Infantilism for baby boomers

Rating: 5/10 (16 October 2007)

Leave it to Pixar Animation to do away with people and replace them with talking cars. The idea itself is impersonal, and the results (heavy with both talk and auto-slapstick) are distinctly disengaged--unless you're a 10-year-old boy or his auto-enthusiast father. Lightning McQueen, a hot-shot race-car and the rookie sensation of the year, lands in a three-way tie for the Piston Cup and must drive cross-country to California to compete in the championship. Along the way, he falls out of his transport truck (whose back door apparently goes down and back up without being noticed) and gets himself cited for recklessness in a dirt town named Radiator Springs. Having the hero of this story forced into doing community service may serve as an unsubtle lesson for kids to take it easy on the roads, but for an animated comedy it isn't very funny. Lightning's detour amongst the hicks--who keep him there against his will--proves to be the centerpiece of the plot! While the viewer waits for somebody to let out the emergency brake, the filmmakers go crazy with the buck-teeth satire. It's "Hee Haw" on wheels. ** from ****