Cars

June 9, 2006

Rated: G Runtime: 116 min Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Boogity Boogity Boogity! It’s time to race! And it’s also time to slow down and smell the roses. Time to learn about life; about the importance of friends and family. Time to learn that winning isn’t everything. And time to fall in love with the girl..er..Porsche of your dreams.

Cars Not exactly guy stuff is it? Well, what did ya expect from a G-rated Pixar & Disney movie anyway? You should have expected a solid family-friendly movie that will entertain you for a while and that’s exactly that you’d get. Cars is the story of Lightning McQueen, a young rookie driver in the Piston Cup race series who is on the verge of being the first rookie to ever win the season championship. But something funny happens on the way to the big race. He ends up in the sleepy (and nearly dead) town of Radiator Springs.

From here, it is obvious that the young, cocky loner will come of age and be changed into a better person..er..car. He will learn a long-kept secret of one of the town elders, he will befriend a local yokel, and he will fall in love. *yawn*

But this is ok, because we know it’s coming and we expect it. And we are willing to put up with it to get to the laughs and to make the kids (yes, the ones that made you take them to see this) happy. Speaking of laughs, they are plentiful but the pace slows down too much in places and they characters get serious too often for the meter to peg. Still, though, there are some very creative gags and a couple of priceless moments.

The animation is exceptionally well rendered, too. Every scene is given an incredible amount of color and detail. So much so, in fact, that it’s difficult to take it all in as you watch it.

One pleasant surprise was the number of cameos from the sports & racing world. If you’re paying attention, you’ll hear the voices of Richard & Lynda Petty, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Bob Costas, Darrell Waltrip, Michael Schumacher, and Mario Andretti. They all do a fine job - especially Darrel Waltrip who sounds even MORE unhinged than he usually does at the start of a NASCAR race.

So, for good family fun that a guy can enjoy, you can do a LOT worse. If you do go, however, be prepared to be in a “Chuck E. Cheese” like sea of kids. The screening I was at was composed of about 85% kids. Most were well behaved, but 3 or 4…were not. Take a couple of those Motrin horse pills and quaff a couple shots of scotch before going in to prevent walking out with a migraine. I wish I’d done that myself now.

Posted by Alex | Filed Under 4 Stars, Action, Bonnie Hunt, Cheech Marin, Comedy, G, Larry the Cable Guy, Owen Wilson, Paul Newman, Theatrical