When you think of summer, what do you think of?
Some think of the beach, the sun, and taking trips to the far reaches of the world, otherwise known as Mexico. Their only concerns are how much sunblock to put on and when not to drink the water. But then again, others think of something completely different. They remember that their small, smelly, misbehaving, rasputin children are out of school. And at least in most of the nation, these kids are released from their educational prisons and allowed to cause mayhem and destruction on otherwise peaceful afternoon streets. Thus, Hollywood was brought in as a consultant of peace and they developed their strategy, along with the parents of America, 
to give these little rascals something to do while their parents battle the demons of the corporate world. And this year falls right into line with years past, providing plenty of family fun and dozens of films that one could easily drop their child off at and leave them for a few hours. Sound fun? Alright, let's get down to it.
We begin in this month, with a blockbuster that should race into our hearts and a familiar feline whose debut was a little less than purrr-fect. From the same guy who wrote and directed Toy Story 2 comes Cars, the story of an animated stock car named Lightning McQueen, who is voiced by one of the comedic champions of last year, Wedding Crasher Owen Wilson. The superstar of stock car racing, McQueen gets stranded on his way to the big race in a small dessert town called Radiator Springs. 
There he meets a cast of characters who teach him a little bit about respect and living life to the fullest before he is able to get back to his superstar existence. Wilson is flanked by the likes of Paul Newman, Bonnie Hunt, and Larry the Cable Guy in a film that looks to be one of this year's first toss ups. There is something about talking NASCARs that will capture about 80% of the nation's hearts right away, but the question will become whether America's most popular sport will be able to transfer enough momentum over to this film before it is forced to ride off into the sunset in rare fashion: as Pixar's first underperformer. Thankfully for Cars, it has little competition on opening weekend and has the support of a painfully over-the-top marketing campaign. It should do well, and it looks like fun. I would recommend seeing it, but in order to avoid the throngs of little kids and teenage Owen Wilson crooners, I would recommend waiting until after opening weekend.
.jpg?t=20120527181101)
Article comments