fantastic animaton but too often stuck in neutral

Rating: 7/10 (24 January 2007)

So who needs an opposable thumb when you can have a technologically advanced civilization built and inhabited by nothing but cars, trucks, vans and a whole host of other automotive vehicles? "Cars," the latest hit from Pixar Animation, presents a world entirely devoid of people but still replete with all the architecture, history and pop culture references we associate with human beings. It's an intriguing concept, and one which the skilled animators bring to remarkable life on screen. The vehicles that make up the cast of characters have been beautifully anthropomorphized without betraying their basic nature as transportation devices. It's certainly a great deal easier for animators to imbue living creatures with human qualities than it is to do the same with automobiles, so the filmmakers are definitely to be commended for their stunning work in this movie (the breakthrough here is in putting the "eyes" in the dashboard rather than in the headlights, which gives the cars a friendlier, more expressive countenance than we are used to in animated-car tales).
Owen Wilson voices the main character, Lightning McQueen, a self-absorbed, cherry-red racecar whose sole concern in life is to win the Piston Cup so he can bask in the glow of fame and fortune and rustle himself up a higher class of products to endorse. While he's on his way to California for the Big Race, Lightning finds himself stranded in a small desert community named Radiator Springs - situated on old Route 66 - that lost all its business when the big interstate highway opened up a few miles outside of town. The film is a sweet lament for a bygone era when crossing the country was a more laid-back affair and travelers were able to experience the joys of small town life on the way to their destinations. It is in Radiator Springs that the cocky Lightning learns a thing or two from the townsfolk about what is really important in life (and it isn't winning the big race).
The town is filled with more quirky eccentrics than one would find in any low budget, independent feature shown at the Sundance Film Festival. There's Doc Hudson (Paul Newman), the town's medic and judge, who seems to be harboring a deep, dark secret about his past from the rest of the world; Mater (Larry the Cable Guy), a bucktoothed tow truck who's none too gifted in the brains department but who is sweet-tempered and good-natured and who becomes Lightning's most devoted follower in the town; Sally Carrera (Bonnie Hunt), the sexy young Porsche who fled the rat race of civilization to make her home in Radiator Springs and who becomes the inevitable love interest for our hard-charging, drag racing Romeo. A large number of well-known voices populate the film, including Cheech Marin, George Carlin, Michael Keaton, Jeremy Piven, Jay Leno, Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Billy Crystal, John Goodman. You name it - just about anyone who's anyone in Hollywood shows up in this movie. Heck, even racing legends Richard Petty, Mario Andretti and Dale Earnhardt Jr. make an appearance here.
It goes without saying that the color and animation are truly top drawer and state-of-the-art (this IS a Pixar product, after all), but, for all its richness of image and humor, "Cars" seems to be missing that extra added something that would secure it a place in the pantheon of great animated features. Perhaps, there is a certain sameness built into the concept of having only animated vehicles as characters that makes the movie wear a bit thin after awhile. Perhaps, too, the narrative needs a trifle more energy and "drive" (pardon the pun), a higher octane fuel that would make it speed along at a faster clip. Lighting is stuck in this town for so long a spell that we begin to feel a little bit stuck there ourselves. For a movie built entirely on driving, "Cars" is surprisingly sedentary for long stretches of time. The one advantage animated movies have over live action films is that they are completely unbound by the laws of gravity, so there's really no excuse for any such film to "drag" (again, pardon the pun) in the way this one does. There's a lyrical scene where Sally and Lightning envision what the town must have looked like in its pre-highway heyday, but so much of the middle section of the film is taken up with liquid dialogues and less-than-inspired slapstick routines that the movie often feels like it is caught in cruise control or stalling out altogether when what we really want is for it to race along at a breakneck speed worthy of its subject matter. In short, the film probably would have been better had it used such anarchic chase movies as "The Great Race," "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World" or "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines" as its source of inspiration. Then, perhaps, more of the film would have been on a par, in terms of dynamism and excitement, with the astonishing racing sequence that closes the film.
The movie pokes affectionate fun at the commercialization of racing, and there is no end to the clever punning that has gone into the naming of the characters and places that populate the film. These, along with the stunning visuals, are enough to recommend the film for any viewer. But, in the long run, I have to say that, for all its good qualities, "Cars" is too often stuck in neutral.