Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Stars and CARS a Night at the Movies

I don’t usually get to go to these kinds of events. Not like the many concerts my friend’s brother Jeremy gets to go to. By the way I recommend visiting his blog at http://popculturenotes.com. He is one of the most talented writers I know. So, when I read that they were holding the World Premiere of the new Disney Pixar movie “Cars” at the Lowes (Charlotte, NC) Motor Speedway and were going to sell tickets to the general public I was excited.

You did read World Premiere right? That’s right I’ve seen a movie that isn’t even in theaters yet. Yes, I am aware that there were about 20,000 other people there who saw it as well. However, It’s not like you get to go to a world premiere of anything every weekend.

I have to say that this was a lot of fun and I would recommend the movie. It is after all a Pixar movie. You know the people who gave us movies like Toy Story, Finding Nemo. This movie pretty much falls in line with that group. Owen Wilson, Larry the Cable Guy, Paul Newman, and Bonnie Hunt lend their voices to our lead characters. The graphics in this movie are outstanding as always for Pixar and has a story, content, and humor we can all enjoy at any age. And, that is all I’m going to tell you about the movie itself. Go see it.

For the premiere Disney pulled out all the stops. As only you would expect Disney to do. Despite the slight delay for rain (read downpour). They did a Hollywood style red carpet outside of turn two. Inside the track were erected four huge movie screens. They also had four smaller screens and a stage in the middle. They used the smaller screens to show the red carpet and what took place on stage later.

As only you can do at a premiere that takes place at a racetrack we had a race. If there is one thing you can stop a bunch of people interested in cars doing, racing them when you have an open track is not one of them. The fat guy keeping his shirt on is another one but that will take some work too. The Richard Petty Driving School provided the twelve cars for a short 12-lap race. Darrell Waltrip, who of all things voiced a race-announcing car in the movie, driving the “Cars” car won the race. The other drivers were instructors for the school. Do you think that was a setup? Conspiracy theories abound.

After the “race”, Larry the Cable Guy took the stage as Master of Ceremonies for the evening. Being a comedian he did a few jokes, introduced several of the stars and did the check presentation as a large portion of ticket sales went to Speedway Children’s Charities and the Association of Hole in the Wall Gang Camps. Both by the way are great charities that help thousands of children. Many of them are underprivileged or are afflicted by disease or birth defects. Each charity helps many of these kids be kids if only for a little while.

When all the feel good stuff was done and over with, and a performance by country music artist Brad Paisley who is part of the soundtrack for the movie, it was time for the feature presentation. Again, I will not ruin this movie for you. Be it said that it is a good movie no matter how old you are. My problem is I either have to see it in the theater again or wait till around Christmas time for it on DVD. That is a tough call. Any suggestions?

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