Saturday, July 01, 2006
Yes, I am strange. You knew that.
Thursday evening Mike and I went to go see Cars. Apparently I am part of the target audience for this movie, because it made me cry.
Yes, really.
Shuddup.
It wasn't the main storyline that affected me. That's there as a framework, and to give the kiddies a nice little life lesson. This one being that unless you care about others and they care about you, it doesn't do you any good to get rich and famous. Which is a good point that bears repeating.
Where they snagged me and reeled me in was the part where they show how the little town of Radiator Springs started to decline when Interstate 40 was put in and cut off Route 66. The Mother Road. America's Main Street. So this movie is based on several thousand true stories.
As you may recall, Mike and I have a dream to someday take a few months and drive old Route 66, as much as is left, from Chicago to LA. I've watched our videos* about it dozens of times. Mike, dozens of dozens. Pretty much from the start I was noticing little visual jokes, redraws of historic things and places. I thought they were just doing a bang-up job of recreating the 30s to 60s vintage architecture...until the credits rolled and they listed all the real places they had drawn to make the movie town. So it's like they condensed old Route 66 into one fictional place. Its story is the story of the whole sad lost era of roadtrip wonders.
That's why when that scene came on, set to a song called "Our Town", I had time to think, "Hey, that's James Taylor!" before I started getting teary and sniffly. Then later they had a scene where they turned on all their old neon signs, and lit up the town like it had been in its heyday. Yeah, go figure, me getting emotional about neon....
The B story follows the theme as well, the one with the car voiced by Paul Newman. It makes you wonder why we do it. Why do we abandon the things that made us happy, just to exchange them for something faster and shinier, because it's new?
There are a multitude of little background in-jokes in this, so I expect we will be getting the DVD when it comes out. We already ordered the CD, as there are a couple of songs I must have. If you haven't gone, go, and don't forget to stay through to the end of the credits, fer th' love of Chrysler! :)
*Michael Wallis has written several books and made videos about old Route 66, and has had a major part in pushing for restoration of it. He was the voice for the Sheriff car in the movie!
Yes, really.
Shuddup.
It wasn't the main storyline that affected me. That's there as a framework, and to give the kiddies a nice little life lesson. This one being that unless you care about others and they care about you, it doesn't do you any good to get rich and famous. Which is a good point that bears repeating.
Where they snagged me and reeled me in was the part where they show how the little town of Radiator Springs started to decline when Interstate 40 was put in and cut off Route 66. The Mother Road. America's Main Street. So this movie is based on several thousand true stories.
As you may recall, Mike and I have a dream to someday take a few months and drive old Route 66, as much as is left, from Chicago to LA. I've watched our videos* about it dozens of times. Mike, dozens of dozens. Pretty much from the start I was noticing little visual jokes, redraws of historic things and places. I thought they were just doing a bang-up job of recreating the 30s to 60s vintage architecture...until the credits rolled and they listed all the real places they had drawn to make the movie town. So it's like they condensed old Route 66 into one fictional place. Its story is the story of the whole sad lost era of roadtrip wonders.
That's why when that scene came on, set to a song called "Our Town", I had time to think, "Hey, that's James Taylor!" before I started getting teary and sniffly. Then later they had a scene where they turned on all their old neon signs, and lit up the town like it had been in its heyday. Yeah, go figure, me getting emotional about neon....
The B story follows the theme as well, the one with the car voiced by Paul Newman. It makes you wonder why we do it. Why do we abandon the things that made us happy, just to exchange them for something faster and shinier, because it's new?
There are a multitude of little background in-jokes in this, so I expect we will be getting the DVD when it comes out. We already ordered the CD, as there are a couple of songs I must have. If you haven't gone, go, and don't forget to stay through to the end of the credits, fer th' love of Chrysler! :)
*Michael Wallis has written several books and made videos about old Route 66, and has had a major part in pushing for restoration of it. He was the voice for the Sheriff car in the movie!
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