Review: "Cars"

by Jeff McGinnis, Lead Usher

*** stars (out of four)
118 minutes, Now Showing

“Cars” is probably the most standard of all the Pixar films so far, which is not a criticism so much as an observation. Its story is fairly shopworn stuff, as these things go - a hotshot youngster gets detoured in a small town and learns the value of homespun wisdom. We’ve seen this kinda thing many, many times before, in countless other movies. But as it progresses, the film finds its own path and identity, and by the time the climax arrives, it has genuine emotional impact. The end result is a very worthwhile film.

The movie stars (so much as voice-over work can be considered “starring”) Owen Wilson as Lightning McQueen, a hotshot racecar who has taken the “Piston Cup” series by storm. In a world of sentient cars, of course racing would be the primary sport - one cannot envision a car world in which baseball takes place. His primary rivals on the circuit are retiring legend The King (voice of Richard Petty, of course) and the cocky eternal-also-ran Chick Hicks (voice of Michael Keaton). When the decisive race of the season ends in a three-way-tie, it is announced that all three cars will compete in a final race in California.

While being transported there by his loyal semi-truck Mack (voice of Pixar-favorite John Ratzenberger), Lightning accidentally gets left behind, and while driving blindly through the dark (he has no headlights), he stumbles into Radiator Springs, a small town on Route 66. A contrived series of events leads to him tearing up the town’s main road, after which he is arrested and detained in the impound lot (with a parking boot on his tire, one of the many nice touches in this script), and then commanded to remain in town until he himself repairs the road.

Lightning meets all the usual assortment of colorful local residents: the town mechanic/tow truck, Mater (“As in TOW-Mater? Get it?”), voiced by Larry the Cable Guy, the local sheriff/police car, voiced by Michael Wallis, a VW bus with the mind and soul of a 60’s hippie, voiced by George Carlin, and so on, and so on. It’s the usual assortment of “types” you find in movies about small town life, only this time they’re played by automobiles. The most distinct and memorable characters carve out a life of their own: Doc, voiced by Paul Newman, a grizzled old car who hides a past life, and Sally, the fiery Porshe who Lightning steadily falls in love with.

Again, the plot is nothing to write home about (we’re basically looking at “Doc Hollywood on Wheels” here), but as the film progresses the requirements of the story become secondary to the main things that distinguish Pixar’s work, which are imagination and heart. The three lead characters (Lightning, Sally and Doc) all emerge as fully founded people (or automobiles) with a complete arc of development and personal evolution, all of which wonderfully comes to a head at the big race, but not in the way we think it might.

Technically, as always with Pixar, the film is outstanding. The animation of every car establishes the unique identity and personalities of each, and demonstrates a remarkable variety of motions from characters where, on the surface, a lot of emoting would seem impossible. Beyond the basic events of the story, the writing is crammed with the company’s usually generous amount of imaginative gags and situations, all variations on the movie’s basic automotive theme (all the bugs buzzing about are actual VW bugs, a late night trek into a field for a little tractor-tipping). In a world where the general filmmaking technique seems to be barely-contained laziness, you can’t help but be grateful to the Pixar gang for always trying so hard.

If I’m less enthusiastic than I have been for previous Pixar outings, it may be that they have set the bar so amazingly high that it will prove difficult for themselves to clear it. From the “Toy Story” movies, to “A Bug’s Life,” “Monster’s Inc.,” “Finding Nemo,” and “The Incredibles,” this company has consistently turned out a level of quality in their work unrivaled by virtually any movie studio anywhere. If “Cars” seems weaker, that is only in comparison to what came before. Taken on its own, it’s a very fun ride.