The Visuals Are Certainly Amazing

Rating: Null/10 (26 June 2015)

Cars (2006)
*** (out of 4)
Cocky and rather stuck-up race car Lighning McQueen gets a dose of reality when he ends up in a small town full of small cars who don't know who he is. Even though he's a week away from the biggest race of his career, he ends up being forced to stay in the small town due to his speeding. At first he's put off by Doc Hudson, a local judge, until it finally dawns on him that he's a famous champion who disappeared fifty years earlier.
CARS isn't the greatest Pixar movie out there but I might say it's one of the greatest in terms of visuals. There's no doubt that kids are going to enjoy this film as will their parents and it's the visuals that are going to keep everyone so entertained. What really amazed me was how detailed some of the animation was and especially the scenes set at the race track where we see the stands full of cars. The amount of detail in these beautiful shots were quite amazing and more times than not my mind was off the actual story of the race and I was thinking of what all must have had to take place in order to get these scenes looking so great.
Another major plus the film has going for it are the vocal performances. Wilson has no problems playing the stuck-up character and he really makes you believe the story about him finally changing his ways. For a vocal performance Wilson really sells the character. Bonnie Hunt is good in her role as the love interest and we get nice supporting work from Larry the Cable Guy, Cheech Marin, George Carlin and Michael Keaton. Then there's Paul Newman who clearly steals the film as the veteran car who might just be able to teach Lightning something.
I think the story, for the most part, is a good one and there's no doubt that all of the characters are written quite well. I think the biggest flaw with CARS is that it clocks in at nearly two hours so there's no doubt that some of the stuff in the middle could have been trimmed down. Still, the characters and the wonderful animation makes CARS worth watching.