'Cars' Review
Nominated For: Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song "Our Town" (written by Randy Newman).
Cars follows hotshot rookie race car Lightning McQueen as he hopes to win the coveted Piston Cup against the seasoned Strip "The King" Weathers and ruthless racer Chick Hicks. En route to the competition, McQueen is separated from his transport truck Mack and stranded in the tiny town of Radiator Springs. Stuck in the slow lane, McQueen discovers there's more to life than racing and the value of friendship.
Cars is absolutely adored by children but stands on the lower end of Pixar's work in the eyes of adults. While I don't feel Cars quite lives up to any of Pixar's many masterpieces such as the Toy Story trilogy, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, and most recently Inside Out, I do think it's an adequate animated film that gets a bad wrap because adults simply want to speed past it.
Cars was co-directed by Pixar legends John Lasseter and the dearly departed Joe Ranft, offering a new anthropomorphized perspective to Pixar's library through a world of living cars. Behind the scenes Cars' screenplay is scrabbled together by a full pit crew composed of Lasseter, Ranft, Jorgen Klubien (these three also tightened the bolts on a story treatment), Dan Fogelman, Kiel Murray, and Phil Lorin. The screenwriting crew race by with a lighthearted story that offers heart and humor.
The thematic messages in Cars may not dig deeper than Pixar's previous efforts, but that doesn't make Cars a soulless kiddie cash-grab. Everything Cars has to say about the decay of small town culture and consequences of immense interstate construction is admittedly antiquated but it's appreciated nonetheless. The mature messages to be found in Cars are simple, but effective and there's a valuable virtue on the inner lanes about humility with the traditional arrogant-to-modest character arc bestowed upon Lightning McQueen.
Cars also doesn't have the same emotional drive that fuels many of Pixar's other animated features so it's never quite as strong as the other entries in Pixar's library, but it's entertaining regardless. Cars definitely skews towards being more kid-friendly than Pixar's more mature offerings, but offers a glimpse of the incredible animation on display when it drifts in the slow lane. Cars is as artistically inclined as anything in Pixar's expanding library, and the animation still looks great eleven years later!
The attention to detail is remarkable with lovely landscapes and even slight wear and tear on the older cars. Cars' soundtrack has a number of catchy tunes like the rocking "Real Gone", bouncy "Route 66", spirited "Life Is A Highway", and nostalgic "Our Town". The score from Randy Newman does admittedly resemble Newman's work on the Toy Story trilogy score so none of the accompaniment sound fresh but they adequately fit the proceedings.
One outcome of this movie's success that deserves mention is Cars Land at Disneyland's California Adventure park. While this has absolutely no impact on my review, I'd say that section of the park is a blast and has some of the best attractions to be found in California Adventure whether you like Cars or not (especially the Radiator Springs Racers ride). Sorry for that detour but I'll now be switching lanes to discuss Cars' voice work.
Owen Wilson is practically a perfect pairing to Lightning McQueen because he's able to convincingly sell the transition from an ostentatious arrogance to a sheltered selflessness over the course of the films' runtime. Larry The Cable Guy wields a rampant ridiculousness to make Mater a rottin', rural ally and gifts a friendly demeanor to the rusty tow truck. McQueen and Mater make a dynamic duo due to their obvious difference, enabling them to bring out the best qualities in one another. Bonnie Hunt voices the pleasant Porsche Sally as a go-getter and Paul Newman imbues Doc Hudson with sagely and stately sensibilities, serving as an insightful mentor for McQueen.
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