Mike's New Car

This short animation is about the new car Mike bought. He is proud of it until things go awfully wrong.

"Mike's New Car" is aimed at very young children. To be honest, I do not quite see the attraction of this short. The plot is a simple one, featuring merry mishaps of Mike and Scully while working with the technologically advanced car. It is not particularly hilarious or warm. If this was nominated for an Oscar, then the other shorts must have been very bad, or there were no other shorts.

I find "Mike's New Car" rather forgettable. I have never been a fan of "Monsters Inc", so it may have affected my judgment of this animation.

With the money from his new found fame and success, Mike buys a brand new powerful car to replace his old one. With state of the art gadgets and controls, Mike is eager to show it off to Sully. However this car is a little more complex than his last model.

When I borrowed the Monsters Inc DVD off some friends I was impressed by the sheer number of extras on it, whether the tv spots or the weird Japanese games or the outtakes etc. Of all the things additional to the movie, this short is the second best extra (the best being the musical `Put That Thing Back Where it Came From Or So Help Me').

Although it relies much more on physical humour than the film does I must admit to still being tickled by it. It appealed to the toddler audience a lot more simply because there were no real `over the head' jokes aimed at adults and not at the kids – plus it involved one character being hurt!

Overall I enjoyed this short and, when I watch Monsters Inc with any young relatives, I always make sure that the musical and this short are part of the viewing agenda.

This is a clever short film that strikes me as something of a deleted scene from Monsters, Inc, into which this short film would have fit quite nicely, especially clocking in at a whopping three and a half minutes! It's an interesting illustration of the dangers of upgrading to these high tech new cars available today, especially if you are just a regular guy like Mike. He buys this fancy new car with six wheels and can't contain himself at how cool it is, and then he and Sulley get beaten up by it because they have no idea how to use it. It's probably something similar to what would happen to me if I managed to get my hands on a brand new car. When cars are driving themselves I'll still be excited to have power steering.

It's pretty funny to see Mike and Sulley struggle to figure out the new car, especially when Sulley gets all fascinated by the power seats, quickly annoying Mike, who seconds earlier couldn't wait to show him all the new gadgets in his fancy new car. I have come to expect more than this from Pixar, though, especially in their short films, which generally contain enough charm and amusement in just a few minutes to fill a full-length movie. This is a cute film, but it is not up to the level of other great films from them, like Geri's Game or For the Birds. Still a pretty cute film, though, and it's not like you can really complain about a three and a half minute short anyway, right?

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.