Pixar's Cars

Took another half day yesterday and went to watch Cars with Liyun and Jaslyn. Jaslyn became restless quickly – not because the movie is boring, but I guess asking a 3-year old girl to sit still for 2 hours is a bit too much.

Cars was fabulous! The story is slightly cliché – a self-absorbed hotshot racer named 'Lightning McQueen' takes an unexpected detour, ends up spending a week in a small town on Route 66 and learns that loyalty, community, and an appreciation of life's detours matter more than individual advancement. The fictional town, called Radiator Springs, used to be a bustling stopover whose status rapidly collapsed once the interstate insured that all cross-country traffic would be diverted away from the town.

This animation is essentially a loving tribute to the good old days when life was slower and people friendlier. In our bid for greater efficiency, we have built 'interstates' in our lives to get to places faster and in the process, complicating our own lives in some meaningless pursuit and losing focus on what's of importance.