PLOT: In a world populated by living cars (where even the bugs are tiny VWs), a cocky young race car falls off the Interstate and ends up stranded in a dilapidated town on the old Route 66.
So warm, fuzzy and passionate about its four-wheeled characters is Cars that you may start to wonder about the efficiency of evolution itself.
I mean, if it was inevitable that creatures would evolve that would drill for dino poop and burn it, why not streamline the process and evolve organisms into actual automobiles?
Cars takes that step, creating a world of sentient road machines, where "cows" are tractors, and the insects are VW Bugs.
It's the first of the pantheon of Pixar computer-generated films (A Bug's Life, Toy Story, The Incredibles, et al) to be released under the new imprimatur of Disney/Pixar.
And for those worried about this legendary idea-factory's soul being assimilated by the corporate Mouse, the movie is reassuring in its dorky enthusiasm and lack of cynical formula -- even as it winks over the heads of kids at its adult audience.
The best audience for this movie is car nuts and their kids (boys and girls alike being car nuts by nature). Cars starts and ends noisily at monstrous NASCAR-like events, the milieu of The King (voiced by Richard Petty), an arrogant heir apparent named Chick Hicks (Michael Keaton) and our little red hero, a big-headed rookie named Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson). Awash in loud noises, fake corporate logos and bombastic announcing, the first act might as well be part of the Fox Network's regular over-the-top NASCAR programming.
Improbably, that first race -- a season-championship run -- ends in an unprecedented three-way tie, and the scheduling of a playoff race in California. But McQueen's cross-country trek goes awry when his truck Mack (John Ratzenberger) falls asleep and allows his cargo to fall and roll off the Interstate.
There, on the dusty ruins of Route 66, McQueen ends up in a mad property-smashing chase in a dilapidated town called Radiator Springs. Sentenced by the judge (Paul Newman) to repair the damage, he's stranded and frustrated, but smitten with town lawyer Sally (Bonnie Hunt), a Porsche from the city. He also grudgingly befriends a gaggle of locals, including a towtruck named Mater (yokel comic Larry The Cable Guy), a hippie minibus (George Carlin), a low-rider (Cheech Marin), a Jeep named Sarge (Paul Dooley) and Italian sportscars Luigi and Guido (Tony Shalhoub and Guido Quaroni).
The middle is a whole other film, a gearing-down in which McQueen goes native (a scene where he and Mater go "tractor tipping" is a scream), and a love letter to '50s American greasy-spoon car-culture. This nostalgic yearning is practically a trademark of director John Lasseter (witness Toy Story).
Lessons are learned, a race is run, the ending is a slight surprise, and warm fuzzies ignite -- to be dispelled by the price of gas on the way home.
BOTTOM LINE: If you love cars, you'll probably love Cars, a passionate, pumped-up four-year labour of love for NASCAR fan/ manchild Pixar boss John Lasseter. Like Toy Story, it has a trademark longing for a mythical American past. And if you don't love cars, then you're probably not a kid.
(This film is rated G)
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