Cars

Lightning McQueen really, really, really wants to win the Piston Cup. Even though he's just a hotshot rookie, he actually has a chance. He gasped his way to a three-way tie with The King (a great race-car in his final year of glory) and Chick (a reprehensible but speedy car who is tired of coming in second). Now the three of them will vie for the year's top honors in one 200 lap race in California.

But first, Lightning McQueen has to get there. We think this will be easy -- he loads himself into the back of Mack, his truck -- and it should be. But this is a Pixar film, where no roads lead in the straight line you expect. We've got a few bumps and twists to get through first.

With the 2006 release of Cars, Disney/Pixar proved once again why they're the best in animated movies today. And no, it's not primarily because their computer-animated movies are gorgeous to look at (though they are) or funny as a hoot (though they are) or wildly creative (and again). It's because they never lose sight of how to tell a good story. That's what makes a movie like Cars such a wonderful film for the whole family to enjoy together.

"Speed. I am speed!"

The setting of Cars is terrific, in its general look and in the tiny details that you grasp quickly the first time around and then notice even more on second viewing. Lightning McQueen is a race-car with a personality. He has no driver because none of the cars in Cars has a driver. They're all fully-blown characters on their own, complete with expressive cartoon eyes (right in the windshield area) and wheels that can move remarkably like feet when the need arises. Best of all, they populate a world that looks very familiar, right down to Route 66's small towns and gas stations. You'll also see beautifully rendered deserts and rock formations that evoke the western United States. With all this realistic backdrop, it's marvelously creative to see the world populated completely with cars. Not a person in sight, although each car is his or her own "person."

Not every car in the movie is a race-car. But at the beginning, Lightning's world is pretty insular -- he mostly knows other race-cars, plus the few transportation vehicles who help him out (like Mack, voiced by witty John Ratzenberger, a Pixar mainstay). Lightning's so ungrateful to his pit crews that he can't keep one. He barely tolerates the rusty cars of the Rust-Eze company that have supported him in his racing career and given him his start, though he longs to be "the new face of Dinoco," the company that sponsors the King car headed for retirement.

Lightning (voiced perfectly by the funny Owen Wilson) is arrogant and isolated in his little world of racing adulation until the day comes when he accidentally slips off his truck en-route to California. He finds himself stuck in the little town of Radiator Springs. The once bustling town is just off Route 66, which few cars travel anymore. When it was bypassed by the new highway a few years back, most people forgot it was on the map. All Lightning wants to do is get out of there as fast as he can. But there's a little problem: he inadvertently crashed into a statute of the town's founder (good ol' Stanley Steamer) and the local law enforcement won't let him leave until he's done community service. He's stuck paving the main stretch of road through town, and at first, he hates every single minute he's forced to spend there.

Can a car grow and change? In a movie like this he can. Thanks to a witty and fast-moving story line, but even more to some creatively written and wonderfully voiced characters, we find ourselves caught up in Lightning's unfolding realizations that there is more to the world than just his own hopes for glory. In fact, other people (excuse me, other cars) have dreams too.

The characters who populate Radiator Springs become the heart of this film. They give Lightning his comeuppance and his education, and they love him into a sense of family, of belonging to someone and something bigger than himself. That's a pretty heavy message for one little animated film to carry, but this one carries it with zest and speed.

Although all of the characters, both major and minor, are excellent, kudos especially to Doc Hudson (veteran actor Paul Newman). Doc is the most respected guy in town, but he's never let on to his fellow citizens that he has a past. It's a racy past (if you'll pardon the pun). In fact, it turns out that fifty years ago, Doc was the king of the race-car scene. Then there's Mater, a buck-toothed tow truck (voiced by Larry the Cable Guy) whose happy-go-lucky, free-wheeling personality wins Lightning over in spite of himself. Luigi (the always funny Tony Shaloub) and Guido (Guido Quaroni) run the town's tire store, but of course haven't sold any tires in years. Finally, there's the beautiful Porsche, Sally (Bonnie Hunt) who understands the slick world Lightning has come from but has chosen the slower-paced life in Radiator Springs. All Sally really wants is for the little town to get back some of its former usefulness.

It may sound silly to say you end up caring about all of these characters (after all, they are cars!) but care you do. Although the film has its share of downright silly moments that make my five year giggle with glee (she especially loves it when Mater drives backwards) it's also fun for her grown-up parents. Part of its charm comes from its delightful soundtrack which includes appropriate old pop hits like "Route 66" and "Life is a Highway" and also some enjoyable songs by Brad Paisley and James Taylor (Taylor sings the Randy Newman ballad "Our Town" -- it seems it's become almost a requirement for Pixar animated films to include a Newman ballad).

I really enjoy the fact that this is a fun film my whole family can enjoy together. There are moments of humor that will zoom completely over little ones' heads, but plenty there for them to enjoy. Very young children may find one scene in particular frightening (when Mater and Lightning are chased by a mean looking combine harvester) or at least my daughter found it frightening when she first saw this movie in the theater at the age of four. A year and a half later, and on a small screen, it didn't seem to bother her at all. I also love the fact that young children really do "get" the point that life is not all (or even mainly) about winning. It turns out that the real winners are those of us who remember how important it is to love.

How cool is that? As Lightning McQueen would say: "KA-CHOW!"

~befus, 2008