Endearing characters, soulful, funny and beautifully animated

Rating: 9/10 (16 October 2008)

This was the only Pixar film I gave a miss at the cinema. I just couldn't buy the premise of a world full of talking cars. I don't know why, I just couldn't, despite the fact I rate Toy Story the greatest CGI animated film of all time. Some Pixar faithful fan I turn out to be, one who has followed their progress since the 80's, being awestruck at their short 5 min animated films that took them a painstaking 3-5 years to make each one. As a budding Spectrum/Commodore computer programming enthusiast at the time, they were like God, and no one knew who they were and what they would eventually become, lead by the great John Lassiter.
And so with this guilty conscious hovering over me, I finally got round to watching my poor Cars "why haven't you watch me yet? Have I done something wrong?" DVD.
As I watched the first 10 minutes, my fears of still not buying into this world of talking cars, still held me prisoner. It started off straight away with the razzmatazz of car racing and an extremely obnoxious character who to my horror I realised was the main antagonist of the movie. There was no soul. I shook my head at this point and thought, well, you had an amazing run, Pixar, and you did recover with Ratatouille and Wall-E so this one bad film is just a glitch. Then the plot of the film took a turn as our obnoxious antagonist ends up in a town called Radiator Springs, a quiet struggling and run down town. And it is here that I realised for the first time what a complete idiot I was, what a Judas I have been for turning my back on my childhood heroes. It is from here that the joys of every Pixar film of the past exploded into my senses and then I realised why the the first 10 minutes lacked that soul. It was deliberate. It was there as a message that we are living life too fast. Slow down and pause and look around and discover the beauty that surrounds you, the stuff you always took for granted and in some cases destroy. As usual, Pixar characters are larger than life. The funny characters had me in stitches, the antagonist obnoxiousness became endearing, then there were characters who tugs at your heart and none more so than the Doc. I watch this film two weeks after the passing of Paul Newman, and all I can humbly say, he couldn't have had a more fitting end to his remarkable film catalogue with a role in a world so close to his heart. He truly added gravitas to an already great flick.
If you are apprehensive as I was in watching a movie about a world ruled by talking cars, please allow me to dispense your apprehension. Go and get the DVD, put it in the drive, put your feet up and press play and be swept away by John Lassiter's masterful storytelling.
Pixar, forgive me for my momentary doubts and lack of faith. But don't you dare ever sell your soul because that is what breathed life into a lamp, a toy, a fish, a rat, a bug, a boogie monster, a robot, and a god damn car! I mean, how the hell did they get me to love and even cry over a blasted rusted car!