Mike's New Car (2002)

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Mike and Sully, the two heroes from Pixar/Disney's MONSTERS INC. are back in this short film about Mike's new car. At first, Mike is very, very proud of it, but over time, more and more and more goes wrong--and in the process poor Mike and Sully are bashed to pieces by their overly-gadgeted car.I saw this film recently in the new DVD of Pixar animated shorts and while it was very pleasant and funny, I was rather shocked to find out it was nominated for the Oscar for Best Animated Short Subject--which it lost to the better short film THE CHUBBCHUBBS! Now this isn't knocking MIKE'S NEW CAR--it's well executed and fun. However, it just isn't special enough to be considered much other than perhaps a DVD extra.See CHUBBCHUBBS!

This is a quick comment about new cars and all the buttons on them. The "message" being sometimes it was a lot better with a basic simple machines of the past."Mike" (Billy Crystal) has a new car he wants to show off to "Sully" so he invites him to take a ride. They never get to the ride because "Sully" (John Goodman) either hits a wrong button or does something to stall things, driving Mike nuts. Poor Mike takes a beating. The cartoon also is a comment on the sometimes-annoying noise the car will make if your seat belts aren't secured.This animated short came with The "Monsters, Inc." DVD and is a fun four minutes. Mike and Sully, of course, were the stars of the feature film.P.S. The car is very cool.

This little short movie followed MONSTERS, INC. and we had already seen the Academy Award winning short FOR THE BIRDS (which I'm sorry to say, I found terrible). This short is not much better.Still, I actually laughed once on this short movie, which was actually surprising, considering that the whole thing was just plain stupid. There wasn't much of a purpose to this short film other than that maybe Billy Crystal and John Goodman enjoyed making MONSTERS, INC. so much that they wanted to keep working. Kinda like the "extended ending" on the SHREK video which was basically just a bunch of people singing karoke. Anyway, the whole isn't all that great, but I do recommend seeing this before you watch FOR THE BIRDS.MIKE'S NEW CAR: 3/5.

This is a wonderful little bonus to Monsters, Inc. included by Pixar on VHS and DVD release. This is almost as funny as For The Birds and as rich in detail. While I like cel animation slightly more than CGI (odd, because I have zero artistic ability and can't draw a straight line even with a ruler), Pixar's work enthralls me. Pixar succeeds because they understand that a story is necessary, or even the greatest animation (or whatever) crashes in a heap at the foot of the stairs and can't get back up. This point appears to elude entirely too many people of late, including the folks at Disney (Pixar, it should be noted, is not part of Disney, but is a separate company that has a distribution deal with The Mouse.) and it's not that hard to make sure you have a story first, though all too often it must seem that way in the film industry. I hope Pixar continues to do shorts, whether for R & D purposes or just because they want to do them, as they do a great job. Well worth watching. Recommended.