Cars 2006

Lightning McQueen (Wilson) is a rookie racecar that is leading in the race of the Piston Cup when he decides not to pit and get fresh tires. At the last lap his back two tires blow out and he ends up tying the race with the two other top leaders Strip “The King” Weathers, and Chick Hicks (Keaton). Due to the tie it is decided that there will be a tie breaking race held in one week in California. Lightning, being the self centered racecar that he is tells Mack (Ratzenberger), his trailer, that they need to get to California right away so that he can “schmooze” the major sponsor before the other racers. Along the way Lightning accidently gets lost from Mack and he ends up in trouble in a small town just off interstate 40 and along route 66; called Radiator Springs. Here Lightning has ruined the street when freaking out due to his disorientation during the prior evening. The cars of Radiator Springs put him on trial and eventually sentence him to repave the street he destroyed which should take five days. Through these five days Lightning learns that there is more to life than just worrying about himself. He also discovers that going off the beaten path can often be a lot more exciting than staying on it. Just after finishing the repaving Lightning begins to become accustomed to the town when suddenly he is found by the press, taken away, and forced back into his racing life. During the tie breaking race Lightning pulls tricks that he learned in Radiator Springs and eventually some of the cars from there come to the big race to help him out as his pit crew. Lightning loses the race because he shows compassion for “The King,” since Chick cheated and made him crash, by pushing him across the finish line. Even though Lightning didn’t win the race he still won the respect he needed, learned the lessons he needed to, and got the friends and support he needed as well. The movie ends with him moving his racing headquarters to Radiator Springs.

In the ways of PIXAR films this one may actually be my favorite. No it is not because of the animation. Seeing as animating cars can be vastly limited and difficult. I think it was my favorite because of the story. As a small child my family would take lots of road trips around the U.S. I had been to 31 states by the age of 15!! My father has always liked to drive on old highways instead of the interstate so we found many interesting places and things off the beaten path. I also relate to the story because I have actually driven the Mother road of Route 66 twice, once to L.A. and once back here to Chicago. When a movie is easy to relate to it can often and easily make it a better movie, thus is why I liked Cars so much. This movie inspired me so much that I created a self-portrait character combination with my car.

Granted since it was a PIXAR film the animation was phenomenal as usual and what impressed me the most was the lighting. If you go back and watch the original trailer for Cars, the one that was before The Incredibles, and then watch the movie you will notice all sorts of differences in the lighting of the characters and objects in the film. To be able to handle smooth metallic surfaces with the proper reflections from all different light sources in a live action film is difficult, therefore, in animation it had to be murder, which is why it was so amazing. Upon reading the book “The PIXAR Touch” I actually learned how they did the amazing lighting of Cars. Cars was the first PIXAR film to be rendered using ray tracing. Ray tracing actually figures out how light would fall and reflect upon different surfaces, thus creating a much more realistic and believable feel. Besides the cars themselves being ridiculously impressive; the animators at PIXAR figured out how to make neon with computer animation. I have to say that the scene with the neon lit main street was the most dazzling piece of eye candy you can get from this movie. It is just like being there. I do not know how many of you have been to Gallup, New Mexico but it is located right on 66 near the Western most edge of the state, and they have a fair lot of neon on at night. Gallup is not the only town on 66 that does it though, there are many others.

Nonetheless, although Cars was the least liked by die-hard PIXAR fans I still loved it and think that everyone should see it just to see how amazing it looks. Whether you like cars or not it is just a visually incredible film. The cast was an unbelievable bonus in this film with a perfect mix of all sorts of actors from classic films to modern low brow comedy. The voice actors were truly represented by the cars they played extremely well. Paul Newman was a classic “Hudson Hornet” and he is a classic actor. Owen Wilson as the up and coming racecar and he is an up and coming actor. George Carlin as the hippie VW Bus and he is a fantastic comedian from that same era, and is still funny to this day too. However I thought they could have had John Ratzenberger as a mail car, named Cliff, instead of the truck named Mack, just as a little tribute to Cheers. Anyway the casting helped pull it all together and made the movie all the more enjoyable. I hope someday I can see this movie at a drive in theater. Coming to the finish line I want to tell everyone to go see this movie and just relax and watch it. Remember life isn’t something you speed through so please put your seat in the recline position and enjoy the in-drive movie.

Run time: 116 mins.

Starring: Owen Wilson, Bonnie Hunt, Larry the Cable Guy, Michael Keaton, Paul Newman, Cheech Marin, Tony Shaloub, George Carlin, John Ratzenberger, Paul Dooley.

Directed by: John Lasseter, Joe Ranft (Co-director)

Written by: John Lasseter, Joe Ranft