The Movie Diorama Pixar's short animations tend to be either original meaningful films or continuations of existing intellectual property. A slight diversion from 'Monster's Inc', Mike's New Car is simply our favourite one-eyed fledgling purchasing a new car and figuring out how to utilise the vehicle, with "great" assistance from Sully. We've all done it. Bought a new car, sat in it thinking "damn, look at all these buttons". Yeah, multiply that by 72 and that's how many gadgets this car has. It's always humorous to see these two characters interact with each other, and the way they approach the foreign contraption that is a six-wheeled car. As always, their natural chemistry and juxtaposing personalities make for a few smiles. It is however absent of chuckles, and that's due to how placid the visual comedy is. Having adapted to the feature film, we now know what these characters are like around each other and how they react to certain situations. Mike easily becoming frustrated whilst Sully becomes clueless. It's nothing outrageous, and the overacting will appeal to younger audiences as Mike flails around like a pinball, however it is entertaining nonetheless. Crystal voices Mike to perfection whilst Goodman unfortunately does not have too much to say. His dialogue consists of murmurs and sounds of pondering, highlighting Sully's perplexed bewilderment. Its brisk, light and a very easy three minute short. It won't make a loud roar within Pixar's filmography, but will satisfy fans and younger audiences.

Horst in Translation ([email protected]) I have to say I quite like both Monsters, Inc. movie and this short film came out a year after the first. Basically it is nothing more than a handful slapstick jokes packed into slightly over 3 minutes. The animation is good as always with Pixar and I liked especially how the car had a bit of an evil face which fit nicely the way Mike struggled with it. However, none of these jokes really had the joy or fun that came with the full feature films starring this unusual duo of friends. A third of this short film is only about Sulley adjusting his seat which seems to make Mike very angry for some reason. There is also not a real message in this film, something that usually comes with Pixar. Or maybe the message is that you should go with what has become valuable to you in the past instead of going for something new and shiny? I don't know.This short film is written and directed by Pixar big name Pete Docter and he got help from Roger Gould and a couple writers who also worked on the first Monsters movie. They managed an Oscar nomination in the animated short film category which makes me shake my head. At least they did not win, although the winner that year is not much better, if at all. "Mike's New Car" is one of Pixar's worst. Not recommended.

Gordon-11 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.

Jack the Ripper1888 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.