Cars Release Date: June 9, 2006 Starring: Owen Wilson, Paul Newman, Bonnie Hunt, Larry the Cable Guy, George Carlin, Paul Dooley Directed by: John Lasseter
For those of you keeping score, Cars extends Pixar's heralded winning streak to an impressive 7-0. That said, their latest animated feature isn't as finely tuned as the studio's best work. Cars is closer to A Bug's Life than The Incredibles or Toy Story—a solid example of Pixar's excellent craftsmanship, but not an instant classic. That's okay, though; even Walt Disney couldn't produce a Fantasia or Bambi every time out. What Cars drives home is that when it comes to good, old-fashioned storytelling, few filmmakers are as consistently reliable as the big brains at Pixar.
Set on an alternate Earth where automobiles are the dominant species, Cars follows Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson), a fiery red speedster who is one victory away from becoming the first rookie racecar to win the Piston Cup. While traveling to California for the final race, he inadvertently detours into Radiator Springs, a forgotten little town along Route 66.
Big-city bred McQueen isn't planning on remaining for long. Unfortunately, he's been sentenced by the town's gruff judge Doc Hudson (Paul Newman) to fix the property damage his entrance caused before continuing along. At first he can't wait to escape from this backwater full of oddball residents, including an ultra-patriotic jeep named Sarge (Paul Dooley) and Fillmore (George Carlin), a flower-power VW bus with an endless supply of "organic" fuel. But the more time Lightning spends under Radiator Springs' wide-open skies, the less he misses the racetrack. He finds another reason to stick around in the form of good-looking Porsche Sally Carrera (Bonnie Hunt), a former Californian.
There's no use pretending that co-writer/director (and head of Pixar) John Lasseter has stumbled onto an original story here. The adventures of a big-city boy in small-town USA have been the subject of countless films, plays, novels...you name it. And aside from swapping out two-legged characters for the four-wheeled variety, Lasseter doesn't go out of his way to alter the elements this familiar narrative. The result is probably Pixar's most formulaic picture, which can't help but be a little disappointing after the inventive plots of The Incredibles and Lasseter's own Toy Story 2. Cars is also too heavy on the small-town sentimentality, which will resonate with heartland audiences while annoying those on both coasts. As a proud city slicker, I can honestly say that while Radiator Springs seems like a nice place to visit, you'd never convince me to live there.
What the film lacks in freshness, it makes up for in great characters, fun vocal performances, and a script with some genuine emotional heft. Like his friend and mentor, legendary Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, Lasseter strives to find the humanity in the fantastical worlds he dreams up. Lightning's transformation from jerk to gentleman is convincingly rendered, and his romance with Sally is funny and charming (Wilson and Hunt should play animated lovers more often). All of the supporting cast gets the chance to shine, even Larry the Cable Guy, whose blue-collar shtick is finally put to effective use as the crowd-pleasing tow truck Mater. Cars is visually stunning as well; the photo-realistic backgrounds and lovingly detailed character designs on display here represent another personal best for Pixar. Perhaps the most enjoyable aspect of the film (at least for adults) is the quasi-metaphysical questions it raises about this parallel universe. Where do baby cars come from? Have these autos evolved or is there an Intelligent Mechanic somewhere up there? And the million-dollar brainteaser: in a world populated by cars, who invented the wheel? —Ethan Alter
