The List!!!: Five Great Things The Cars Franchise Brought Us

In The List!!!, I do a list that just reeks of being click-bait, analyzing a particular topic or subject that pertains to something major occurring in pop-culture. This week, in honor of Planes: Fire And Rescue, I look at five great things PIXAR's Cars franchise brought us.

 Let me just say it now; Planes: Fire And Rescue isn't a PIXAR movie. Neither was Planes. Those are made by DisneyToon studios, the fine folks responsible for such cinematic highs as Cinderella 2. PIXAR isn't involved in them aside from John Lasseter bewilderingly producing both movies. My hopes aren't high for the second Planes feature, and the first one was the absolute worst movie of 2013, and Cars 2 was a mess, but that doesn't mean this series of transportation movies has never created something interesting. Behold, five great things the Cars franchise has bestowed upon us!

Look at that animation!! Beautiful stuff!

1. Cutting Edge Animation: Eight years later, the land of the first Cars movie is still gorgeous to look at, an achievement in computer generated imagery. If Cars 2's script had had half the brilliance of its animation, it would have been a masterpiece for the ages. Planes featured actually pretty embarrassing visuals, but at least the two biggest movies in the franchise had some of the greatest animation in the history of animated filmmaking.

2. Toyline: My main hobby (film has transcended that term to become more of a lifestyle for me) is collecting diecast vehicles based on characters from the Cars features. Planes was bad enough to turn me off from collecting figures from that series of films, but there's an endless amount of characters from the first two movies to keep collectors like me appeased. Seriously guys, some of these cars are truly things of stunning beauty.

Hey look! A well developed romance!

3. Some Great Songs: It's rare to see Country Music represented in a mainstream feature, but luckily the third biggest movie of 2006 had the good sense to give Brad Paisley two songs on its tremendously successful soundtrack. One of those songs (Find Yourself) is easily one of Paisleys best, and Cars 2 at least had the courtesy to bring him back to do two more songs for them. He's back to doing tunes for Planes: Fire And Rescue, so at least this franchise has the good sense to endorse the brilliance of Brad Paisley.

How can you not hate these guys?

4. Setting The Bar For Worst In Animation: Prior low bars in the realm of animated family films were obscure duds like Doogal, films that drew more looks of confusion than derision when brought up. Now we have a well known movie that can easily be called upon to describe terrible filmmaking that wastes all the creative potential the medium of animation brings.
  

How can you not love these guys?

5. The First Movie Is Still A Classic: Even after all that's come (the Planes movies, terrible planning on Mattels part, Mater being the lead in Cars 2), that very first movie still stands as an excellent film. I know it's not cool to say on the wild land of the Internet, but honestly, Cars is one of the best examples of PIXAR firing on all cylinders creatively. It's got a nice story, fun characters and a terrific performance from Paul Newman. It's an amazing movie that manages to stand on its own despite all that would follow.