Not Pixar's best work, but still good

Rating: 8/10 (11 June 2006)

Basically the world is, as the title would imply, full of cars. There are no humans or animals in this flick, though there is a visual pun used here and there with flying Volkswagen bugs. As in the car, really tiny with wings. What kinds of sports do you think sentient talking cars go for? If you answered racing, then you win an internets. The plot revolves around a race car named Lightening McQueen. He's a loner who thinks he doesn't need a pit crew and is obsessed with winning the biggest prize in the North American racing circuit, the Piston Cup. The race at the beginning of the movie ends up a 3 way tie, and a tiebreaker race is set on the other side of the country in a week. In an effort to be first to the track, he pushes his semi partner into driving through the night, which results in him being dumped out of the trailer and on his own when they both fall asleep. After an altercation with a backfiring police car, he's arrested and forced to repave a road he tore up in a backwater Western town along old Route 66 called Radiator Springs. Here he meets a cast of strange cars, including a redneck tow truck named Mater, and a Porche named Sally Carrera. Will he make it to California in time for the race?
The good: It's Pixar. They've never done a bad movie yet, and Cars is not going to be the first. The visuals are stunning. Except when you see the talking cars, you'd think the images on the screen were of real places. The music is great, and really fits with what's going on at the time, especially the dilapidated 50s-60s era feel of Radiator Springs. Makes you want to drive down old Route 66 yourself and see what Pixar thinks we're missing. There are some memorable characters, and most of them are reasonably well fleshed out. There's also some real laugh out loud moments, such as when McQueen and Mater go tractor tipping, and the self ribbing jabs at other Pixar movies near the end.
The bad: Well, the plot is, to put it in car terms, something of a retread. There weren't as many surprises as I would have liked, and I could tell what was going to happen at the end by the time it eventually got to it. Some of the characters are over reliant on the personalities of their voice actors, and are one trick ponies as far as personalities go. It's nice that they got George Carlin to voice Filmore and Cheech Marin for Ramone for example, but they don't actually DO much with them in the movie. It's like, "Hey, I'm just here for a couple of one liners, but look at my celebrity voice!"
My thoughts: Overall I think the movie was worth the $8.25 I paid for the ticket. It's a nice way to kill a few hours, especially if you're a geek like me and just love watching that pretty, pretty CGI. The way that the world of the movie is structured so that it still looks familiar to us, but is built for automobiles is really interesting. Like for example instead of stairs in the stadium, there are circular concourses to the upper level parking spots. The parodies of the way human fans behave is good for some laughs too. There are also a few sad moments, though none that brought tears to my eyes like in some of the previous Pixar movies. Be sure and stay for the credits, there's an extra scene after them. While I don't think it's Pixar's best work as far as the plot goes, it's still Pixar, and that still means something.