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.

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.

This is a funny short and if you like Monster's Inc. it is worth checking out. It feel much more like a deleted scene from the film than anything else. It has no life outside of its connection to the larger work. And it's the second feature that makes me downgrade it so much. This is the first short film made by Pixar connected to feature film made after the film. None of these works are particularly engaging and while Pixar has continued to make original shorts I wish they merely experimented in the short form. There's no great need for a short film with these characters.

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.

I enjoying watching Monsters, Inc. with Sulley and Mike, then seeing them in this short film. It is nice bonus to Monsters, Inc. that Pixar put Mike's New Car with buying or renting on VHS or DVD at your video store. Mike is funny when he and Sulley react to the new car. I like more films with the characters. I will not be surprised if the Mike and Sulley make a special appearance in Finding Nemo at the end of the film in the goofs.