This weekend I got to see two new movies: Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth and Pixar's Cars. I recommend both of them highly, though I'm a little bothered by the combo.
See, after watching An Inconvenient Truth, my fuel consumption awareness is heightened even keener than it usually is. To follow it the next day with a movie that not only is all about America's love of automobile racing and big, gas-guzzling cars in general, it's seems to be confused itself with what message it wants to present.
As usual, John Lasseter is amazingly good at tugging on the heartstrings of our fondness for days gone by... hearkening back to a time when Route 66 was a great road... the reason to be on vacation, not just a means to the destination. He did throw in a "hippie" VW bus (played by George Carlin) who sold some sort of ambigous organic fuel, but otherwise, tanks and pumps and oil drums were omni-present through the movie. I couldn't help but feel cold after watching this flick in which steel, oil, and tar are the major focus points.
Still, it's Pixar and that alone makes it a well-oiled machine. Go see it, but turn off your environmental protectionist side first.
Now Gore's film, on the other hand, had me all fired up afterwards. I was glad to see from his suggestions at the end that I am already doing a few of the things he recommends (turning off electrical appliances, switching to fluorescent bulbs, recycling, driving less, etc), but there's so much more that I, you, and everyone need to do. If you see one film, put that one at the top of your list. And make sure you visit the website so you can see a few of the suggestions yourself.
I'm not going to preach to anyone too much. I've already made up my mind long ago what needs to be done, but if you'd like to insert your 2 cents, feel free.
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