Cars (June 9, 2006)

Cars is Pixar’s 7th film and the final one to be produced independently before Pixar was acquired by Disney in January 2006. To be perfectly frank, Cars is my favorite Pixar movie. I have found memories of watching it countless times as a child. It is filled with iconic lines and scenes and it has an awesome soundtrack (“Life is a Highway” by Rascal Flats is a road trip staple and accompanies a great montage sequence). It is flashy and stylish with Pixar finally perfecting shiny textures with the glossy paintjobs of the racers contrasting nicely with the rusted exteriors of the junkyard cars. Owen Wilson does a fantastic job voicing our upstart rookie racer protagonist, Lightning McQueen. The story is that Lightning McQueen, a racer in the famed Piston Cup Circuit, ends up in a three-way tie with two older and more experienced drivers, Chick Hicks and Strip “The King” Weathers. In order to determine a winner a special race is set up across the country in California. On his way there, Lightning McQueen falls out of his truck and, after a series of misfortunes and accidents ends up in Radiator Springs a forgotten town off the old Route 66. There he is tasked, after wreaking the main street, with repaving the road before he is allowed to continue on his journey to his big race. While there he becomes enamored with the charms of the old town, which was bypassed by a new interstate to “save 10 minutes,” (and with the charms of a Porsche named Sally) and he decides to help all of the residents before he leaves. It is truly magically once Lightning gets his new “Radiator Springs Paintjob” and he cruises down the neon brushed streets with his leading lady. The whole video of the town contrasts perfectly with the bright lights, big city life Lightning led before. It is a perfect journey through memory lane as the movie paints a romantic picture of the heyday of “the mother road.” But I also appreciate that Lightning does make it to his race but does so as a changed car, a satisfying conclusion to his story. The residents of radiator springs are all endearing with my personally favorites being Luigi and Guido, Italian tire sales and repairs men (and you can’t forget about Mater, Lightning’s best friend and an comical character who had not yet become oversaturated and overstayed his welcome). Doc Hudson is also an endearing, former Piston Cup champ, and new mentor of Lightning who teaches the hotshot valuable racing tips while Lightning helps him find closure (he was forced to quit racing in his prime because of an accident). I also love the nods to NASCAR- which I used to love watching with my family on Sunday afternoons, with a few famous voices including Darrell Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Overall, while Cars may not be a complex cinematic masterpiece and is far from Pixar’s best, it hits all the boxes for me personally and that is why I love it and prefer it over other, better rated, films

Final Rating: 9/10