Starring Owen Wilson, Paul Newman, Larry The Cable Guy, Cheech Marin, Paul Dooley, Bonnie Hunt, George Carlin, Michael Keaton, Tony Shalhoub, John Ratzenberger
Written By: John Lasseter, Joe Ranft, and a whole bunch of folks
Directed By: John Lasseter, Joe Ranft
Studio: Disney/Pixar
Buy on Amazon.com link

Lightning Mcqueen was the hottest rookie in the Piston Cup Series, and no one was going to stop him from winning and showboating. After getting in a three way tie in the last race of the season, Mcqueen makes his way for California for a tie breaker race, and gets lost and sidetracked on Route 66. There, he damages a road in the town of Radiator Springs and the locals are none to pleased. Mcqueen is cocky, young driver who really hasn’t lived life yet. The locals of Radiator Springs want to change that. Pixar again excels at providing excellent CGI work for their films, and also has a good vocal cast to boot. Though the story is not as strong as previous films, Cars is still entertaining and fun for the whole family.

With the popularity over the years with Nascar, Pixar and Disney saw it as a no brainer to create an animated universe revolving around racing. While I am no fan of Nascar, the film was entertaining and fun to watch. The CGI was amazing and only gets better over the years from the best animation studio in the world, Pixar. Owen Wilson plays Lightning Mcqueen, a hotshot rookie, who is on his way to capturing the coveted Piston Cup when he gets a little too arrogant while racing and creates a three way tie in the final race of the season. Ignoring his pit crews instructions and doing what he wants, Mcqueen pretty much gives the race away and leads to another race for the tie breakers in California. On his way there, his Semi truck carrying him falls asleep and Mcqueen is let loose on the highway and then Route 66. Off to fend for his self he stumbles upon an old and vacant town. Radiation Springs used to be the hustling and bustling little town’s most have come to love as they would pass through America’s bi-ways. Since Express ways and Thruways have come about, towns like Radiation Springs succumbed to them and pretty much fell off the map. Now its just bitter old timers and locals who inhabit such towns. Leave it to Lightning Mcqueen to mess some of their roads up. Some of the local folks want Mcqueen to learn his lesson because they are not impressed with his know how of what he considers life. There, Mcqueen meets some interesting characters like the so-called Mayor, Doc Hudson played wonderfully by Paul Newman, Mater (Larry The Cable Guy) and Sally Carrera (Bonnie Hunt.) Doc and Mcqueen bond over racing and you could tell that Doc is like a father figure to Mcqueen throughout the movie. Basically Doc wants Mcqueen to get his head on straight and to show him its not all about winning a race, and that eventually the race ends and you have to do something else with your life.

Not the most interesting of stories, Cars really appeals to just kids and Nascar fans. It provides a few laughs here and there, mostly from Larry The Cable Guy and even though the voices of the characters were great it really has no stand out voices unless you were to look them up. The colors of the film were vibrant and great to see, and the landscapes and backdrops were impressive as was the different qualities of each car. What I did love about Cars was that they used John Ratzenberger again as Lightning Mcqueen’s semi truck that carts him across the country. Pixar also pays their respects to his character with a not to be missed End Credits. Plus for a Pixar film the extras on the disc were minimal from previous Pixar releases, only featuring a few sketch animations of deleted scenes, a brief look at the creation of the story and inspiration, and a short film starring Mater the tow truck.

Cars was fun to watch but did not blow me away as far as the story goes. Not everyone loves Nascar and I think that could be the film’s downside. It was fun to imagine a world just based on cars, trucks, etc but still fell short from the other films, especially after Pixar’s best The Incredibles.

Features:
-Mater And The Ghostlight
-The Mischievous Mater Gets His Due In An All-New Exclusive Animates Short Movie
One Man Band
-Hilarious Animated Short Film
-Inspiration For Cars
-Creator John Lasseter Gets His Kicks On Route 66
-Deleted Scenes

Audio:
-ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1 CC
-ENGLISH: Dolby Digital Stereo CC

Video:
Widescreen 2.35:1 Color (Anamorphic)

Subtitles:
English

Favorite Scenes: Last Race of Season, Route 66 Detour, Restoration of Radiation Springs, End Credits
Rating: NR
Running Time: 116 minutes
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating: