Cars Review
by Homer Yen (homer_yen AT yahoo DOT com)June 17th, 2006
"Cars" - Life is a Highway
by Homer Yen
(c) 2006
To watch the latest offering from Pixar animation
is to be awed at the craft. There is a 6-minute cartoon that precedes the main feature. It
spotlights two competing one-man bands who try to garner the appreciation of one young fan. When
it's over, you'll see about 500 names that are credited with the making of that cute offering.
I'm sure it must take hundreds of man-hours just
to produce one scene. But I don't have to ponder about the science behind the animation. I just
get to enjoy the end result.
A lot definitely goes into these films. With
"Cars,' it bursts with color. The racing
sequences buzzes with excitement. And you'll certainly appreciate it because it gives you that
same kind of feeling when a friend goes through a
lot of trouble to create a perfect gift for you.
It's not so much what the gift actually is. You
just admire the effort that was put into it.
As you can begin to suspect, I enjoyed the film
more for its technical qualities. The drama was
less inspiring. It focuses on a racing car named Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson). He's arrogant, selfish, but is a talented race car. In fact, he could become the first rookie racer to win the
Piston Cup, an achievement that's never been
garnered by a rookie.
Making his way across the country to compete, he
gets lost and winds up in the forgotten hamlet of Radiator Springs. It's a town that sits on Route
66 that thrived in the 1950s. But when the
interstate bypassed it (along with all of the travelers), this town seemed to become frozen in
time. The inhabitants look a little bit older,
but the facades still hark back to an era of
jukeboxes and James Dean.
In the film, towns that promote a slower way of
living allow those that speed down the highway of
life to pull over and to re-examine a few things.
And that also happens here as McQueen meets some
of the denizens. This includes the craggy mayor
Doc Hudson (voiced by Paul Newman), a curvy
Porsche (voiced by Bonnie Hunt) and a bunch of
other vehicles that reminded me of my old
Matchbox car collection.
I must go back to my admiration for technical excellence again. I was impressed by how the
Hudson automobile really took on the look of Paul Newman. And, I thought it very clever of how the
cars had 'faces' that could bring forth emotion
on an almost-human level.
With a close-knit group of citizens like this,
it's hard for someone not to learn something
about themselves. And so part of the film is
about self-discovery and part of the film
suggests that you need not speed through life all
the time.
I think about other Pixar films and would say
that this film didn't seem as magical as others
like "Toy Story" or "Monsters, Inc.". I think
that it's because this is a film about cars in a
world of cars. It plays like a straightforward
drama. Those other films juxtaposed two worlds
in a memorable way. Also, the film runs longer
(or feels that it runs longer) than those other
films. But stay behind for a real treat as Pixar revisits those other films in a daffy and unique
way.
Grade: B
S: 0 out of 3
L: 0 out of 3
V: 1 out of 3
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Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
