So people either love the movie Cars or….well actually it's hard to pinpoint people who absolutely despise this movie but there are definitely a lot of people who are very indifferent to it. Some people see this movie as a step backwards for Pixar when compared to the very mature and tightly written The Incredibles. While I can see that argument to be somewhat true. I still admit that I love this movie as much as any other great Pixar movie. I loved watching this movie as a kid and I still have a major soft spot for this movie as an adult as I love this movie for different reasons compared to other Pixar offerings.
In a world of anthropomorphic talking automobiles, race car Lightning Mcqueen (Owen Wilson) is tied in a race between Chick Hicks (Micheal Keaton) and The King (Richard Petty) in a race to win the piston cup trophy. Mcqeen is a big jerk to his crew and his sponsors at Rustzees and wants nothing more to win the Dinoco sponsorship to be rich and famous beyond his wildest dreams. On the way to his next big race in California, a gang of street punks accidentally knock Mcqeen out of his racing trailer and pretty soon a lost mcqueen ends up in the small town of Radiator Springs and manages to damage the road in the process. The judge Doc Hudson (Paul Newman) sentences him to fix the road which infuriates Mcqeen. While fixing the road Mcqeen comes across some characters including a porsche named Sally (Bonnie Hunt) and a tow truck named Mater (Larry the Cable Guy) as they help Mcqueen discover that there may be more to life than winning and trophies.
This was a huge passion project for director John Lasseter combining his two passions of cartoons and automobiles into a very simple but still effective animated feature. One of the reasons I love this movie is the simplicity in its messages and how they are executed. The storytelling for this movie is nothing new, but the filmmakers still delivered by bringing us into an interesting world populated by automobiles and adding the human element that made previous Pixar films enjoyable for all ages. Granted, the worldbuilding is admitally not the most well realized when compared to other Pixar films, but the story and characters are so delightful you may almost forget some of the issues that plague the world of Cars. Cars also present a love for the old Route 66 highway which brings a surprising level of complexity that makes the town of Radiator Springs more than just your average small town. It's clear that there was a lot of passion being put into this movie even if the passion may not be able to speak to everyone, but it sure did speak to me.
The characters we meet along the journey have a lot of personality and almost each and every one of the cars has a memorable and infectiously likable personality. Lightning Mcqueen starts out a jerk which admitally can get annoying from time to time but it’s worth it to get to when he starts to finally slow down and realize what is important in life. The citizens of radiator springs are great and each one of them has identifiable traits that make them hard to resist. Characters like Sally and Sheriff bring plenty to offer but the most surprising character was Doc Hudson played by the late Paul Newman who does an excellent job playing a grumpy but sincere automobile while also carrying a secret from the town that ends up supring even lightning. Lastly, even though I understand that Mater the tow truck’s humor and character may not be for everyone, I felt that his childlike nature was enjoyable and perfectly fine for a side character. Obviously there are many other characters that make up the world of cars such as Chick Hicks, Mack and The King but it would take me too long to explain them all.
The animation is very good and still holds up today. Of course it is Pixar and they never disappoint with their attention to detail. The racing in this movie is very well made and despite that the cars are anthropomorphic, they still try to make the racing as realistic as possible with some cartoonish over the topness. The look of the racing stadiums are huge and lively which capture the feeling of being at an actual racing stadium. The small town of Radiator Springs is inspired by the many attractions along Route 66 and each of the town's buildings has a retro but creative design to make the town stand out from other fictional towns. The character designs are based on different models of cars and each design matches the personality of the character. The way the chrome of the car’s reflects the light is nice touch to add an element of realism to the cars and the way that dirt or rust sticks on them is also a great attention to detail.
Most of the music score is done by Randy Newman who brings an old timey western and also modern day score to capture the movie’s themes and tones. This would also be the first time that Pixar would bring in well known music artists at the time including Rascal Flatts, Sheryl Crow and John Mayer to record modern songs for the movie. Some see this as distracting, but I see this as giving the movie an identity. My personal favorite song is “Life is a Highway” by Rascal Flatts but all the music no matter how loud or how simple is enjoyable and recognizable even if admitally it may not be the most timeless.
Sometimes I feel bad for this movie as it gets much more disrespect than I think it deserves. It may not have the comedy of Monsters Inc, the heart of Finding Nemo or the maturity of The Incredibles, but Cars is still in my opinion a Pixar classic that still has all the things that we love about the studio while also trying something different in style and tone. If I'm the only one that truly respects everything this movie stands for then so be it. You can hate on the franchise’s sequels all you want, but the original movie that started all deserves much more love for being a work of art rather than a over commercialized product of its time.
(Final Grade: A)