Movie Mondays: Cars

Cars is a baffling series. On the one hand, it’s one of the most successful of Pixar’s franchises having spawned a deluge of merchandise that earned over 10 billion dollars in profits. I can personally attest to this, I knew kids who had boxes upon boxes of this stuff, I would go into toy stores and see shelves backed to the brim with Lightning Mcqueen merch. Kids ate this stuff up; you couldn’t escape from it.

On the other hand, Cars is one of the most hated of Pixar’s franchises. Granted a lot of the vitriol is directed at Cars 2, which is justified but we’ll get to that in due time. People do not like the Cars series and I can see why. Not that I think they’re all that bad, except for Cars 2, but they’re definitely weaker than most other Pixar films. But does that make the film bad? Not necessarily, in fact I remember enjoying this film when it first came out. Most critics seemed to enjoy it, it got decent reviews even if they weren’t as good as other Pixar films. But that was years ago, does the film still hold up? Let's find out.

Normally with these reviews I like to start with a brief plot synopsis to get people who may not have watched it up to speed on what the film is about, as well as open up the general discussion on the film itself. With this film, however, we need to start with the one element that seems to put most people off the film altogether, the premise.

Normally I don’t think people care about the basic premise of a film. Mainly because most films have fairly basic set-ups that are easy to understand. But then there are films whose premise is so outlandish that most audiences shrug them off because they think it looks stupid. This presents a problem when trying to market them, if the core premise is so stupid even the general public can’t jive with it, how do you get them to buy a ticket. Even if they do buy one, they have an innate bias against the film going into it, making it a lot harder to get them emotionally invested.

So what does this mean for Cars exactly? Well let’s look at the core premise. Cars is a movie where the world is made up of talking cars. This core concept is why a lot of people can’t get into Cars because, frankly, it’s a pretty stupid idea.

I can understand it if this was like Toy Story where there were still humans in it, but this isn’t like that. This is a world entirely populated by sentient motor vehicles, cars, trains, planes and boats are all living breathing entities in this universe. That doesn’t make any sense. Who built these cars? Are there factories that build little baby cars? We see car children so that must be the case. How do child cars grow up, do they get remodelled into bigger cars? Why are the bugs cars? Are other animals cars? Do the cars have pets? Why are there mechanics and doctors in this universe, wouldn’t they be the same thing?

This is a movie that defies logical thought. If you put even the slightest thought into how this world works, the entire film falls apart. I say that to say this, Cars is better than a lot of other films that have similar premises. Chiefly because it doesn’t even attempt to explain how the world works. No really, I'm not making this up, it succeeds in justifying the premise by not trying to justify it. Yes, you could ask a ton of questions about how this world logistically works, as I just did in the last paragraph, but the film itself isn’t really bothered with those questions anyway.

Now let’s compare this to another film, Robots by Blue Sky Studios, RIP. Like Cars, Robots is also a film where the entire cast is made up of living automatons, only it has robots as opposed to cars, if the title of the film didn’t give it away. Unlike Cars, however, Robots is constantly drawing attention to how its world doesn’t make any sense.

Take for example a gag early in the film where a robot goes through a metal detector at an airport and has to put his whole body in one of those little trays. This gag, while intended to be a simple little joke, completely breaks the world of the film. Think about it, why would a world where all the people in it are made of metal, have a METAL detector at an airport? What function does it serve? What is it designed to detect? Why set it up at an airport to check every person that goes in? Everyone is a robot. It’s always going to go off!

Robots is filled with moments like this. Small gags that destroy the films premise if you think about them for more than a second. Worse still, it actually does attempt to somewhat explain how the world works, which only makes things more confusing. It's like that bit in Futurama where Zoidberg’s house burned down underwater, the explanations only raise further questions. Cars manages to avoid this by not trying to explain how it’s world works. It just says, “here’s a film with talking cars, take it or leave it,” which was probably the best choice. You can’t make sense of this premise, so best not to try.

In order to get this film, you need to treat it the same way North Koreans treat their government propaganda, don’t question it and take it all at face value. Don't try to make sense of it, just take it for what it is and go for it. Not everyone will, if you’re a person who will nit-pick a film into oblivion then this clearly isn’t for you, but if your able to suspend your disbelief with adamantium enforced cables, you can at least enjoy the film for what it is.

But that’s assuming the actual story is up to snuff. So let’s finally get to that plot synopsis. The movie follows Lightning McQueen, a young hot-shot racer taking part in the Piston Cup which is one of the biggest sporting events in the world. It's basically like Nascar, which I guess makes sense given this is a world of cars. What other sports would be popular in this universe. Demolition Derby? Pretty sure that’s akin to gladiatorial combat and wouldn’t fly in a modern society.

Lightning is a newcomer in the circuit, but he is immensely talented. He's even one of the odds-on favourite to win alongside the current champion King and the perennial runner up Chick Hicks. But while Lightning is talented, he’s also cocky and a bit of a show boater. Dudes got an ego which leads to his pit crew storming out on him when he doesn’t give them any credit. It also leads to the big final race ending in a three-way tie, forcing a big tie breaker race to take place in California.

While on route to the big race, Lightning’s transport is hijacked, and after a series of shenanigans he winds up in Radiator Springs, a once thriving tourist town that’s fallen on hard times. During his arrival in town Lightning ended up breaking the road, hey I told you shenanigans were involved, so the town forces him to stay until he fixes it.

Lightning isn’t too happy about this and just wants to get it done so he can get back to his race. But as time goes on, he starts to befriend the towns residents and grows an attachment to them, in particular the town tow truck Mater and a Porsche named Sally. Though his presence does upset the town leader Doc, who has a distaste for racers due to his past.

Cars is not an original story. If you’ve seen any sports film about a cocky, hot shot rookie you’ve seen this one. Granted Pixar have done ideas that have been done before, but with those they usually did something different with it to make it unique. Cars is the unfortunate exception to that rule. This movie is about as predictable as a sunrise. From the moment it starts you can tell what’s going to happen next plot point by plot point.

There are very few surprises and what few there are, aren’t that hard to see coming. So the story isn’t very original, but does that make it bad? Not really. For as simple and by the numbers the plot is, it is at least well done. There aren’t any major plot holes, the characters have clear arcs that develop in a natural way and the story is easy to follow and doesn’t get convoluted.

In general I would say the story is well done if not particularly original. Then again this is Pixar, I expected the story to, at the very least, be competently told. By that same token I also expect a lot more out of them. Pixar is a studio I hold in high regard because of their ability to tell good stories in a unique and interesting way and this movie just isn’t like that.

That isn’t to say that there was no passion put into the film. John Lasseter has said that he is a huge fan of cars and that definitely shows in the film. There's quite a number of different car models throughout from race cars, tow trucks, Porches, Ferrari’s and many more. Lasseter knows his stuff and each type of car is modeled very well. I would imagine car fanatics would at least get a kick out of the many different cars represented here.

I will also give them credit for the character animations. While the idea of making every character a talking car is quite silly, at least the characters are animated well. They got car movements down with them being bit more cartoonish to allow for more expressive animations. The highlight of the animation is during the races. These are the most energized moments of the film and where the animation shines the most.

If there’s one thing you can’t say about the movie is that it’s poorly animated. The animation is quite good and up to Pixar's usual standard. It's not as stylish or as beautiful as the previous two films we’ve looked at, but it is bright and colourful with some nice backdrops and scenery. Some shots look downright gorgeous, you can tell the animators wanted to capture the natural beauty of the American mid-west.

That’s one part of the movie that shines through. This is a movie that takes heavy inspiration from classic mid-western America. You know Route 66, the open road, all that stuff. This movie definitely has that vibe throughout the whole film right down to its soundtrack. Randy Newman returns to do the score, which is ok, but there’s a lot more licensed music this time around and a lot of it is Country. I actually like the soundtrack quite a bit, I'm not a big Country music fan but I did enjoy what I heard here.

So I can recommend this movie, at least to fans of that kind of that mid-western American style. It’s a clear love letter to that stuff. If you’re not into that though, well there are still things to like about it. The characters are pretty likable. They're simple but still very enjoyable and some even got a laugh out of me. Granted a lot of the side characters are very one note. Take Luigi and Guido for example, both are Italian, and that’s it, that’s their entire personality traits. Super Mario has more personality than these two. I know side characters aren’t that deep, but these ones are particularly shallow.

Thankfully the main cast is a lot better. Lightning starts off as a hot-headed egotist who only cares about themselves but becomes humbler and more selfless as the movie progresses. It’s a standard arc, but it’s done well and develops naturally as the film progresses. Owen Wilson does a good job voicing the character, he’s good at pulling off a smug demeanour but never to an extent where he becomes totally unlikable.

Doc acts as sort of a mentor to Lightning. Doc was a former racer himself, one of the most famous under the name Fabulous Hudson Hornet. But after a wreck he was abandoned by his crew despite him still being in his prime. So, he’s somewhat antagonistic towards Lightning when he first shows up, though he later finds that he has much more to give by being his mentor, allowing him to finally re-enter the racing world.

Doc is voiced by Paul Newman in the last film role he would do before his death. Getting a veteran actor to do Doc was a good decision, Newman has the grizzled voice for the role, and he’s allowed to go full grumpy mode with it. Newman was apparently a big racing fan, so he added a bit of his own personal experience to the role.

I should also mention that several racing veterans did lend their voices to this film. Michael Schumacher and Mario Andretti both voice characters based on them and the character King is voiced by former stock car racer Richard Petty, who was also the inspiration for the character. I should also mention that this was the last film to feature the voice of Joe Ranft, who tragically passed away a year before the film came out, in a motor accident ironically enough. Ranft was a founding member of Pixar and helped work on all of their movies up to this point in some capacity. He's credited as this film’s co-director which is the only time he would ever be credited as such. At least he got to direct one movie before he was tragically taken away.

Back to the main characters. Bonnie Hunt plays Sally, a Porsche who acts as Lightning’s love interest. I like her backstory of being a big city lawyer who got sick of the high-profile life and escaped to something simpler. She's fine, but she’s also a very typical love interest. Nothing wrong with that, I just wish they did more with her.

And then there’s Mater voiced by Larry the Cable Guy. Why'd they let the cable guy do a voice over? I’m kidding obviously, Larry the Cable Guy is a stand-up comedian who is famous for his work with the Blue-Collar comedy group. No clue what that is since I live in the UK. Anyway, Mater is basically there for comedic relief. He becomes Lightning’s best friend though his actual role in the story is pretty minor. He is good as comedic relief though, he got a chuckle out of me a few times and I find the character likable. I know some people find him annoying, but I don’t, at least not in this movie.

On the whole though, I find the films comedy to be only just ok. It's not bad, there were even some jokes that got a laugh out of me, but it’s not as strong as previous Pixar films. There are also some jokes that made me role my eyes. Like the Jay Leno cameo, only he’s Jay Limo, because he’s a car. Yeah, there’s a couple jokes like that and they are very cringe inducing. I expect this from lesser animated movies not from a Pixar one.

The movie is also lacking when it comes to big emotional moments. The closest it gets to one is the flashback showing how Radiator Springs fell of the map and became run down and abandoned. This hit close to home for me, my local high street has ended up the same way, it’s a frigging ghost town now. That's the price you pay for convenience folks.

But this leads me to the main message of the movie. Cars is a film about the importance of taking things slow and enjoying the ride. Lightning throughout the film has one goal, win the Piston Cup and get a new sponsor. His current sponsor is a small company called Rust-eze but what Lightning really wants is a sponsorship deal from Dinoco, the big boy on the block who funds the whole thing.

Lightning is not racing for the sake of the race, he’s racing for the glory. This has led to him being famous, but also lonely with no real friends. He doesn’t appreciate the people who have helped get him where he is because all he can think about is the finish line. This is echoed by what happened to Radiator Springs. Once a thriving town on the old road, the town has since fallen on hard times due to an interstate that was built near the town. Now people take the interstate just to cut 10 minutes off their travel. No one journeys for the fun of it anymore which has led to the town falling off the map.

The movie is trying to say that getting to your end goal as fast as possible isn’t the best way to do things. What's important is to enjoy the journey getting there. Not a bad moral and in today's day and age with our society focusing so much on immediate gratification, it’s aged remarkably well. Never thought I'd praise the message in a film about talking cars but there ya go.

So is Cars a bad movie? No, but it is a bad Pixar movie. The story is basic but well told, the animation is great, and it has a nice message of learning to enjoy the ride. The problem is that it doesn’t do anything exceptionally well. Previous Pixar films were good in most respects, but they always had one area where they excelled at. Finding Nemo had powerful emotional moments, Toy Story was ground-breaking in its animation and The Incredibles had great action.

Cars by comparison is not nearly as strong. There isn’t anything offensively wrong with it, but there’s nothing exceptional about it either. Combine that with the bizarre premise and I can see why a lot of Pixar fans look down on it. At the end of the day, I would say Cars is a decent animated family film. It's perfectly fine for kids and not too annoying for adults. However, Pixar have made far better films that are much more worthy of your time. Cars isn’t a bad movie, but when compared to the Pixar films that preceded it, it falls short.

Is it fair to compare Cars to those films? Probably not, but those are standards Pixar set for themselves and I would be remiss not to hold them to those standards. Things d get better with their next movie, Ratatouille. Brad Bird returns in the director's chair, but can he capture the same magic he did with The Incredibles? Only one way to find out.