes I found myself the only one laughing at, I don't know if all the humour hit with the English audience. But I am sure this feature will do well here though - I hope. I want to see it again!
Originally Posted By Autopia Deb Unless you get NASCAR in the UK, much of the Darryl Waltrip stuff won't be quite as funny (I love that guy).
Originally Posted By leemac Glad you enjoyed it Dave. I was surprised that the UK reviews were fairly harsh on this movie. I haven't seen a rating above 3 out of 5 for this one yet. On balance it looks like the movie got a better reception in the US. I suspect with Dead Man's Chest still pulling in the crowds that it might suffer by being released only 3 weeks later. I guess it still has the August kids holidays to put together a decent run.
Originally Posted By mawnck >>I haven't seen a rating above 3 out of 5 for this one yet. << It's a very US-centric flick. What do Brits know or care about Route 66, small-town America, or NASCAR? They've never heard of Car Talk or Jay Leno, never seen American-style racing coverage, never driven through the desert on an interstate, don't know the celebrity cameo voices, won't get the geography, would have a hard time with the southern accents . . . seems to me they'd practically need anime-style "cultural notes" to even understand half of what's going on. (Tractor-tipping?) Plus (and here we go again) the movie does have some story weaknesses, and if you're not getting some of the jokes or the cultural references, the story has to carry the movie. Harsh reviews? Doesn't surprise me in the least. I'll be interested to see what the general public thinks.
Originally Posted By DAR <<Jessica (our 1 year old), stayed at home with Nana.>> Are you guys the Darling family from Peter Pan?
Originally Posted By trekkeruss <<It's a very US-centric flick. What do Brits know or care about Route 66, small-town America, or NASCAR? They've never heard of Car Talk or Jay Leno, never seen American-style racing coverage, never driven through the desert on an interstate, don't know the celebrity cameo voices, won't get the geography, would have a hard time with the southern accents . . . seems to me they'd practically need anime-style "cultural notes" to even understand half of what's going on. (Tractor-tipping?)>> The overall themes of CARS are universal. I also think many if not most Americans don't know anything about Route 66; certainly not the youngsters who go see the movie. What percentage of Americans have driven through the desert? Another small number I would guess. And isn't NASCAR just about everywhere now? It may not be big in the UK like other sports, but I doubt they know nothing about it. When Sally takes Lightning for a drive and she tells how she came to Radiator Springs, and the history of the town, that is all anyone needs to know to understand and appreciate the story.
Originally Posted By leemac <<And isn't NASCAR just about everywhere now? It may not be big in the UK like other sports, but I doubt they know nothing about it. >> You'd be wrong about that. There is virtually no audience or market for NASCAR outside the US (even less than other US sports like baseball, basketball and American football that don't reach even small audiences). Don't forget that Formula One dominates in Europe, Asia and South America. Hence why Michael Schumacher actually features in the UK ads for Cars.
Originally Posted By leemac ^^ I probably should have said outside North America although the Canadians have a fondness for F1 too (thanks to the Villeneuve family).
Originally Posted By trekkeruss My bad... I thought NASCAR was everywhere. Still, I don't think a lack of knowledge about NASCAR would detract from the appeal of CARS. My sister doesn't know anything about it, and she enjoyed the movie.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 There is also the factor that the US has somewhat of a 'car culture' that many other places just do not have...
Originally Posted By leemac Only got two secs but to put the box office for Cars in the UK into perspective: It just took number 1 in its first weekend with 2.67m GBP (I think this is the lowest ever for Pixar). Dead Man's Chest took 2.62m GBP in its fourth weekend. It seems despite the very hot weather and kids being out on vacation that families just weren't drawn to Cars.
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 Cars is the No. 2 movie of the YEAR at the Box Office here. It hasn't even had time to spread out world-wide and is already moving in on Top 5. I'd love to hear the spin on how this is a disappointment. There's no way anyone (even on a valium drip) could have thought Cars was gonna bring in numbers like Pirates. I guess it's just time to bash Pixar and rewrite history.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 from a stockholder perspective, if Cars is a cloud, I want a whole storm full of them
Originally Posted By leemac <<I'd love to hear the spin on how this is a disappointment. >> I'm not suggesting that. I'm just saying I'm amazed how low the number was. To put it in perspective DMC did nearly $26m in its opening weekend in the UK. Cars did less than 20% of that number. In fact it didn't even beat Over the Hedge's opening number of $6.6m (and only just squeaked by it when compared to the DreamWorks' movie's second frame). When between half and two-thirds of total box office receipts for Disney movies come from international theaters I find that number very very low. I hope it is just a blip from the UK and not indicative of how the rest of the world views Cars.
Originally Posted By cstephens leemac wrote: > To put it in perspective DMC did nearly $26m in its opening weekend in the UK. Cars did less than 20% of that number. You're still trying to compare POTC 2's numbers with Cars' numbers? Wow, some people never learn. /cs
Originally Posted By mawnck >> it didn't even beat Over the Hedge's opening number of $6.6m<< You take that back!!!! It's NOT a disappointment! It's NOT it's NOT it's NOT!
Originally Posted By leemac <<You're still trying to compare POTC 2's numbers with Cars' numbers? Wow, some people never learn.>> Then educate me. Why aren't they comparable? Two summer tentpole movies designed to target families. Two July BO weekends. I don't see why that is a problem. Should I be comparing Cars to Over the Hedge (check), X:3, Da Vinci Code, M:I3, Ice Age: The Meltdown.... Cars failed to beat the first weekend gross for any of those movies. Also in comparison it only did marginally better business than Chicken Little that was released back in February. You want Pixar comparisons? Nemo did nearly $70m worth of business in the UK (DMC has already surpassed that total). It also opened in a non-holiday frame (October 10 if I recall) and did four times the opening weekend of Cars. Better? Or am I still not learning? (that was rhetorical).
Originally Posted By leemac Gotta love the protectionism of people over Cars and all things Pixar. Any suggestion that anything isn't quite as successful as people want to think (even with hard numbers) and they resort to sarcastic or barbed comments. As I said...I'm not calling Cars a disappointment per se. I'm intrigued as to why it has underperformed spectacularly in the UK. Prime kids holiday season and it couldn't get people into the multiplexes. If people don't want to debate that then I'll happily keep posting on my own.
