FILM CHALLENGE: 90) Cars

90) Cars

Director: John Lasseter

Year: 2006

Plot Summary: While traveling to California for the final race of the Piston Cup against The King and Chick Hicks, the famous Lightning McQueen accidentally damages the road of the small town Radiator Springs and is sentenced to repair it. During his sentence, McQueen grows to love the town and the off-beat cars who live there.

Cars should have been another Pixar classic. Within the first ten minutes, it had the beautiful animation, the sharp writing, the witty humour and the superb concept that makes the likes of Toy Story, The Incredibles, Monsters Inc. and Finding Nemo instant classics. But, then, it all went wrong.

Unfortunately, in a rare case for the studio, John Lasseter doesn't have enough substance to fill the two hour length of Cars. While their aforementioned work remains surprising and fresh right through to the credits, this one loses its momentum after the brilliant opening scene and doesn't manage the regain that standard again until near the end.

Moreover, I may have always praised them for allowing the action to benefit the narrative, but the opposite is so here. It feels like Lasseter was at a loss in Cars' second act as to where he wanted the story to go and, therefore, stretched it out with long action scenes involving tractors and rebellious sports cars. There's a hell of a lot of filler and not that much killer really.

Despite the fact that, frankly, it all got a bit boring in the middle, there are some spectacular things about Cars. The voice acting from the whole cast is very well done with Paul Newman, Bonnie Hunt and Owen Wilson all giving these scraps of metal a good character and personality. Lightening McQueen, moreover, is a great main character and the lessons he learns in Cars about selflessness and friendship provide an important message for the younger audience. Especially in the film's final scene. Plus, it's worth watching the whole thing for the hilarious post-credits in-jokes involving a skit on Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Monster's Inc. and regular voice actor John Ratzenberger.

But the most striking element of Cars though is the sentimentality it has for the American roads. There's a beautiful sequence towards the end in which Sally talks about Radiator Springs' history and, in turn, provides a nostalgic and touching short history of Route 66. It's clearly made by someone with a love for the road and the cars that inherit it - just look at the detail that's gone into every groove and sound of each vehicle - and this clearly shows in the Pixar adventure.

Their weakest work, but, still, this colourful and fun flurry of action and comedy is a cut above many of the other animated movies that you'd find in this decade's cinema.

3/5

By Daniel Sarath with 3 comments