Eye-Popping Hotshot Racecar In Hillbilly Hell Animation Masterpiece

Rating: 7/10 (4 January 2007)

In a world of cars, Lightning McQueen is a self-centred young hotshot racecar chasing the prestigious Piston Cup trophy, who gets sidetracked in the small backwoods town of Radiator Springs a week before the race. Serving penance, he gets to know the folks who live there and slowly starts to re-evaluate his priorities and his aspirations.
The plot of Cars is kinda clichéd - big-city careerist finds wisdom and friends in unlikely places - but it's handled with such honesty and compassion it becomes a very touching story. It's an ode to Route 66 and a bygone fifties era of good-natured down-home American hospitality; the idea that the journey is more important than the destination, and was inspired by just such a trip that Lasseter and Ranft took to research the film. The Our Town section in the middle is one of the most wonderfully sweet and touching pieces of animation I've ever seen, and the filmmakers wisely take their time to construct the atmosphere and characters with real depth. The voice cast are great, the real find being redneck comic Larry The Cable Guy / Dan Whitney (who had never done a movie before) as the goofy, good-natured, tractor-tipping tow-truck Mater, who cops all the movie's best lines ("Ah'd give ma left two lug-nuts to work with sumpin' like d'at !") and of course Newman, whose dramatic gravitas and racing pedigree lend the movie extra credibility. The animation is simply stunning throughout; for my money a watershed of what computer-generated imagery can achieve. Watch the sequence where Big Mack is hauling McQueen on the interstates - there are literally thousands of animated cars, all rendered individually with headlights, reflections, spots and scene lighting, all interacting independently - the quality of this work is amazing. The design of the cars too is simply wonderful - I especially like Doc Hudson (a 1951 Hudson Hornet), Ramone (a 1959 Chevy Impala), Fillmore (a 1960 VW bus), The King (a 1970 Plymouth Roadrunner Superbird) and Luigi (a 1959 Fiat 500). There is also a great song score, with standout tracks by Sheryl Crow and James Taylor, and many many hilarious moments, particularly the car-related pastiche of previous Pixar films in the end-credits. Several stars of motor sport feature in the movie, notably Richard Petty / The King (the most decorated Nascar racer of all time), Darrell Waltrip / Darrell Cartrip, and seven-time Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher. Tragically, co-director / writer / voice-actor Ranft was killed in a car crash in 2005, prior to the movie's release. A multi-talented filmmaker and highly respected storyboard man for Disney and Pixar, Cars represents the very best of his artistic genius, and is a fabulously entertaining film for everyone to enjoy.