I always try to decide whether to see a film by its trailer. I see no point in listening to professional critics, nor even friends, really, as entertainment is subjective and there’s nobody who’s completely in line with my tastes. Well, that’s not quite true - I’ll take positive recommendations from friends into account, but not negative ones, as in my experience films surprise far more often than they disappoint. The trailer is (in theory, anyway) an advert created by the same people who made the film, so I try to judge by that.

When I saw the teaser trailer for Pixar’s Cars I was surprised. I didn’t think it looked all that great, which wasn’t expected - come on, it’s Pixar! I just saw¹ the new trailer, however, and Cars is now definitely on my to-see list. I love the eyes of the race-track audience, and the tow-truck’s animation in the final scene is fantastic! There’s something else I wanted to point out, but come back here after you’ve watched the trailer…

Another litmus test for geekery: how much time did you spend looking at the dust kicked up by the cars? If you even noticed it, you’ve passed. To be fair, I always expect Voyager’s credits to slow down when the camera passes through the asteroid belt, so maybe I’m something of an extreme example

1. my parents’ internet connection was recently upgraded to 4mb, and they can watch the 480p HD trailer without a delay. Hmph. [↩]