Cars

In 2006, Pixar releaed its second film to have an entirely non-human cast. Starring Owen Wilson, Paul Newman, Bonnie Hunt, Larry the Cable Guy, Tony Shalhoub, George Carlin, Cheech Marin, Richard Petty and Michael Keaton, Cars grossed over $400 million at the box office and was nominated for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song. It lost to Happy Feet and “I Need to Wake Up” from An Inconvenient Truth.

Lightning McQueen (Wilson) is an up and coming hotshot car race whose only concern is winning. After a three-way tie for the Piston Cup, a tie breaker is scheduled in California. Along the way there, he gets lost and ends up in Radiator Springs.

While Cars doesn’t exactly reach the standards set by Toy Story and The Incredibles, it’s not that terrible a film.

This was the era Pixar generally didn’t go for subtle messages. And unlike some films where sledgehammers are uncalled for, they work here. Lightning going from an egomaniac to understanding what’s really important is good. At the beginning when his manager asks him for the names of 20 of his friends, he can’t name them because he doesn’t have any. And at that point he also doesn’t think he needs them. But after realizing that life isn’t about racing to the finish line and speeding off to the next race, he understands that taking it slow and actually doing stupid things with friends is actually quite enjoyable.

There’s also a few pretty good jokes centered around the Cars world, such as the bugs and insects having a VW Beetle frame. But the best two have to be when Lightning first goes missing an there’s Jay Limo making a joke and a Hummer that’s the Arnold Schwarzenegger stand in at Sacramento.

Most people really don’t like Cars, but even though it’s not as good as Toy Story, A Bug’s Life or Finding Nemo, it certainly isn’t as bad as its sequel.

#20 

The Wild

In 2006, Disney distributed an animated CGI film produced by C.O.R.E. Feature Animation. Directed by Steve Williams, The Wild starred Kiefer Sutherland, Jim Belushi, Janeane Garofalo, Greg Cipes, Eddie Izzard, Richard Kind, William Shatner, and Patrick Warburton. It grossed $139 million.

Samson the Lion (Sutherland) is a lion at the New York zoo. He has an argument with his son, Ryan (Cipes) who runs away to the African Wild to be like his father. Samson takes his friends, an anaconda named Larry (Kind), a koala named Nigel (Izzard), a giraffe named Bridged (Garofalo) and a squirrel named Benny (Belushi) to go find him. During the search, they come across a cult of wildebeests led by Kazar (Shatner) trying to become carnivores.

On the surface, this film might seem like a clone of Madagascar, since it came out before The Wild. And while there are similarities, the latter is actually quite superior to the former. For one, most of the jokes are actually funny. Yes, there are a few terrible ones, but in an inverse of Kronk’s New Groove for every bad joke, there’s a lot that are really good.

The plot is also much better and less contrived. Instead of a lion wanting to go to the jungle, a Ryan accidentally gets transported there and his dad has to find him. The resulting trip has much better direction than causing a scene in Times Square and getting shipped off. Here, they’re the instigators and they track down the ship and they go after it.

Shatner’s also a hilarious villain, especially with Warburton at his side. He believes a koala doll that fell from the sky is an omen that a god will come to them and teach the wildebeests to be carnivores. Leading the cult and insulting Warburton’s character for messing up his dance routine is just plain funny.

#41