Home Improvement
is a classic example of a television series that defines its audience early on
and then gives that subset more of what it has grown to love, while also adding
enough small character wrinkles to keep things legitimately fresh and moving
forward. The show was originally rooted in the gruff, “guys’ guy” stand-up
comedy of star Tim Allen — part of a spate of pilot production deals handed out
to up-and-coming comedians in the early 1990s — but anyone who followed the
series in its later years will attest that only the most trace amounts of that
edge remained. Instead, Home Improvement
grew into the equivalent of a pine tree — a dependable if unspectacular small
screen laffer with not quite the majesty of an oak, the delicious novelty of an
apple or lemon tree nor the mannered beauty of a willow tree.

For those unfamiliar with the Detroit-set show, Allen stars
as Tim Taylor, the affable, pun-loving host of a Bob Villa-type, do-it-yourself
television program called Tool Time.
His faithful co-host is Al Borland (Richard Karn), and his long-suffering wife
is Jill (Patricia Richardson). Together, they preside over a brood of three
rambunctious sons (with an irritating nine names between them — Zachery Ty
Bryan, Jonathan Taylor Thomas and Taran Noah Smith), and live next door to a
rarely glimpsed neighbor, Wilson (Earl Hindman), who dispenses nuggets of
advice that help, when necessary, steer the perpetually mishap-making Tim
toward compromise and apology.

Highlights from the series’ fifth season find Tim joining Jill’s book club just to outdo one of her classmates, Tim installing a home security system that drives everyone crazy and Jill taking a liking to psychology and doling out advice left and right. Taylor Thomas’ Randy, meanwhile, gets voted “Best Butt” at school. Home
Improvement, like many of its familial sitcom brethren, sometimes stoops a bit too
often to the overly simplified husband-as-idiot routine, and the requisite “very special episode” (in this case “The Longest Day,” which teases the possibility that Randy may have cancer) falls flat. Still, the characters
are nicely sketched and rather warmly brought to life by both Allen and especially
Richardson, who would pick up the third of four unfulfilled Emmy nominations
for her work this season. Episodic highlights include “Advise and Repent,” “The Look,” “Doctor in the House” and the roundabout titled
“Engine and a Haircut, Two Fights.” Guest stars herein include Marla Sokoloff and Miguel Sandoval.

Presented in 1.33 full screen with audio in Dolby digital
2.0 stereo, Home Improvement: The
Complete Fifth Season comes spread out over three discs in a cardboard slipcase that houses the set’s sturdy gatefold packaging.
Unfortunately, though, the only bonus material comes by way of a brief, season-specific blooper
reel, at least some of which fans will no doubt recognize from Dick Clark’s
visit to the set for his blooper-laden specials. C+ (Series) B
(Disc)

After taking moviegoers underwater and down to ground level,
as well as into the realms of toys, monsters and superheroes, Pixar Animation
Studios hits the open road with Cars, long a passion project of
company CEO John Lasseter, who here jumps back behind the “camera” and
directs for the first time since 1999’s Toy Story 2. The tale of a
hotshot rookie race car who discovers the value of friendship and life in the
slow lane when he’s stranded in a small desert town en route to an important
race, the movie is colorful and for the most part enjoyable, but its
bloated running time and somewhat abstractly sentimental tenor might somewhat mitigate
youthful enjoyment, particularly of the repeat viewing variety.


An
accident along the way shakes Lightning free from his trailer, and — since race
cars don’t have headlights — he finds himself lost. His situation becomes a
more fixed detour when, after a high-speed chase that tears up the sleepy,
abandoned town of Radiator Springs, Lightning is sentenced by Doc Hudson
(voiced by Paul Newman), himself secretly an old race car, to fix up and
re-pave the streets he has damaged. Resentful at first, and panicked to get to
California as quickly as possible, Lightning slowly comes to appreciate the
town’s denizens, including local attorney Sally Carrera (voiced by Bonnie
Hunt), a curvaceous Porsche; sociable tow truck Mater (voiced by Larry the
Cable Guy); and emotional tire shop owner Luigi (voiced by Tony Shalhoub), a
1959 Italian Fiat.

As
is typical of Pixar’s efforts, the animation on display in Cars is
jaw-droppingly impressive, approaching photorealism at times. Even more
astutely, those who have traversed I-40 or the old Route 66 on cross-country
drives will likely recognize specific landmarks and geographical formations.
This attention to intricate detail elevates the material and helps rescue a few
passages that might otherwise be characterized as dramatically inert. The
characters, too, grow on you. While it takes some getting used to the
imposition of human eyes and lids on windshields — and the absence of humans
seems a bit too Christine, never fully explained — the various
collisions of personality that the movie draws out make for some fun scenes.

Where
Cars bogs down some is in its too-brawny opening (all dialed-up
sound mix) and pointedly nostalgic but somewhat malingering efforts to play
up the then-versus-now changes in lifestyle (can we please retire for a bit the
obligatory montage with a Randy Newman song?). Amidst a competitive animated
summer slate this season — including the underrated Over the
Hedge — Cars pulled in $244 million, just under the $260 million domestic take of The Incredibles. Its G rating,
compared to that film’s PG, certainly helped, but it came up short of the blockbuster haul of Finding
Nemo (which pulled in $340 million), in part because the
“life lessons” learned in Cars play more to adult sensibilities.

Disney’s DVD release — which is available in separate 2.39:1 anamorphic widescreen and full screen single-disc, foil-embossed editions — comes in an impressively high bit-rate transfer that showcases fantastic character rendering, eye-popping color and deep, consistent blacks. Two audio tracks, in Dolby digital 2.0 surround and Dolby digital 5.1 surround sound EX, anchor the aural front. The supplemental features kick off with One-Man Band, the four-minute Pixar effort that preceded Cars in theaters, followed by a seven-minute animated short, Mater and the Ghostlight, that gives extra run to Larry the Cable Guy’s chatty character.

Lasseter then sits for a 16-minute featurette on the inspiration for the film, which delves into his childhood memories on Route 66. Rounding things out are four deleted scenes in rough form, totaling about 10 minutes. While slight when compared to the stuffed slate of many Disney animated titles — maybe a result of Disney and Pixar’s contentious contract renewal negotiations, and thus perhaps auguring a double-disc, anniversary double-dip further down the line — this release is no slouch, certainly qualitatively in terms of its visual presentation. Ranking somewhat to the low end of Pixar’s body of work
is no great shame, too, given the quality of that canon. But that’s the reality of
comparison. The world of Cars feels a bit less lively, spry and inherently
interesting than the worlds of the Toy Story movies, even though it’s
just as lovingly sketched and populated. B (Movie) B- (Disc)