Cars Review
by The Snapman (snapman AT gmail DOT com)June 16th, 2006
I can't believe it. Pixar is amazing. They could animate dirt, and fill it with pathos. They could make a move about paint drying, and make it funny and entertaining. I don't know how they do it. I wish with all my heart that I could get a job there.
CARS is a out-of-your-own-little-world learning story for Lightning McQueen, a race car with nothing but dreams of himself, his fans, and big sponsorship dancing in his head. We find out quickly that Lightning has very few friends, and treats those who do know him very callously, as though they should be honored and privileged to know him and work for him. After showing off in the Piston Cup race that starts the film, he literally blows it when his back two tires blow out just before he can complete his final lap. His top two competitors catch up to him and create an extremely rare three-way tie at the finish line, which requires the three finishers to race in a runoff race in Los Angeles, California. He could have won the sponsorship of Dinoco (a play on words for where oil comes from, one of many peppering this film) if he had won the Piston Cup, and at this point in the film, that sponsorship is all that matters to him.
After a compulsory regurgitation of advertising blurbs of his major sponsor -- Rust-Eze -- to Rust-Eze customers and company, he hightails it to Mack, the truck that will take him to Los Angeles. As we see later, Lightning is not too good to Mack either, and makes him skip rest stops so that he can get to LA faster. Well, Mack starts getting sleepy, and with a sleeping Lightning in the back, the back door falls open and Lightning is pitched out onto the road. He gets lost, and winds up destroying the main drag of Radiator Springs, a town forgotten by the building of Interstate 40 to replace Route 66. Forced by the local judge -- Doc -- to fix the road before he will be let go, he finds out that what he sees as "hillbilly hell" is not as bad as he thinks it is. By the end of the film, the Dinoco sponsorship is not the only thing in life worth living for; more important things have taken its place.
CARS is another gem from Pixar, who so far can do no wrong. Pixar succeeds wildly in what they do because the story always comes first. CARS borrows much from DOC HOLLYWOOD starring Michael J. Fox and THE DOCTOR starring William Hurt. The story is about a person (or car in this case) who thinks he has it all figured out, and thinks he knows what is really important, only to have life intervene and teach him otherwise. In DOC HOLLYWOOD, Michael J. Fox's doctor gets lost on the way to LA (one of the situations CARS borrows) and crashes his car into the fence of the local judge in Grady. All he wants to do is get out of that po-dunk town, but the town grows on him while his car is being fixed. At the end, he discovers whats really important. In THE DOCTOR, William Hurt's doctor is callous and flippant with his patients, many of whom are vulnerable and very scared. When he is diagnosed with cancer, the tables turn on him, and the doctors treating him treat him with the same callousness and flippancy. He forms a friendship with a key character going through the same experience, and his new situation thrusts him into enlightenment. He discovers what's really important. CARS borrows on the callousness, flippancy and conviction of the main character and gives it to Lightning. CARS also borrows the lessons learned by the main character, and on the act of redemption from both movies. Despite this heavy reliance on tried-and-true storytelling devices, CARS works very well. (Plus, did I mention it's Pixar? They made a lamp seem happy and sad!)
The out-of-your-own-little-world learning story is a universal story-telling device, and one that can be counted on to evoke pathos, no matter what the main character is (car or human). By picking this kind of story-telling device, Pixar puts itself on the right track from the get-go. After that, their excellent writers take over, and from there its just a question of what shall we make the characters? Cars? Bugs? Monsters? After all, they are not limited to just humans. Add to that some superb animation, backdrops, lighting and shading, and you have another instant classic.
Long live Pixar! These guys really know how to tell a good story.
BTW, look for the birds in FOR THE BIRDS (a Pixar short film) in CARS. They make a cameo, albeit a very quick one.
Rating: Full Price (Full Price, Matinee, Second-Run Theater, Video, Forget It)
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