Originally Posted By FerretAfros I was wondering if anyone here is going to the Cars premiere in Charlotte tomorrow night. I will be there and would like to meet up with anyone who may be there. I'll be wearing a blue shirt with the old Disneyland sign on it. I'm about 6'1", short brown hair, and respond to Kevin. If it gets chilly, I'll have a white jacket (pretty hard to miss) with a blue and green stripe across the chest. Just holler at me.
Originally Posted By DlandJB LP will be covering it on the red carpet and look for coverage here afterwards! (Or so I have heard...
Originally Posted By FerretAfros Neat. I was kind of worried that I wouldn't get any pictures from it, since it says no cameras are allowed, so it will be nice to have pictures here. I'll try to post a report here as soon as I can, but it is about an hour and a half from the track to my house and I'm going to Virginia early tomorrow morning, so it might be Monday or Tuesday before I get it all written. And hopefully it won't rain like it is forecasted to...
Originally Posted By FerretAfros And the rain rain rain came down down down. It look like there is about to be a really bad storm in the area. I'm not that close to Charlotte right now, so hopefully it is better down there. I'm going anyway, so maybe the rain will make it easier to get a good seat! : )
Originally Posted By FerretAfros Just a quick update, I'll write more later, when I have time and awake. Getting into the speedway was terrible, plenty of story for that one, but once we were inside, I was very pleasantly surprised. At the gate, they were handing out rain ponchos to anybody who wanted one. They weren't the cheap trashbag-like ones, but real reusable ponchos, which I was really blown away by. The movie didn't actually start until a little after 10:00. It managed to keep the little ones around me interested for the whole thing, which shows how good it really is. There was a lot of entertainment, even a little race, before and it was all really nice. I really liked the movie and I think it will do really well in theaters.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros I'm not sure how far I can get before I have to go, but I'll at least get it started. We drove to Charlotte, which included a little while of the worst rain I've ever driven in. When we got off the interstate, there was a little under two miles to where we ended up parking. It took over an hour to get there. The traffic for the movie, paired with the traffic of people arriving for the Coca Cola 500 today made it awful. We saw some people with deer antlers hanging from their rear view mirror, which made us laugh. The traffic was terrible, and we found the first parking area that appeared to be open for Cars people. Once we were parked, we headed toward the track. We crossed the road on a pedestrian bridge (the same one that collapsed a few years ago, if anyone remembers that) and just followed the crowd. There was not a single sign that we were headed the right way. There was no mention of it even being the right track. We walked for about half an hour to get around to the other side of the track, where people were being let in through a generic looking entrance. It had been raining, so they were handing out free ponchos. I was very very impressed by this, since they weren't the cheap disposable kind, but the pretty nice reusable ones. Once we got in, we had to go find our section, and find some seats. Since it had been close to two hours after the gates opened by the time we got there, it was pretty difficult to find two seats together. When people arrived early on, it was raining so they let people sit anywhere, but then later on they tried to get people to sit in their section. We ended up with a really good seat, since we were high enough up to not have to look through the fence to see the movie. There were four huge jumbotrons (probably at least the size of 4 of the 7/17/05 DL ones) that they showed the red carpet stuff on. I never actually saw where the red carpet was, which was a little irritating, but they did a good job of covering it for all the people in the seats. The movie was shown on four huge screens. When I was getting some food, they announced that the four screens together would be the largest simultaneous movie ever shown. The screens combined were the size of 38 normal screens, it was huge. I think they said that there were about 30,000 people there, which was also really neat. There was a stage in between the middle screens, where they had most of the event stuff take place. We had really good seats for that, since we were about half a section from being dead center on the stage. Larry the Cable Guy was the MC for the show. I've never seen any of his stuff before, but he was really funny. He did a good job of making jokes that everybody was able to understand, including the kids. He went through all the people who did voices for the film, and they stood up in the audience. I would have preferred to see them on the stage since I was pretty far away from their section, but I understand why they didn't do it that way. They also had a ceremony giving $500,000 each to two children's charities. One was Paul Newman's North Carolina camp, the Victory Junction Gang Camp, and the other was the NASCAR children's charity (I don't remember the name). They showed a video of all the people from the movie going and visiting kids around the state from earlier in the week, which was really nice. There was a military band, I think from the army, that played the national anthem. There were fireworks for "the rockets' red glare" and "the bombs bursting in air" which I thought was really really neat and unexpected. They played something else (once again, I should have taken notes), and the second they finished there was a fly-over. Unlike most fly-overs I've seen, we couldn't see the planes getting ready, so it was a total surprise. It was overall a very impressive performance. I have to go now, but I will pick back up with this a little later.
Originally Posted By DlandDug More! More! You got to see the parts of the show the LP staffers missed. But we got to stay out at the wet red carpet. (Look for LP's exclusive coverage of the red carpet arrivals later!)
Originally Posted By FerretAfros After the band played, the Army Drill Team did a performance. Being in marching band, I could really appreciate how much work they had gone through to get the whole thing to work well without any beat to keep it going. After that, there was a "race" that lasted 12 laps. There were about 8 cars, and the Cars car started in fourth place. Somebody who races who did a voice for the film was driving it, sorry I can't remember his name, and the rest of the cars were driven by some of the drivers from the Richard Petty Driving Experience. The Cars car took the lead in the third lap, but was quickly passed, and then led again for about the last lap and a half and then won. It was pretty predictable, but all the little kids really liked it, and it was just the right lenght for them. I think I got the order wrong in the last post, so I'll try to get everything in the right order. First there was the red carpet coverage, followed by the band and drill team. I believe that there was a couple performances by some group that did covers of pretty popular recent-ish songs. I don't think that they were a group that is well known, but I don't really follow current music that much. Then there was the race, followed by Larry the Cable Guy announcing the donations to the charities. Mr. Guy (is that the right way to address him?) then went through all of the actors who provided voices for the film and they stood up in the audience. I thought it was a little interesting that the seats that we had were right in fron of the stage, but the big stars were in between two screens off on the side. After that, Brad Paisley performed three songs. The only one that I recognized was the "Moving along the highway" one, but I don't really listen to country music. After that, somebody did Route 66 and something else, but there was some microphone trouble. I don't know who he was, but they announced him as being the person who made the song famous, but it was most definately not Nat King Cole. He was pretty good considering his age, and the song was a good transition to the movie. The movie started a little after 10:00, which wasn't too bad, but a lot of the little kids had fallen asleep before it started. The lady sitting next to us and her son both fell asleep during the musical acts, but woke up just before the movie started. I had thought that the movie would be pretty good, but I was very impressed with the overall story. I'll wait until the next post to tell what happens, so it will be easier to skip over for people who don't want to read about it. Make sure however, to stay through the credits, as they are quite amusing. After the movie was over, there were some fireworks. Since they were launched from the infield, they were really close, which was neat. Living close to where huge fireworks are leagal for normal people (like South Carolina) I have been very close to some big stuff, but nothing quite like this. Most of the explosions were just above eye level, and really seemed like we were about to get engulfed with them. It was a really neat way to end the evening. We then walked back to the car and had absolutely no trouble getting out of the parking lot and back home.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros **SPOILERS BELOW** The movie starts as Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) is getting ready for a race. The race is the Piston Cup, the highlight of the Dinoco series. Dinoco is the gas station in Toy Story, and shares the same logo, however the colors are changed to blues. The race goes on, and Lightning is in the lead by about a lap, when he gets a flat tire just gefore the finish line. He hops along and sticks out his tounge, but there is a three way tie. It is between him (a rookie), Chick Hicks (a veteran who has never won the Cup), and "The King" who is an old veteran on his last year (Richard Petty). To settle the race, they decide a tie breaker will be held in California the next week. Lightning is getting his picture taken when he says that he is the star and really didn't need his crew, which causes them to quite. He then goes to his sponsor tent, which is anti-rust cream, similar to hemoradge ointment. The company representatives are Click and Clack from Car Talk on NPR. Lightning talks about how he doesn't like rusty cars, and gets in his trailer, attacked to Mack the truck (John Ratzenberger). They leave the track and start heading to California. Mack says that he is tired and wants to pull over, but Lightning insists that they keep going, and he will stay awake too. He immediately falls asleep, leaving Mack on his own. As Mack is drifting in and out of conciousness, some "teen aged" cars drive up, with rediculous graphics, wheels, and other features like spoilers and under lights. They make fun of Mack for being tired and begin to play elevator music, which causes him to fall asleep. As he falls asleep, the back door to the trailer opens, and Lightning comes out onto the road. He wakes up, and tries to follow Mack. He sees him exit, and follows. Since he has no headlights (because he is a racecar) he can only try to keep up. He finally catches up to find out that the truck he has been following was not Mack. He tries to get back to the interstate, but ends up in Radiator Springs. A cop tries to catch him for speeding, but just chases him into town. While there, he winds up tearing a statue off of its base, which causes it to drag behind him and tear up the road. He eventually gets tangled up in powerlines (the exact scene is sort of a blur), where he is arrested. The next morning, he wakes up in the impound, whe Tow Mater (Larry the Cable Guy) befriends him. Lightning goes to court to try to get out of the charges. The judge Doc Hudson (Paul Newman) lets him off, since he just wants to get him out of the town. Sally Carerra (Bonnie Hunt) comes in and causes Lightning to stay and fix the road. Mater acts as Lightning's attourney, but really can't do anything. Doc challanges Lightning to a race, where the winner would have to pave the road. Using the dirt track, Lightning takes off around the first turn, while Doc just sits there. He begins to move, but slowly. As Lightning goes into turn 3, he tries to turn but can't get enough traction and slips off a cliff into a field of cacti. Doc passes him and wins the race. Lightning works on paving the road, but after becoming irritated by Bessie, he goes as fast as he can, but makes the road worse than it was earlier. He then has to tear out the road and start over. He begins to see Sally and fall in love with her as he works. The first day, he only got a little done because he had to restart. After working all night, he went to the track to try and work on the turn. He wouldn't take Doc's advice to turn the wheels the opposite way to get around the turns going fast, and kept falling into the cacti. The next day he moved along, getting a fair ammount finished. I'm not exactly sure how many days pass as he is working, but as times goes on, he becomes close friends with Mater, and promises to get him a ride on a helicopter when he wins the Piston Cup. Sally offers to let Lightning to stay at the Cozy Cone, her Route 66 "tacky" motel. Lightning spends the night, and the next day, after working, goes for a drive with Sally. She said that she didn't know where they were headed, but just wanted to go for fun. They drive through the country side, and it becomes obvious that they both have feelings for eachother. They make it to the Wheel Well Motel, an old motel left from Radiator Springs' heyday, where Sally says that she wants to fix it up someday. Somewhere around here, Lightning learns that Doc Hudson used to be the racer Hudson Hornet, who won 3 piston cups. He feels bad about not listening earlier, but Doc doesn't really listen. Lightning then proceeds to tell the rest of the town about Doc's history. The next day, Lighting has finished the road work, and appears to have left. He comes back, and gets new tires and a new paint job. He goes through all the different shops in town, and helps everybody out. At the end of the day, to help Sally out, he has all the shop owners turn on their neon lights, to being back the feel of what the city had been like. Suddenly, cars start arriving in town, which are a rare sight. Everybody gets excited, but it is a search part looking for Lighting. They take him off, and he really doesn't get to say goodbye to anybody. As the paparazi and everybody are leaving, one car goes and thanks Doc for the tip off. Lightning arrives just in time for the final race in California. He does not have a crew, since he made them angry in the first race, but decides to go with only Mack to help him. After the race starts, the Radiator Springs gang shows up to help him, with Doc as the crew cheif, which the announcers notice right away as the Hudson Hornet. After gerring a really fast pit stop from one of the tire guys, Lightning starts catching up with The King and Chick. Chick tries to run him off the track, but Lightning follows Doc's advice, and turns the wheels the wrong way, causing him to fishtail and turn the right way. Chick sees this and causes The King to hit the wall. Lightning gets in the lead by a good distance, but when he sees The King sitting there, he remembers what happened to Doc. He couldn't let it happen again, so he turned around and pushed The King to the finish, letting Chick win and himself come in third. The crowd totally ignores Chick and focuses on Lightning for what he did. The Dinoco president offers to sponsor Lightning, but he decides that he wants to stay with his team. After asking if there was anything else that Dinoco could do for him, Lightning asked to let Mater get a helicopter ride. This showed that Lightning had pretty much turned all the way around, not caring about the sponsors any more, but more about the people that he would help. **END SPOILERS**
Originally Posted By FerretAfros Overall, the movie was much more than what I had expected. The characters are really relatable and likable. The graphics are really realistic looking which adds to the overall effect. The story is very entertaining and has a good message, but not too heavy handed. The main problem I see with this is just getting people to go see it. It might come off as too much "NASCAR" to some people, which may make it difficult to get people to go in the first place. If people would simply go, I don't really see how they wouldn't like it. It started to rain during the night time highway scene, so everybody put their ponchos on. It drizzled for about five minutes and then stopped for the rest of the night. Everything was a little we from earlier in the day, but nothing too major. The second driving scene, with Sally, would make for a great Test Track style attraction in DCA. The setting is really beautiful and would really help add the theming that is missing so much in that park. My only real problem with adding it is that it states speficically that Radiator Springs is not in California. It is possible that they drive far enough to get into California, but highly improbably. I think that the city (the version at the end) would make a really cool land for the park too, but I don't know where they would add it. ** SPOLIERS BELOW** Sorry, I forgot about how it finished. Lightning goes back to Radiator Springs and opens up his racing museum in the Wheel Well Motel, which gets cars back into the city, bringing it back to life. All of the old run-down businesses open back up and it puts Route 66 back on the map. Cars are now willing to drive the extra ten minutes to see the little town that had been forgotten for so long. **END SPOILERS** I will try to get a couple pictures from that day up. There really isn't anything special since I couldn't take it inside, and we parked on the other side of the track, but there are a couple shots of stuff on the way there.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros I was able to get the photos up, but you might have to copy and paste. If you just click on the picture, you don't have to sign in. <a href="http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=16b4x21i.7ntpg89e&Uy=19gwwm&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0" target="_blank">http://www.kodakgallery.com/Sh areLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=16b4x21i.7ntpg89e&Uy=19gwwm&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0</a>
Originally Posted By FerretAfros I promise this is the last one...I just forgot about a funny scene in the movie. **SPOILERS BELOW** One night after working, Lightning is convinced by Mater to go do something fun, since he had been so busy all day. They go to a field of tractors sleeping, looking like cows. There are several shots from different angles, including one from underneath showing the differiential in the axle and some bolts sticking out to make it look like udders. Mater then honks his horn at one of them and it wakes one up. He is startled and slowly flips over onto its back. Mater goes to another and the same thing happens again. When they hit the ground, they let out some exhaust, reminiscent of a cow's ability to produce methane. Mater then tells Lightning to go over and honk his horn, but Lightning says he doesn't have one. So, he drives over to one and revs his engine, and wakes them all up. The entire field then flips over and lets out some exhaust. I know it really doesn't sound that great, but it had the audience dieing. It was a great way to show how different types of vehicles work together in the environment. There was then a harvesting machine, that owned the tractors, who chased Lightning and Mater away. The cow tipping was one of those things that didn't really add anything to the plot, but was very entertaining, and helped to form a bond between Lightning and Mater. **END SPOILER**
Originally Posted By DlandDug That "old guy" who sang Route 66 also sang Roll Over Beethoven. Yes, there were MAJOR sound problems for him and his band. But he was game and finished the set. That was the legendary Chuck Berry.
Originally Posted By Dave >>>One was Paul Newman's North Carolina camp, the Victory Junction Gang Camp,<<< Paul Newman, Kyle and Pattie Petty are the founders of Victory Junction.
Originally Posted By Dave >>>Yes, there were MAJOR sound problems for him and his band<<< The sound problem was he is TOO OLD and can't sing anymore!! It was really sad.
Originally Posted By DlandDug Hey, even in their prime most rock stars today sound pretty pathetic without their amps, back up singers, and over driven arrangements. Chuck Berry was a game old guy and finished his set. I give him props for that, at least.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros I was really glad to get to see him, since I really don't know how many performances he has left in him. He did a really good job considering that the sound was messed up and handled it very professionally.
Originally Posted By JABulie ok, so i went and saw 'cars' in theaters. There was one voice that sounded so familiar but i just couldnt quite place it. It was the car with the horns that was offering the sponsership. I was just wondering if anyone knew who the actor is/ what else he was in that makes the voice so familiar.
