cars

N/A 2006 114m Eng 120m

CAST (VOICES): Owen Wilson (Lightning McQueen), Paul Newman (Doc Hudson), Bonnie Hunt (Sally Carrera), Larry the Cable Guy (Mater), Cheech Marin (Ramone), Tony Shalhoub (Luigi), Jenifer Lewis (Flo), Paul Dooley (Sarge), Michael Keaton (Chick Hicks), George Carlin (Fillmore) and John Ratzenberger (Mac)

CREDITS: Director: John Lasseter; Co-director: Joe Ranft; Producer: Darla K. Anderson; Screenwriters: Dan Fogelman/John Lasseter/Joe Ranft/Kiel Murray & Phil Lorin/Jorgen Klubien; Story: John Lasseter/Joe Ranft/Jorgen Klubien; Editor: Ken Schretzmann; Music: Randy Newman

THE SYNOPSIS

Lightning McQueen (Wilson) is a hot-shot, self-aggrandizing rookie race car who’s competing in the Piston Cup Championship. His main competitors are incumbent champ The King (racing champ Richard Petty) and weasly opportunist Chick Hicks (Keaton). The cars end up in a 3-way tie and must venture to California to race in another competition to crown a champion.

While en-route to California, Lightning is inadvertently sidetracked and ends up in the sleepy, Route 66 town of Radiator Springs--located in Carburetor County. After accidentally ripping up all of the road, he is ordered by grumpy ’51 Hudson Hornet-car doctor-judge Doc Hudson (Newman) to repave the roads.

Grudgingly, Lightning does so, and ends up making friends with all of the cars living there--including the lovable tow-truck Mater (Larry The Cable Guy) and sexy hotel owner/Porsche Sally (Hunt). Naturally the race car and the Porsche fall in love. Spark plugs fly!

As the days go by, Lightning actually learns to be less-selfish and more altruistic with others. Turns out that Doc Hudson was a 3-time Piston Cup champ and ends up actually coaching Lightning at the current Cup race in California.

After the race, where Lightning forfeits the Cup to help an injured king finish the race, our protagonist returns to Radiator Springs to set up home base with Sally. The once-sleepy little Route 66 town becomes a thriving racing mecca and all is well in Carburetor County.

THE CRITIQUE

This movie was fun! I can’t stress it in any simpler terms. Pixar Entertainment once again proves why they are at the top of the animated heap in this industry. Going into this screening, with my kid brother Tarik in tow, I expected something less than what they had achieved in 2004’s Oscar©-winning animated film The Incredibles.

Well, I was mistaken! CARS works because of several factors:

First and foremost is the obviously-dazzling animation. The aesthetics and technology of CG-animation has come a long way since the original Toy Story (1995)--which was also helmed by CARS director John Lasseter.

The 3-dimensional rendering of the cars, shapes, landscapes and even background action are so detailed that you would have thought that it was all created in a computer (oh, wait...it was!). Top-notch all the way!

Secondly, the voice casting is definitely right on target. Owen Wilson plays his usual characterization of the smug-but-sweet protagonist and we love the anthropomorphic vehicle for it. Adding a sense of credence and class is the great Paul Newman as the older, but wiser former race car who teaches Wilson (and all of us, by the way) a lesson in respecting/learning from your elders. Take that ya young whippersnappers!

From Bonnie Hunt and all the way through to Larry The Cable Guy, the cast is uniformly terrific. Race car enthusiasts should have a field day, since many of the additional voices are those of racing legends such as Richard Petty, Darrell Waltrip, Mario Andretti, Dale Ernhardt, Jr. and others. A nice touch.

Additionally, while it’s a cliched script (protagonist is at first a selfish bastard--but through the course of two Acts--becomes a better person...or in this case, race car), it works because there’s a good morality tale embedded in the lines between tailpipe fart jokes (for the kiddies) and winking pop culture references (for the adults).

Finally, it was shot for a widescreen 2.35:1 canvas. What more can I say? It really is a BIG movie!

Watch the end credits, because they feature many characters from Pixar’s other production in an amusing montage of end-credit sequences (like Tom Hanks and Tim Allen from the Toy Story movies, etc.) Also, this movie is dedicated to co-writer/co-director Joe Ranft, who died in 2005.

THE BOTTOM LINE

CARS continues Pixar’s Midas-touch record with this seventh feature film. Now that they’re permanently living under the Mouse House, let’s hope that the magic does not stop here. Totally recommended, this one’s easily a winner by more than a lap!