Cars in theaters

[Jonas]

Cars

MOVIE GRADE
EW Grade: A-



Reviewed by Lisa Schwarzbaum


Having fallen in love with a bunch of computer-animated, anthropomorphized vehicles who express emotion with eyes made from windshields and smiles from metallic front grills, I do believe the exemplary Pixar team who made the beguiling comedy adventure Cars could draw a mote of dust and a pair of socks and turn them into characters worth caring about. I also bet that any story the Pixarites came up with about dust and socks (with John Ratzenberger lending his voice to the supporting role of the shoelace) is bound to be more rewarding than 90 percent of anything coming out of Hollywood Blockbusterville this summer. As it is, this witty charmer of an automotive adventure — part catnip for NASCAR enthusiasts, part nostalgia trip for fanciers of Route 66 and Paul Newman — features a 1951 Hudson Hornet, a rusty tow truck, a hippy-dippy 1960 VW bus, and a herd of tractors prone to tipping over and farting exhaust fumes of fright. And I'd rather spend time with them than with all the code-cracking sleuths The Da Vinci Code has to offer.
For the millions who love Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Mario Andretti, and Michael Schumacher, so much the better: Playing animated four-wheel versions of themselves (on the assumption that a man is what he drives), the voices of the real track stars blend easily with those of more recognizable thespians in the instructive story of hotshot race-car rookie Lightning McQueen. Just a curlicue of vocal cockiness courtesy of Owen Wilson is enough to convey the crucial fact that McQueen — a my-way-or-the-highway type who claims not to need no help from no one — is, in fact, precisely the kind who needs to learn how to slow down and smell the off-ramps. The picture opens with a race (featuring cars, don't forget, with big expressive eyeballs) as rigorously accurate for aficionados as it is fun for novices. And the unbeatable Pixar skill at rendering texture, perspective, background, movement, and detail is so casual in its dazzle that it's tempting to take the up-close view, vertiginous feel, and aerodynamic accuracy of racetrack curves rounded at lightning speed for granted.
Anyhow, a three-way finish for McQueen, the reigning race champ Strip ''The King'' Weathers (that's Petty), and showboating corner cutter Chick Hicks (Michael Keaton) forces an elimination race for the Piston Cup in L.A. And as he heads out to compete (hauled by Mack, a 1985 Super-Liner voiced by behind-the-mike mainstay John Ratzenberger), an accidental detour strands McQueen off the interstate in Radiator Springs.
That's where Cars switches from knowing, needling observer of NASCAR culture (and its attendant endorsement perks) and becomes avuncular promoter of small-town life as seen in loving photo books about Route 66 ghost towns. Stalled in a poky burg all but out of business since the interstate siphoned tourist traffic away, an impatient McQueen stays only under duress, educated by townsfolk including local judge Doc Hudson (Newman, himself a car racer, in the role of a 1951 jalopy that fits the 81-year-old actor like a trophy), the loyal and hee-hawing tow truck Mater (Larry the Cable Guy), and the onetime fast-lane Porsche 911, Sally Carrera (Bonnie Hunt, another favorite Pixar vocalizer).
The lesson McQueen learns — that loyalty, community, and an appreciation of life's detours matter as much as or more than individual advancement — isn't anything we haven't been fed a hundred times, most recently explained by an animated raccoon and his foraging buddies in Over the Hedge, and learned by Michael J. Fox 15 years ago in Doc Hollywood. But as the movie slows down to take in the scenery in and around imaginary, iconic Radiator Springs — a dusty Shangri-la out of Happy Days, a paean to tail fins and sunsets and mesas and neon, embroidered with some of Randy Newman's prettiest songwriting about little pleasures — Cars opens, gently and delicately, into something even more shimmering and soulful than the computerized glint of sunlight on car metal. Reigning Pixar director John Lasseter grew up amid California car culture, the son of a Chevy parts-department manager, and — with co-director Joe Ranft (who died, tragically, in a car accident before the picture was completed) and the Pixar team — has created a work of American art as classic as it is modern. Note to tourists: Leave before the very end of the credits and you'll miss some of the best and funniest roadside sights.


Chick Hicks (voice of Michael Keaton, from left), Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) and The King (Richard Petty) come around the turn during the Piston Cup race in "Cars."


Cars


BY ROGER EBERT / June 9, 2006

Cast & Credits
Featuring the voices of:
Lightning McQueen: Owen Wilson
Doc Hudson: Paul Newman
Sally: Bonnie Hunt
Mater: Larry the Cable Guy
Ramone: Cheech Marin
Luigi: Tony Shalhoub
The King: Richard Petty
Sarge: Paul Dooley
Harv: Jeremy Piven
Fillmore: George Carlin
Chick Hicks: Michael Keaton

Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation presents an animated film directed by John Lasseter. Written by Dan Fogelman, John Lasseter, Joe Ranft, Kiel Murray, Phil Lorin and Jorgen Klubien. Based on the story by Lasseter, Joe Ranft and Jorgen Klubien. Running time: 118 minutes. Rated G.

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I wouldn't have thought that even in animation a 1951 Hudson Hornet could look simultaneously like itself and like Paul Newman, but you will witness that feat, and others, in "Cars." This is the new animated feature by John Lasseter ("Toy Story," "A Bug's Life"); it tells a bright and cheery story, and then has a little something profound lurking around the edges. In this case, it's a sense of loss.
What have we lost? Its hero, a racing car named Lightning McQueen (voice of Owen Wilson), has just lost a big race, and then one day on the highway he goes astray, and rolls into the forgotten hamlet of Radiator Springs, in Carburetor County. This was a happenin' town, back when Route 66 was the way to get from Chicago to L.A., passing through Flagstaff, Arizona, and don't forget Winona. But now the interstates and time itself have passed it by, and the town slumbers on, a memory of an earlier America.
Lightning's dream is to win the Piston Cup, the grand prix of American racing. He's on his way to the race when he gets lost, and then, more humiliating, impounded. Once released, he meets the population of Radiator Springs, led by Doc Hudson (Paul Newman), who may be an old-timer but probably knows something about Hudsons that Lightning doesn't: Because of their "step-down design," they had a lower center of gravity than the Big 3 models of its time and won stock car races by making tighter turns.
Other citizens include Mater (rhymes with tow-mater) the Tow Truck (voice of Larry the Cable Guy), Sally the sexy Porsche (Bonnie Hunt), Fillmore the hippie VW bug (George Carlin), and Sarge the veteran Jeep (Paul Dooley). Tractors serve as the cows of Radiator Springs, and even chew their cud, although what that cud consists of I'm not sure. Fan belts, maybe.
The message in "Cars" is simplicity itself: Life was better in the old days, when it revolved around small towns where everybody knew each other, and around small highways like Route 66, where you made new friends, sometimes even between Flagstaff and Winona. This older America has long been much-beloved by Hollywood, and apparently it survives in Radiator Springs as sort of a time capsule.
Doc Hudson, it turns out, was a famous race car in his day. That leads up to a race in which the vet and the kid face off, although how that race ends I would not dream of revealing. What I will reveal, with regret, is that the movie lacks a single Studebaker. The 1950s Studebakers are much beloved by all period movies, because they so clearly signal their period, from the classic Raymond Loewy-designed models to the Golden Hawk, which left Corvettes and T-Birds eating its dust. Maybe there's no Hawk in Radiator Springs because then Doc Hudson would lose his bragging rights. The movie is great to look at and a lot of fun, but somehow lacks the extra push of the other Pixar films. Maybe that's because there's less at stake here, and no child-surrogate to identify with. I wonder if the movie's primary audience, which skews young, will much care about the 1950s and its cars. Maybe they will. Of all decades, the 1950s seems to have the most staying power; like Archie and Jughead, the decade stays forever young, perhaps because that's when modern teenagers were invented.