Ka-chow!

Rating: 7/10 (17 July 2007)

"Cars" is the right movie to watch whenever one feels the need for speed. I'm not really into CGI films, but at least this one is much better than other CGI productions. It's fun to watch. Unlike most CGI films with annoying humor, weird and awfully designed characters and often weak visuals, this one has brilliant graphics, funny and clever humor and some great visuals.
A very creative, imaginative, original, funny and interesting detail is that the eyes of this film's anthropomorphic cars are placed on the windshield. Plus, the cars have mouth and teeth.
This is Pixar's greatest achievement. Pixar has never done anything like this before or after.
The way how the story is made is funny and entertaining. Many hilarious quotes can be found in this movie, especially from Lightning McQueen and Mater. Mater's jokes combined with Lightning McQueen's sarcastic humor results in a real scream and a full plate.
Lightning McQueen is hilarious: overconfident, arrogant, talkative, sarcastic and snobbish. He is also selfish, especially towards his pit crew. But I like this rookie race car exactly like that. After becoming kind, he's not as funny. Also, I like his original race car look better than the changes he makes later in Radiator Springs, which make him look much more conservative, something like a 1953 Chevrolet Corvette. But, focusing only on his race car appearance, he seems to be a mix of a Dodge Viper, a Ford GT40, a Lamborghini Miura, a Ferrari 250 GTO and a Mazda RX-8.
His name seems to be a reference to Steve McQueen, who was a fan of cars and speed. Owen Wilson does a fantastic job as Lightning McQueen's voice. Others do great voice jobs as well, especially Larry The Cable Guy as Mater and Paul Newman as Doc Hudson.
Other cars include Doc Hudson (a Hudson Hornet of the original model - to be more specific, the Fabulous Hudson Hornet), Mater (a rusty old wreck), The King (a Plymouth Superbird), Luigi (a Fiat 500), Guido (a forklift which resembles an Isetta), Lizzie (an ancient Ford Model T) and Mack (a humorous Mack Super-Liner lorry). All of them are great characters and even Bessie is... if that counts, LOL. Mater is like "Tow Mater" but without the "Tow".
Chick Hicks is the only character I don't like and even hate. He is vindictive, obnoxious and nasty. He is very greedy and actually way more selfish than Lightning McQueen. Although Lightning McQueen is what he is, at least he never rams any car and he'd never do that, unlike Chick Hicks who purposely rams all the cars in his way and causes them terrible accidents (including The King). He hates both The King and Lightning McQueen and yet copies Lightning McQueen's jokes.
When it comes to visuals, they can be easily described as real-looking, fresh and modern but done with high standards of quality comparing to most many terrible CGI creations. Visually, the best part is the beginning: the electrifying and powerful noise of the racing cars's engines, the cars running in a big track and amazing race, the fabulous and realistic sceneries (with sparkling lights and entire crowds of cars watching), great music...
The soundtrack is not brilliant but the opening song is pretty cool, as well as the song "Life is a highway".