Owen Wilson, Paul Newman, Bonnie Hunt, Cheech Marin, Tony Shalhoub, Richard Petty
Directed by John Lasseter.
Written by Dan Fogelman, John Lasseter, Joe Ranft, Kiel Murray, Phil Lorin and Jorgen Klubien.
By now it has become so widely known as to just how good Pixar is at doing what they do that the company�s name has become film critic shorthand for the very possible best in animated filmmaking. Countless reviews of other CG cartoons include the phrase �it�s no Pixar,� or �it�s almost as good as Pixar,� or maybe �Pixar did it better.�
Their secret is hard to pin down - they focus on storytelling, but that is not all; they set the bar for remarkable animation, but that is not all. I believe their success comes from their goals: while other studios are busy making movies that will be popular for the season, Pixar aims to make movies that will be remembered forever. Much like how Disney�s early works are still enjoyed by children to this day, Pixar�s titles will undoubtedly be passed on from generation to generation in the same manner, while most of the studio�s rivals� efforts will have been forgotten beyond the realm of nostalgia. (Indeed, Pixar�s first feature, �Toy Story,� at a mere 12 years old, is already hailed as a timeless classic.)
�Cars� is the animation studio�s seventh film and their last one made before merging completely with Disney. (Before, Disney would release Pixar�s movies but have no hand in making them.) It is telling that even if it is, as some say, the weakest of their seven, it is still a most exceptional work, funny and warm and beautiful and awe-inspiring and nothing short of absolutely wonderful. I spent the entire running time captivated by this gem of a movie.
In the world of �Cars,� there are no people. In fact, there are no animals at all. Nothing but cars (and trucks, and SUVs, and tractors�) rule this world. Even the bugs are, well, Bugs, of the Volkswagen variety.
In such a world, auto racing would naturally be the sport of kings. And so we meet Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson), a candy apple red speedster and rookie star of the racing circuit. His success has led to cockiness, and his cockiness leads him to tie, not win, in the final race of the season. And so a tie-breaker race is scheduled. But on the way there, Lightning gets stuck in Radiator Springs, a dusty, forgotten town along legendary Route 66.
The plot the takes familiar turns - Lightning causes trouble with the town folk (town cars?), he falls for a lovely Porsche (Bonnie Hunt), he slowly befriends his new quirky neighbors, he eventually must decide between the fast-paced lifestyle of a racing star or the simpler life of his new small town. What I�ve always found fascinating about Pixar is how they manage to incorporate well-worn material yet never make it feel tired or hackneyed. Through a combination of clever dialogue and character development, the studio breathes new life into dying plotlines. It�s amazing to watch �Cars,� knowing full well how things will turn out but still finding yourself engrossed in every aspect of the story. Pixar gets more out of a cartoon character than most live action movies do with real people.
What�s even more amazing is that once again, Pixar relies not on a single voice for their script, but on a committee. Eight names are given story credit, and at any other studio, this would be the kiss of death, a case of too many cooks. Here, under the guidance of director John Lasseter (the big man on Pixar�s totem pole, director of the company�s first three films and producer of their second three) and co-director Joe Ranft (the brilliant, invaluable creative force who sadly died last fall), the screenwriting group comes off less like a series of hack rewriters and more like an all-star team. Lasseter�s quest for perfection in his films means he�s unable to turn away a good idea, or to listen to criticism that leads him to dumping bad ideas. And so this team takes this basic premise and molds it until it becomes a character driven story with a heart to guide it and a sharp wit to make it lively.
And so, yes, we get the expected series of car-related puns that always pop up in cartoons about non-humans living in a human-ish world: there�s Jay Limo with some jokes; the TV delivers some �braking news;� Lightning professes to �float like a Cadillac, sting like a Beemer.� But the movie is smarter than just this, getting laughs out of, say, guest appearances from the �Car Talk� brothers, or casting George Carlin as a VW minibus who brews his own organic fuel. We even get cow tipping, in the form of tractor tipping, in one bizarrely ingenious scene.
More than catchy jokes, however, Lasseter and company work to build an actual world here, one not merely reliant on the gimmick of the premise. Just outside Radiator Springs sits a run-down drive-in theater, and I�d like to think that yes, in a world populated by cars, a drive-in is exactly right. And in a bit of history mirroring our own country, the birth of the interstate led to the death of the small town and the scenic drive. There�s even a scene that features a potential rebirth for Radiator Springs, and we discover a 1950s paradise where cruising (of course!) is the Friday night date activity of choice.
Even the animation itself works itself into actually giving serious thought into designing a world. Of course the animation is incredible all around (we get so much detail that the roads actually have realistic pot hole patches, and racing scenes look pretty much like the real thing, minus the big cartoon eyes, that is), but I can�t shake one notion out of my head: all the desert rock formations and landscapes come in the shape of cars. Namely, tail ends of fin-sporting classics, sticking up from the ground like in those classic tourist traps out west.
And the film never makes a big deal out of this. It�s something for the viewer to discover, a discovery which will earn big smiles - and this movie is loaded with so many discoveries like this. A lot of care went into this movie, not to cram cheap jokes into the corners of the screen, but to cram in brilliant little asides. This is a film that demands to be seen over and over again (especially on a big, wide screen), just to get the chance to soak in as much as possible.
Ah, but it all comes back to story and character, Pixar�s specialty. There�s something enchanting about the inhabitants of this world, from the cocky-but-innocent Lightning to the joyous energy of the Italian tire experts Luigi and Guido to the gee-whiz hick charm of a rusted tow truck by the name of Tow Mater, who is voiced by Dan �Larry the Cable Guy� Whitney in a performance so infectious in its happiness that I have actually come to like - nay, love - something that Larry the Cable Guy has done.
And then there�s Paul Newman, making his animated voice-over debut here as Doc Hudson, a 1950s Hornet who�s the town�s medic, judge, and all-around keeper of common sense. Newman�s performance is as intricate and engaging as anything he�s ever done before; Doc is world weary but wise, tough but tender. If you would ever ask for a car that looks the way Paul Newman talks, Doc would be what you get. It�s perhaps the most perfect pairing of voice and character in animation since Ellen Degeneres shined as Dory in �Finding Nemo.� And like that performance, Newman here gives more than anyone would ever expect from a cartoon.
Indeed, there�s absolutely nothing I can say against �Cars,� as flawless a piece of family entertainment as one could hope to get. It�s lively and wonderful and simply brilliant from start to finish. There must be something in the water over at Pixar, with this being their seventh straight work of absolute genius. Bring on number eight.
I wouldn't have thought that even in animation a 1951 Hudson Hornet could look simultaneously like itself and like Paul Newman, but you will witness that feat, and others, in "Cars." This is the new animated feature by John Lasseter ("Toy Story," "A Bug's Life"); it tells a bright and cheery story, and then has a little something profound lurking around the edges. In this case, it's a sense of loss.
What have we lost? Its hero, a racing car named Lightning McQueen (voice of Owen Wilson), has just lost a big race, and then one day on the highway he goes astray, and rolls into the forgotten hamlet of Radiator Springs, in Carburetor County. This was a happenin' town, back when Route 66 was the way to get from Chicago to L.A., passing through Flagstaff, Arizona, and don't forget Winona. But now the interstates and time itself have passed it by, and the town slumbers on, a memory of an earlier America.
Lightning's dream is to win the Piston Cup, the grand prix of American racing. He's on his way to the race when he gets lost, and then, more humiliating, impounded. Once released, he meets the population of Radiator Springs, led by Doc Hudson (Paul Newman), who may be an old-timer but probably knows something about Hudsons that Lightning doesn't: Because of their "step-down design," they had a lower center of gravity than the Big 3 models of its time and won stock car races by making tighter turns.
Other citizens include Mater (rhymes with tow-mater) the Tow Truck (voice of Larry the Cable Guy), Sally the sexy Porsche (Bonnie Hunt), Fillmore the hippie VW bug (George Carlin), and Sarge the veteran Jeep (Paul Dooley). Tractors serve as the cows of Radiator Springs, and even chew their cud, although what that cud consists of I'm not sure. Fan belts, maybe.
The message in "Cars" is simplicity itself: Life was better in the old days, when it revolved around small towns where everybody knew each other, and around small highways like Route 66, where you made new friends, sometimes even between Flagstaff and Winona. This older America has long been much-beloved by Hollywood, and apparently it survives in Radiator Springs as sort of a time capsule.
Doc Hudson, it turns out, was a famous race car in his day. That leads up to a race in which the vet and the kid face off, although how that race ends I would not dream of revealing. What I will reveal, with regret, is that the movie lacks a single Studebaker. The 1950s Studebakers are much beloved by all period movies, because they so clearly signal their period, from the classic Raymond Loewy-designed models to the Golden Hawk, which left Corvettes and T-Birds eating its dust. Maybe there's no Hawk in Radiator Springs because then Doc Hudson would lose his bragging rights.
The movie is great to look at and a lot of fun, but somehow lacks the extra push of the other Pixar films. Maybe that's because there's less at stake here, and no child-surrogate to identify with. I wonder if the movie's primary audience, which skews young, will much care about the 1950s and its cars. Maybe they will. Of all decades, the 1950s seems to have the most staying power; like Archie and Jughead, the decade stays forever young, perhaps because that's when modern teenagers were invented.
Having already set the standard for computer-animated entertainment with movies such as "Toy Story," "Monsters, Inc." and "Finding Nemo," Pixar continues to raise the bar with "Cars"(Disney), a delightful, family-friendly film with a full tank of humor and emotion that is likely to leave its summer competition in the dust.
Directed by John Lasseter and Joe Ranft, the tale takes place in a world of anthropomorphic autos, centering on cocky racecar Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson), a rookie hot rod with his headlights set on the prestigious Piston Cup and the fame it will bring. While en route cross-country to compete against two veteran speedsters (voiced by Michael Keaton and real-life racing legend Richard Petty), Lightning is unexpectedly detained in the neglected desert town of Radiator Springs, which, in its heyday, had been the jewel of the Route 66 crown.
Though revved up to burn rubber out of town, Lightning, through his growing friendship with its motley four-wheeled residents, has a change of heart about life in the fast lane, learning that "there's a whole lot more to racing than winning."
A top-shelf cast provides the characters with endearing personalities; they include: Bonnie Hunt as a pretty Porsche; Cheech Marin as a 1959 Impala with flair; Tony Shalhoub as a high-strung Italian Fiat; and George Carlin as a hippie 1960 VW bus who brews his own organic fuel and has a good-natured running feud with neighbor Sarge, a patriotic World War II jeep. Hollywood icon Paul Newman lends his gravelly muffler to Doc Hudson, an old-timer who guards a big secret under his vintage hood and who frowns his fender at Lightning's egotism. But a rusty, dimwitted tow truck with an engine of gold named Mater (voiced by comedian Larry the Cable Guy) steals the show, including a funny scene where, for kicks, he initiates Lightning into the car-equivalent of cow-tipping involving a field of easily spooked tractors.
Following past Pixar successes, the writing is sharp, while the vibrant visuals -- impressively rendered metallic surfaces, shiny tailfins, high-octane race sequences and lovely painted desertscapes -- take a backseat to solid storytelling.
Though lacking the epic sweep of "Finding Nemo" and the character depth of "The Incredibles," given our hectic world of fast food, express lanes and high-speed Internet access, the film's gentle message charmingly reminds us that on the highway of life it is important to slow down and appreciate the scenery.
The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-I -- general patronage. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is G -- general audiences. All ages admitted.
Almost every major sport has a companion film, the one movie fans routinely point to as the definitive representation of their beloved competitive activity. Basketball has Hoosiers. Baseball divides camps between The Natural and Bull Durham. Hockey (Slap Shot) and soccer (Victory) are covered, while football actually has too many to mention.
But prior to 2006, NASCAR was without a representative � and don't even think about suggesting Tony Scott's dreadful Days of Thunder. Racing legend Richard Petty put that crazed notion to rest when he recently told a crowd of entertainment journalists, "The only thing that Days of Thunder had to do with racing was that they had numbers on the side of the car."
Well, gearheads, wait no longer. With Cars, the whiz kids at Pixar Animation Studios present the seminal NASCAR flick, conjuring the finest representation of race-day excitement ever captured on film. Sleek, sponsor-tagged stock cars tear around concrete bowls in hopes of winning the famed Piston Cup. Fellow vehicles cheer from the grandstands; campers chug fluids and huddle close in the infield.
Pixar has always thrived on minute details, so pinpoint accuracy should come as no surprise. When packed-together racers speed past the camera's banked position � odd, since animators don't actually rely on cameras � we see bits of gravel bounce along in their wake. Cars even puts us in the driver's seat for a bone-rattling wreck, something Fox and NBC have yet to perfect with their weekly NASCAR broadcasts.
Cars director John Lasseter took audiences to infinity and beyond with his Toy Story adventures. Here he breaks down crucial aspects of track life to manufacture brilliantly invigorating race experiences at both ends of his new feature. But off the tracks, where Cars spends the bulk of its time, the movie tends to slow down and cruise a well-worn path blazed by traditional animated stories, where self-centered characters learn valuable life lessons once they're shaken from their routine.
In this case, we get hot-shot Piston Cup rookie Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson), an egomaniacal race car who desperately needs to learn the value of teamwork. After tying Chick Hicks (Michael Keaton) and The King (Petty) in the Piston Cup Championship, McQueen must motor to California for a season-deciding tiebreaker race.
En route to reaching his physical and metaphorical destination, McQueen is waylaid in dusty Radiator Springs, a quiet blip along Route 66 that has been bypassed by the mighty interstate. And in keeping with Hollywood�s misinformed notion of flyover towns, Radiator Springs is populated by simple yet decent cars eager to impart wisdom on our shallow hero. There's love interest Sally (Bonnie Hunt), the Porsche who traded her day job in L.A. to run a predominantly vacant motel. Mater the tow truck (Larry the Cable Guy) takes an instant shine to McQueen; the polar opposites bond over late-night tractor tipping. Finally, there's crusty town cynic Doc Hudson (Paul Newman), who knows McQueen's type and wants him to hit the road as soon as possible.
Cars continues Pixar's pristine track record for delivering exquisite animation. Lasseter infuses the film with a strong sense of place, nailing the head-swiveling hoopla of the speedway and the unhurried non-events of an abandoned ghost town. The creative team earns the right to show off a tad: They rev the proverbial animation engine when Sally takes McQueen for a glide through the southwestern deserts, a trip that promises natural beauty around every turn in the road.
The moral of the story is clear from the get-go: In life, we learn by living. McQueen may obsess on his destination, but Cars revels in the road trip. A commendable takeaway message, sure, but also one that's overly preached, even to newcomer kids absorbing their second or third Pixar outing. There's no denying the simple story � touched by no less then five credited screenwriters � is bursting with heart. For the first time in Pixar's young history, though, the meaningful lessons of the plot take a back seat to the filmmaker's breathtaking art.
Copious extras include a new animated short starring Mater, the Oscar-nominated One Man Band, Lasseter's "inspiration" for the film, deleted scenes, and more.
Look, you won't find a much bigger Pixar fan than yours truly. I have their first six movies on a very special and separate DVD shelf, and I've lost count of how many times I've pulled down "The Incredibles" or "Finding Nemo" or the "Toy Stories" for a comfy re-visit. I think the Pixar team is made up of absolute geniuses, wizards, and master animators. I love these guys! All of which makes "Cars" so shockingly disappointing.
Throughout the course of their stellar six-movie run, Pixar has delivered top-of-the-line animated adventures that deliver three key ingredients every time out:
1. Unbelievably beautiful computer-generated animation.
2. Outrageously funny screenplays performed by very amusing actors.
3. Stunningly sincere and heartfelt doses of wit, warmth, love, and emotion.
In Cars I noticed the first ingredient the split-second the screen went dark ... and unfortunately I'm still waiting for #2 and #3.
Despite that fact that seven credited writers worked on the Cars story, the plot is nothing more than 1991's Doc Hollywood, only with cars instead of humans.
Owen Wilson is Lightning McQueen, up & coming racing superstar and, of course, a shamelessly self-centered and egotistical piece of machinery. After finishing an important race in a three-way tie with Chick Hicks (Michael Keaton) and The King (Richard Petty), Lightning is headed out west to participate in a tie-breaker race. Unfortunately, he gets lost along the way and ends up in a quaint little forgotten town called Radiator Springs, where a gaggle of colorful cars are just waiting for their hometown to experience a newfound popularity.
Lightning accidentally tears up the main Springs road, and is therefore compelled to stay in town until he's fixed all the damage. Meanwhile, he learns a whole lot about friendship, loyalty, caring, and the importance of automotive puns. (Suffice to say you won't need a road map to see where Cars is headed.)
So the story is simplistic and more than a little familiar (seriously, rent Doc Hollywood after seeing Cars and tell me if I'm insane), but that's not enough to throw Cars off-track entirely. It's that the Pixar gang seems so single-mindedly intent on pandering to the NASCAR crowd that they've jettisoned most of what made their movies so brilliant in the first place: Namely, the wit, the humor, the creativity, the character, and the pacing.
Before I start my belly-aching, let's get one thing out of the way right now: Animation-wise, Cars is absolutely stunning. From the eye-popping colors to the dry & dusty backgrounds, and pretty much everything in between, Cars is, I must admit, a massive feast for the eyeballs. Having said that, I must follow up with "so what?"
I've seen rock videos and toothpaste commercials that employ fantastic animation, but if there's nothing but a bunch of one-note characters and limp humor to anchor the visual end, what exactly are we celebrating? Movies need more than just visual splendor to keep me entertained, and I was stunningly disappointed to realize that, after only about 45 minutes, Cars was boring me to tears.
My theory on Pixar is that they've become stuck in a "menagerie mentality," what with Toys and Monsters and Fish and Bugs and Superheroes anchoring their classic films. Someone at the Pixar think-tank must have realized "Heck, we didn't do CARS yet!" -- and thus began the process of making a flick that'll sell a ton of toys (and probably tickle the NASCAR fans) without furthering the craft one iota.
It's all surface schlick, which is not at all what I expect from Pixar. Instead of the densely-layered and wonderfully complex characters found in Toy Story and Finding Nemo, here we get ... Owen Wilson speaking into a microphone. There's not even an attempt at characterization here; it's just Owen reading dialogue! The background characters are even worse: For no good reason (other than to stock the toy shelves, I suppose) we're treated to an entirely superfluous collection of car-acters like a stoned George Carlin van, a gruff army jeep (Paul Dooley), and a grumpy old veteran (Paul Newman) with an unsurprising secret. The featured sidekicks fare no better: Can someone explain to me why the (obviously very smart) people at Pixar thought it would be a good idea to have characters that could best be described as: 1. The Mexican one (Cheech Marin, natch) who bounces on his struts and paints other cars! 2. The African American auto (Jenifer Lewis) who's got a sassy "no you di'nt!" attitude! 3. The buck-toothed hayseed pick-up truck (Larry the Moron Guy) who's as loyal as he is stupid! 4. The Italian-accented tire seller (Tony Shalhoub) who makes Mario and Luigi look like realistic paisans!
Points for trying the diversity thing, but a handful of broad stereotypes is NOT what I expect from the Pixar writers. Compare the supporting characters in Cars with the ones found in Nemo or even A Bug's Life and you'll probably see what I mean.
One of the problems lies within the main "creatures" themselves. Try as hard as they might, the Pixar wizards can not breathe any anthropomorphic life into a bunch of toy cars. Sure, their mouths move to the words, but their eyeballs are dead, vacant, dolls' eyes. They're actually a little bit creepy once the novelty wears off.
And the flick just ambles and rambles for 112 redundant minutes. Sorry to say that Cars is not particularly warm or witty or insightful or funny, and when you compare these notes with what I've written about every other Pixar flick under the sun, well, obviously I consider this one a pretty large disappointment across the board.
Yes, the animation might very well represent the new gold standard in CGI wizardry ... but I don't think it's unreasonable of me to expect a little more from the Pixar team by now. This entry feels like it was massaged together on auto-pilot, its creators well aware that they'd have a massive hit on their hands either way. "Cars" is the first Pixar flick I'd describe as "cynical," and that, frankly, breaks my heart just a little bit.
THE temptation to write about "Cars" using automotive metaphors may be unwise, but it's also irresistible. You could say, for instance, that the film � the first directed by the Pixar guru John Lasseter since the company's 1999 hit "Toy Story 2" � tools along at an easy clip, rather like a Volvo station wagon en route to another family vacation. At no point does it spin out of control, much less venture off-road. Instead, the film just putt, putt, putts along, a shining model of technological progress and consumer safety. But, as Ed (Big Daddy) Roth might say, chrome don't get you home and neither does 3D animation.
Mr. Roth was the creator of a delightfully unappetizing cartoon rodent called Rat Fink, a kind of anti-Mickey Mouse mascot for the hot-rod set. Given Pixar's carefully cultivated � and, for the most part, justified � reputation as a modestly maverick outfit, it would be nice to think that a decal of Rat Fink adorns the computers of at least a couple of the film's many, many animators. But both in its ingratiating vibe and bland execution, "Cars" is nothing if not totally, disappointingly new-age Disney, the story of a little cherry-red race car, Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson), who can win the race of life only after he learns the value of friendship and the curvy appeal of Porsche Carrera (Bonnie Hunt).
Right off we know we're not in Kansas anymore or, for that matter, Monstropolis, home to the critters from "Monsters, Inc." or suburban Metroville, where the superheroic family in "The Incredibles" lives. The film opens at an enormous speedway, where some dozen candy-colored race cars, including Lightning McQueen, are whooshing around a track as thousands upon thousands of similarly polychromic jalopies cheer, wave flags and do the wave.
Welcome to Weirdsville, Cartoonland, where automobiles race � and rule � in a world that, save for a thicket of tall pines and an occasional scrubby bush, is freakishly absent any organic matter. Here, even the bugs singeing their wings on the porch light look like itty-bitty Volkswagen beetles.
That sounds like a slap and a tickle, and for a while it's both. As written by Mr. Lasseter, who shares screenwriting credit with Dan Fogelman, Joe Ranft, Kiel Murray, Phil Lorin and (whew) Jorgen Klubien, the film hinges on a premise older than the 1951 Hudson Hornet named Doc (Paul Newman), who gives the story its requisite geezer wisdom. After taking a wrong turn on his way to a race, McQueen lands in Radiator Springs, a town that time and the freeway forgot. There, on a derelict lick of asphalt, he meets a pileup of metal and ethnic clich�s, including a tow truck with a deep-fried accent (Larry the Cable Guy as Mater) and a lowrider that apparently hopped in from East L.A. (Cheech Marin as Ramone).
This ethnic and cultural profiling is pretty much par for the animated film course, hence Jenifer Lewis, as a two-tone 1950's ride with big fins called Flo, provides the only identifiable "black" voice. Less wince-inducing are Luigi (Tony Shalhoub), a banana-yellow Italian-accented Fiat that runs the local tire store; Sarge (Paul Dooley), a World War II jeep as memorable and colorful as dung; and Fillmore (George Carlin), a VW bus who extols the virtues of organic fuel, mutters about conspiracies and raises the Stars and Stripes to the guitar squeals of Jimi Hendrix.
Given the film's regrettably retro attitude toward all things automotive (not a hybrid in sight!), it's no surprise that Fillmore, this desert outpost's most credible resident, is also its designated kook.
An animated fable about happy cars might have made sense before gas hit three bucks a gallon, but even an earlier sticker date couldn't shake the story's underlying creepiness, which comes down to the fact that there's nothing alive here: nada, zip. In this respect, the film can't help but bring to mind James Cameron's dystopic masterpiece, "The Terminator," which hinges on the violent war of the machine world on its human masters. To watch McQueen and the other cars motor along the film's highways and byways without running into or over a single creature is to realize that, in his cheerful way, Mr. Lasseter has done Mr. Cameron one better: instead of blowing the living world into smithereens, these machines have just gassed it with carbon monoxide.
Rendering plausible human forms remains one of 3D animation's biggest hurdles, something that Pixar directors like Andrew Stanton ("Finding Nemo") have readily admitted. As if realizing that they can't (yet) compete with nature, Pixar filmmakers tend to avoid the human form or create caricatures that, by virtue of their very exaggeration (think of the middle-age spread bedeviling Mr. Incredible's wife), are wonderfully lifelike.
With his machine world, however, Mr. Lasseter appears to have tried to do an end run around the vexing problem of the human body with cars that might as well have come out of a Chevron advertisement. Even stranger, the film turns Detroit's paving over of America into an occasion for some nostalgic historical revisionism. Surreal isn't the word.
Over the last two decades Pixar has invigorated American mainstream animation with charming stories and sterling technique, reaching a company best with the consecutively released "Monsters, Inc.," "Finding Nemo" and "The Incredibles." The age of Pixar may not be as golden as that of 1930's and 40's Disney, but it's an estimable run, especially since each new Pixar feature has reached deeper and higher in thematic and aesthetic preoccupations.
Like classic Disney, Pixar films are invariably traditionalist, with stories of familial and social retrenchment, but they're also witty and playful, fresh in both graphic and written line. One clunker won't shut down or even threaten the factory line, but here's hoping that as this onetime scrapper becomes increasingly entrenched and establishment, it keeps its geeks-and-freaks flag flying.
As many of us watched the early teasers and subsequently lengthier previews for Pixar�s latest endeavor, you could hear the collective sigh of indifference two theaters over. And we all felt bad about it. How dare we shrug our shoulders at the animation company who has always come off the bench to smack no less than a triple and usually a game-winning grand slam? They are the Qantas of movie studios, churning out success in six straight efforts since Toy Story debuted in 1995. Surely what we were seeing was just a taste of the beautiful, landmark animation taken to the next level and that the story and humor were being saved for the actual experience. Sadly, Cars is more than just a disappointment as would any film falling from such a remarkable height would be. Calling it a borderline lazy effort in the script department would be assuming that the eight credited writers actually put forth an effort beyond just watching Doc Hollywood one night.
You remember Doc Hollywood (or at least you should because it�s a helluva charmer.) It starred Michael J. Fox as a cocky surgeon heading to LA to work in the plastic milieu of his profession. Along the way he takes a back road into a small town and ends up crashing his car into the fence of the local judge who sentences him to community service before he can get to his sunny destination.
In Cars, Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson) is the cocky rookie on the race circuit. On the road to a race-off, the result of a three-way tie he�s responsible for after ignoring his team�s tire advise, McQueen is accidentally dumped from his travel semi. In his effort to get back to the highway he motors his way through a small town, ripping up their main street and is later sentenced by the local judge to stay in town and repair it before leaving.
The town of Radiator Springs has its share of small town characters who have not moved on since it ceased being a stop on a drive through the desert. Doc Hudson (Paul Newman) is the judge who would like nothing more than to see the selfish McQueen speed out of town, but prosecutor Sally (Bonnie Hunt) convinces him otherwise. Tow truck Mater (as in a bacon, lettuce and tomater sandwich � hick humor delivered by none other than Larry the Cable Guy) becomes McQueen�s shadow citing him as his �best friend� in a town of friendly, neighborly cars that probably hate Larry the Cable Guy just as much.
There are a multitude of others in town, including a hippie preaching about alternative fuels (George Carlin) and an Italian mechanic obsessed with Ferraris (Tony Shalhoub). The problem is that none of them are all that memorable and this is just a few days after seeing the movie. John Ratzenberger�s 18-wheeler is, but only because we expect Ratzenberger to make his regular Pixar appearance; a fact that provides part of the film�s best joke which doesn�t occur until the end credits. When a Pixar production, so adept at creating entertainment that�s equally hysterical for adults (if not moreso) than children can have you counting the number of chuckles on a hand � and the first comes from a background voice yelling �Freebird� � you start wondering if Doogal was really that bad.
I am not a gearhead by any stretch of the imagination. Whenever the conversation shifts to engines, mileage and 0-to-60 - I usually zone out faster than Britney Spears at a contraception convention. So color me surprised that a film obviously fashioned out of some appreciation for the racing culture would fail so miserably at doling out some love for the various contraptions which make the sport possible at all. While I probably couldn�t recognize makes and models if they were labeled right in front of me, I still would have expected those who know more than I do to have some fun with or pay tribute to the admirers, collectors and speedsters out there. It�s as all inside information was discarded so as not to leave out all of us who occasionally like to turn right and so we further suffer through a slogged effort where passion for the material received an immediate recall and was never replaced.
Pixar still doesn�t fail to garner an A+ in the animation department though. There are stunningly crisp images in Cars; so beautiful that it�s easy to fool your brain that everything else within the frames doesn�t match up. Praising their work in this department will never go out of style, but we�re beyond giving them a pass for outdoing traditional 2-D and the various posers who have come along to ride their thunder. In my personal order of greatness - Toy Story, Toy Story 2, The Incredibles, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo and A Bug�s Life � Pixar�s resume has been full of great stories, one-of-a-kind characters and set pieces that have outdone some of Hollywood�s biggest bangs. There�s not much Cars can do to excite even racing fans with circle driving and the closest thing resembling an action sequence comes upon McQueen�s arrival to Radiator Springs. Even Pixar�s usual knack for looking below the surface to find either the buried emotions or the subtle subtext (in this case, the colonization of a country obsessed with expediency) is consumed in an overlong stretch of film that never picks up speed.