I'll grant you that the Lion King could be done in the human world, but there is also a hierarchy that is still conformed to what we know about nature in the Lion King. Lions are kings, lions murder each other to control prides, hyenas are ruled by matriarchs and are arch enemies to lions, and warthogs stink. How many animal puns are there in the Lion King? Not many. We believe in them as characters first. Cars though has nothing but car jokes. It doesn't make sense in the way their world works at all, while it does in the Lion King.

quote:
Did we really need minions? we couldn't just use midgets like on Willy Wonka?

The Minions are just funny, and we didn't need to know where they came from, unlike the Cars.

quote:
Why did Nemo have to be a fish? they could have all been humans and told the same exact story?

No, unlike the Lion King, it is necessary from the plot that Nemo is a fish. There is a large hierarchy to this world and how it interacts with humanity. Large plot points change if everyone is of the same species. Lightning McQueen could have just been a racer who gets lost as he does in the movie, and the plot is the same.

quote:
Why did they have the little gnomes in Frozen?

To be honest, I didn't see the need for the trolls either in Frozen.

quote:
Everyone except kids, b/c they aren't thinking that deep about this kids movie.
So you don't think Cars told a story that kids can relate to? you think it was just cars acting like humans and pointless?
Cars is simple. It's a funny movie that centers around friendship. There's no deep thoughts needed. It shows us that we can be friends with people that may seem different at first or have different interest, once we get to know them. That is something every kid experiences many times in life, as well as adults.

I never said that Cars isn't relatable. I can relate to what's going on with the characters. Unfortunately what's going on with the characters has absolutely nothing to do with them being cars. If the toys were human in Toy Story, the plot falls apart. If the emotions were human in Inside Out, the plot falls apart. If Wall-e and EVE are human, the plot falls apart. What these characters are is important in most of Pixar's work, and then Pixar takes what they are and how that helps define their character. Nothing about them being cars affects these characters' personality. While I haven't seen it, Cars 2 is a spy film for crying out loud.