Slow start but speeds ahead to come out on top!

Rating: 8/10 (30 May 2006)

For the first half hour or so of the movie, all I could think to myself was, "Damn, Pixar might be in trouble here." For some reason, I just could not get into it at the beginning. The whole thing with having cars as characters just didn't sit well with me, the story wasn't engaging and I couldn't shake the feeling like Pixar had finally dropped the ball with this one. The streak had gone long enough and Pixar had struck out after a long line of animated classics.
Thankfully, I was wrong because by the end of the movie, I was loving it. By the end, I loved all of the characters and I had that same fuzzy feeling that I got from all of the other Pixar films. The story was a bit formulaic but in there were definitely several moments where I found myself getting a little choked up. Yeah, I'll admit it. The story is actually very touching and what I really dug was that the main character, Lightning McQueen, really makes a change from the beginning of the film to the end of it and realistically speaking, that's what a good story always has, a big change. I hated him at first and by the end, he really proves himself to be a stand up guy (car, whatever...). The rest of the characters were great and fit their roles well, especially Paul Newman who is perfect for his role given his car racing history.
I was laughing out loud at a lot of the jokes and on an interesting note, the jokes in this film are gonna fly right over the heads of probably 95% of the kids that go see this. I think this movie has more sight gags than any of the other Pixar films to date and sly jokes directed at the adult crowd.
The animation surpasses everything else they've done up until now. If there is one word to describe it, it has to be photorealistic. Maybe too real.
Last but not least, there is one absolutely hilarious bit at the end where John Ratzenberger's character, Mack, watches car versions of earlier Pixar movies with titles like "Toy Car Story" and such. All he can do is comment on how funny the actor is who plays the roles that he did in those movies and... just watch it and see.
In the end, while it's not the best Pixar movie, it's damn good and far from a failure. Car nuts will love it, adults will love it and I'm sure the kids are gonna eat this one up. Recommended.
RATING: **** out of *****.