Buckle Up for Fast-Paced, V8 Action and Adventure, and Classic Sportsmanship Values!

Rating: 9/10 (16 July 2006)

Meet Lightning McQueen, world famous race car. His dream was to win the Gold Piston Cup and become the new Dinoco champion. In the latest race, the Dinoco 4000, McQueen was pitting against The King, returning champion, and Chick Hicks, a high-octane runner-up. McQueen gave it his all, burning up the race track, peeling rubber, kicking up dust, and finally edged his way to the finish line with two back tires blown out. Unfortunately, King and Hicks traveled at the same speed and the outcome was a three-way tie. A tie-breaker race would be held the following week in California. McQueen sat back and daydreamed about his sure victory, but soon had to go back to work as a celebrity, promoting his image and pose for thousands of media cars taking his picture. Afterwards, he was loaded into his trailer and pulled away by Mack the truck. As night approached, Mack wanted to stop at a truck stop for some shuteye, but McQueen was determined to get to California as soon as possible, so he made Mack drive all night. Unfortunately, fatigue soon overtook the big truck, as well as some cheeky, tricked-out hot rods, causing McQueen to roll out of his trailer onto deserted Highway 40. McQueen quickly came to and took off, looking for Mack, but found nothing other than an empty road and some rude big rigs. Soon enough, McQueen raced into a small town off Route 66. This was Radiator Springs, a rural, backwoods simple town run by classic cars.
The residents of Radiator Springs consisted of Sarge, an Army Jeep, Luigi and Guido, motors who ran the tire shop, Fillmore, a microbus who specialized in "organic" fuels, Lizzie, a Model T Ford, and Sheriff, a police car, who chased McQueen for speeding; McQueen tore through town, ripping up the roads. Literally. He was caught and locked in the impound lot overnight where he met a hick tow-truck named Mater, short for Tow Mater; McQueen was taken to traffic court and put on trial by a surly Hudson Hornet named Doc Hudson. Doc was about to let McQueen go, when in came Sally Carrera, a spunky Porsche, who suggested McQueen pay for his actions, which was unfortunate for McQueen since she was his attorney. So, the cocky race car was sentenced to repair his damage to the road by pulling Bessie, a rumbling, bubbling tar machine. His first repair job was crappy, because he raced through it. So, he had to start again. He tried to escape, but Sheriff and Mater brought him back. All the while, McQueen was desperate to head west and win that Piston Cup. To prove himself, he challenged Doc to a race. And it was then that McQueen got a very hard lesson in sharp turns when he skidded right into a cactus patch; That night, Mater showed McQueen his favorite past time: tractor tipping. It goes great until McQueen accidentally intimidated Frank, a very large, very angry farm tiller.
McQueen finally got with it and paved a smooth new road through Radiator Springs. He also learned of the hardships the town had faced: back in the '60s, the town flourished with tourists from far and near, driving down Route 66 heading east or west. It wasn't until they built Highway 40 that the number of visitors greatly decreased as this new highway went directly passed Radiator Springs and got the cars where they were going much faster. Back to the present, Luigi and Guido began dressing up the front of their shop to match the glorious new road, and McQueen helped them spruce up the town so it looked as good as new. He then got new tires from Luigi, tried Fillmore's organic fuel, bought a night vision windshield from Sarge, fueled up at Flo's, and even spent the night in Sally's Cozy Cone Motel. He had won the respect of all the residents...except Doc, who still seemed to resent him. It could be that Doc had been a famous race car like McQueen back in his day. He won Piston Cups from 1951-1953. In 1954, he suffered a terrible car crash and, afterwords his racing career was over. Anyway, thanks to an anonymous call from the surly Hudson, the media, choppers and Mack tracked down McQueen and whisked him off to California to compete in the big race. While racing around the track, McQueen took all he had learned about sportsmanship in Radiator Springs to heart and, when Chick Hicks attempted to cheat by wrecking and forcing King off the track, McQueen nobly came to the car's aide and sped across the finish line with him. Doc, Mater, and all his friends from Radiator Springs were there to congratulate him, for McQueen had finally reached the status he had longed for, and was a very happy car from then on. The cars of Radiator Springs were happy when McQueen told a lot of his other friends about their town and in no time, business was finally picking up again.
Cars. Another hit by Disney and Pixar! Visual effects are top of the line! The cars and all the scenery look so real, and so beautiful. It's as if it were filmed on location; Owen Wilson voices our hero, Lightning McQueen, Paul Newman is Doc Hudson, Bonnie Hunt (from A Bugs' Life) is Sally, Larry the Cable Guy voices Mater, the great Paul Dooley is Sarge, George Carlin is Fillmore, Michael Keaton is Chick Hicks, Pixar veteran John Ratzenberger is Mack, and the late, great Joe Ranft is Peterbilt the big rig. Joe Ranft passed away in 2005 in an auto accident. Ironic, I must say. The voice cast was very talented, this is one cool movie! If you like Disney/Pixar films, then this is for you. I do believe it's their last one together. From Toy Story to Cars, they've made real winners. See Cars today! I recommend it!