USA, G, 116 m, 2006
Directed by John Lasseter and John Ranft. Stars Owen Wilson, Paul Newman, Bonnie Hunt, et al.

The seventh CGI animated feature from the folks at Disney/Pixar, and arguably the best. I was concerned at first that a picture made up entirely of motor cars wouldn’t have enough gas to justify anything outside of a short subject; it’s not as easy to anthropomorphize a Chevy as it is a clownfish or a grasshopper. (Last year’s terrific Robots was populated solely by machines, but Fender and Rodney Copperbottom held our interest because they were humanoids.) And yet directors John Lasseter and John Ranft (with a little help from an army of genius animators) turn what could’ve been a gimmicky cartoon into one of the funniest and most touching comedies I’ve seen in a long time. The cars here are surprisingly expressive, due in part to their eyes being integrated into their windshields instead of their headlamps. Another inspired creative choice was to make the cars free agents in a sort of alternate universe that looks like modern civilization but is utterly bereft of humans. (Or any other heterotrophic life form, for that matter.) Cars transcends its fish-out-of-water formula: A hotshot racecar named Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson) finds his trip to the West Coast for an important race cut short after an unwanted detour on Route 66 lands him in hot water with the law of a backwater town known as Radiator Springs. This is Doc Hollywood as performed by Hot Wheels, which means that in time Lightning will come to care for the town’s quirky denizens and learn the value of friendship over capital and celebrity. Paul Newman, Larry the Cable Guy and George Carlin lend their vocal talents to the colorful proceedings, but the real star here is Radiator Springs, which is so reminiscent of the one-horse settlements that dot Route 66 that it’s uncanny. Honest to God, I can’t think of another film (animated or otherwise) that has presented the geography of its setting with such exquisite detail.

July 15, 2006

© Copyright 2007 by Edward Larsen Terkelsen. All rights reserved.