About those mixed reviews...

Rating: 9/10 (12 June 2006)

...DON'T believe them. CARS is as good as anything Pixar has produced. It's a big, bright, fun, very American movie.
It isn't perfect, and I'll quickly point out the two real flaws I saw in it. First, despite some great action sequences in the first half-hour or so, the story doesn't really get going, and I found it a little harder to get into this little universe than I did for, say, Monsters Inc. Have patience, though, because the story has a lot of heart to it, and the characters really do "come to life" as the story goes on.
The only other "flaw" is that the rendering of Pixar's movies is getting so good that they hardly look animated anymore. This film may not hold the attention of small children, believe it or not.
Now for the good stuff... Pixar's strength has always been in presenting great stories. They might use the best technology to do it, but story has always been king at Pixar, and CARS doesn't disappoint here (though as I said, it takes a little time to get rolling). In this case, the story is really an utter cliché, on many levels , and it's presented with a complete lack of irony. This is an old-fashioned Hollywood comedy in a lot of ways. Elvis could have starred in this movie in 1959 if there had been some way to magically morph him into a car. There are some lovely messages in the movie, like the value of slowing down, and taking the road less travelled. The climactic race actually manages to turn a race-movie cliché or two on its head, to great effect.
The characters are terrific, with Paul Newman's Doc Hudson rating special mention. Of course Paul Newman would do a movie like this, he's been in racing for decades. Not so obvious is that the car his character is based on, the Hudson Hornet, really WAS a great race car in its day. "The King" is based on the legendary Dodge Charger Daytona. And while I wouldn't have cast a Porsche 911 as the female lead (I thought the Boxter was Porsche's "chick" car), Pixar veteran Bonnie Hunt's Sally makes a great foil for Owen Wilson's Lightning McQueen.
As usual, the art direction is fantastic. I loved the car-forms in the buttes surrounding Radiator Springs (I even recognized a Cord 810 in one scene), and there's a plethora of detail in virtually every frame. I can't wait for the DVD to re-watch and freeze-frame. The cars have very realistic physics for the most part, and like the fish in Finding Nemo, maintain a remarkable verisimilitude.
The in-jokes fly fast and furious here (in fact, there's a cute dig at THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS, come to think of it). Jokes about cars, jokes about NASCAR (and even a little F1), and--of course--jokes about Pixar. Don't leave when the credits start to roll.
"They don't build 'em like they used to..." goes the old expression, but CARS has a lot of old-fashioned, traditional qualities. It works as a family comedy, as a beautifully-rendered piece of animated art, and as a great tribute to Route 66 and the American automobile. You won't go wrong with this one.