It’s rare for a children’s movie to leave the viewer with more questions than answers. Brevity is their whole point. In a relatively small window of time, kids get a two-for-one special: entertainment and wisdom. Given their limited attention span, the last thing a child needs is a film chock-full of loose ends to distract from the crux of the story. And while some writers, directors, animators and studio executives might think that a kid won’t notice incompetence, they couldn’t be more wrong. Children can be just as unforgiving as adults when it comes to movies, which is probably why, until this week, I couldn’t ever bring myself to rewatch “Cars.”
Growing up, I was a Pixar evangelist, obsessed with the studio’s excellent output. Their films dazzled me to no end and pushed my imagination past its furthest boundaries. But beyond the animation itself, the writing was always truthful. Pixar films are known for their gut-wrenching sincerity, speaking to kids with as much candor as they do adults. That earnestness was always my favorite element of their work. The beautiful, sometimes brutal honesty brought me back to “Monsters Inc.” and “Finding Nemo” more times than I could count. Without fail, the miniature version of me would blubber at Sully the polka dot monster reuniting with Boo, and Marlin the clownfish traversing the ocean to find his son. I had to pause momentarily while writing this paragraph just to wipe a tear from the corner of my eye.
