home
| art & architecture | books & cds | dance
| destinations | film | opera | television | theater | archives
|
Cars, an animated
feature-length film from Pixar, is a sweetly entertaining, sentimental journey back to
Historic Route 66. Framed as a Nascar fan’s fantasy of an off-track road trip, Cars finds hot-shot Lightning McQueen (Car 95, voice
by Owen Wilson) waylaid by his outsized celebrity ego and reckless driving, on a
cross-country drive to California. Incarcerated in Radiator Springs for ripping up the
pavement of the one-horse desert town, and riling up the humble pride of the townsfolk,
Lightning finds himself trapped, but good.
Lightning is sentenced is to do good works by repairing the tarmac he
ripped up. He schemes repeatedly to escape justice and the ire of the townsfolk, driven by
the worry that every day in Radiator Spring means losing ground to the competition. He is
currently in a three-way tie with long-time champion Car 43 (a Cutlass, voice by Bob
Costas) and Car 86 (a Corvette, voice by Michael Keaton). All three are to rendezvous in
California for the runoff race. However, McQueen is about to learn to stop and enjoy
getting his kicks on Route 66.
Most of the plot involves city slicker McQueen slowing down long enough
to be charmed, seduced, and baileywicked by a small town full of highly colorful
characters. Country hick / rusty tow truck Mater (voice by Larry the Cable Guy) is the
indefatigable shaggy dog who makes McQueen his best friend. (That’s "Mater"
as in "Tomater," except without the "Tow."). High-pressure LA
lawyer-escaped to desert country / sexy Porsche Sally (voice by Bonnie Hunt) flirts a la Moonlighting’s Cybill Shepherd with Bruce
Willis. Cars slides and swerves and spins
with high precision through a long cast of car-icatures, cleverly blending cars’
design personalities with character roles from familiar films and TV show. It mixes in a
fast-paced sound track (pop tunes from across the decades and music genres to match the
cars’ ages and personalities) with lots of old-fashioned homespun American virtues
and has the audience rolling along. Think It’s a Wonderful Life, as interpreted by
Detroit’s finest and packaged in traditional Disney values.
The townsfolk’s quest to tame bucking bronco McQueen and force him
to help bring success back to the decrepit town (which looks very much like any of many
forgotten near-ghost towns along Route 66 today) plays as a populist "take back the
power from corporate interests." Cars
sends an expected usual mixed message -- down with today’s Big Business by returning
to rose-colored version of yesteryear’s Big Business -- while promoting multicultural
"family values." Whether embraced as a pitch to see the USA this summer (and buy
plenty of Route 66 nostalgia kitsch), a non-stop, all-action, cgi-stylized special-effects
video game entertainment, or an American parable, Cars
is richly silly, but also solid, with something for the kids and the adults. As a tribute
to the idea of Route 66 it could even end up a pop cult classic.
- Les Wright
