DILLON ON FILM

Cars: 20 Years On

How does Pixar’s tale of burnout and learning to slow down hold up after two decades?

Credit: Pixar/Disney

Warning: Contains spoilers

Cars (2006) was released in the middle of what I consider to be Pixar’s golden era: The 1995 to 2010 period. It’s an unbroken run of masterpieces that includes Monsters Inc (2001), Finding Nemo (2003), *The Incredibles (2004), Ratatouille (2007), WALL-E (2008), Up (2009), and the first three Toy Story films (1995, 1999, 2010). Although released with less acclaim than usual for that period ([Olly Richards at Empire offered this muted take](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/cars-review/), for instance), I consider Cars* to be in the same league as the aforementioned illustrious titles.

For the uninitiated, Cars is set in a human-free world of sentient talking vehicles. It concerns an arrogant, self-centred young race car named Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson), whose treatment of those around him leaves much to be desired, despite his undeniable talent. McQueen is embarrassed by his unglamorous sponsors, Rust-eze, and wants nothing more than to land sponsorship with Dinoco, who represent the soon-to-retire champion, Strip “The King” Weathers (Richard Petty). In a spectacular opening race, McQueen, his arch-rival Chick Hicks (Michael Keaton), and The King have a photo finish, making it a three-way tie, so another race is scheduled to decide the winner.

Whilst travelling to this race, McQueen foolishly insists his transport truck, Mack (John Ratzenberger), drives all night to get to California. A series of unfortunate events ensues that result in McQueen getting lost and wrecking the road in the backwater town of Radiator Springs. Sentenced by local law enforcement to community service to fix the road, McQueen is infuriated by the delay. At first, he can’t wait to leave and tries to rush the job. But Sheriff (Michael Wallis) insists he fix the road properly. “I’m in hillbilly hell!’ McQueen wails. “My IQ is dropping by the second!”

Credit: Pixar/Disney

However, McQueen gradually learns that Radiator Springs isn’t so bad. It used to sit on Route 66 before the interstate bypassed it. In some ways, the film is a bit of a paean to Route 66, as love interest Porche Sally Carrera (Bonnie Hunt) expounds at length on how the road doesn’t cut across the countryside but blends with it, curving and turning in tune with the natural landscape.

In addition to finding love with Sally, McQueen finds friendship with Mater (Larry the Cable Guy), a rusty tow truck with a penchant for “tractor tipping” (the Cars universe’s equivalent of cow-tipping). Additional supporting characters in Radiator Springs include Filmore (George Carlin), a hippy VW van and Sarge (Paul Dooley), a military jeep. The pair have an amusing rivalry. Several other talented performers crop up in the vocal cast, including Cheech Marin, Tony Shalhoub, Jenifer Lewis, Guido Quaroni, Katharine Helmond, Jay Leno, and Joe Ranft. The UK version of the film also features Jeremy Clarkson (yes, that one) as McQueen’s agent. In the US version, he’s voiced by Jeremy Piven.

Some criticised Cars for being too long, too slow in the midsection, and, unlike its all-audience predecessors, too aimed at children. I don’t agree. Yes, I’ll concede that in their early years, my children watched our DVD of this on hard rotation (they were too young and too not-conceived-yet, respectively, to see the original run at the cinema), and the merchandising factor alone has off-the-charts child appeal. But the repeat viewings prove the too-long-and-too-slow thing is nonsense. Perhaps adults are the ones with poor attention spans?

Credit: Pixar/Disney

As for being too aimed at children, the key character McQueen encounters in Radiator Springs is Doc Hudson (Paul Newman), aka former racing champion, the Hudson Hornet. Doc becomes a tough love mentor to McQueen, as he learns the importance of slowing down once in a while, so life doesn’t pass him by. For Doc, a traumatic crash left him a recluse, so the screenplay (by John Lasseter, Dan Fogelman, Joe Ranft, Kiel Murray, Phil Lorin, and Jorgen Klubien) has all kinds of metaphorical applications on the subject of burnout. Just for children? Not on your nelly.

I will concede that the sequels, Cars 2 (2011) and Cars 3 (2017), are considerably less essential. The second in particular, which inexplicably reinvents the series as a spy thriller, proved a bit of a head-scratcher. But this original remains a first-class entertainment, despite the plot’s resemblance to Doc Hollywood (1991). Visually, it features some of Pixar’s most spectacular and beautiful images, whether on the racetrack or in the landscapes in and around Radiator Springs. For my money, only the visual richness of Wall-E surpasses it in Pixar’s canon. Under the supervision of director John Lasseter, the animation is gorgeous and, purely for the race sequences that bookend the film, this must be seen at the cinema to be fully appreciated. Randy Newman’s lovely score is another plus point.

On a trivia note, I initially wondered whether Lightning McQueen was named after Steve McQueen, who starred in Le Mans (1971). However, he is in fact named in honour of Glenn McQueen, a supervising animator at Pixar who died in 2002. Cars is also dedicated to Joe Randft, who, in a cruel irony, died in a car crash before the film’s release.

Credit: Pixar/Disney

Twenty years on and umpteen viewings with my children later, Cars is still funny, touching, exciting, and satisfying, especially with the dramatic complications in the thrilling climax. Yes, it’s a bit more predictable than some of Pixar’s other works, but what makes this memorable isn’t so much what happens but how it happens. The moral of the story is clear but never preachy, made all the more accessible by Lasseter’s lightness of touch.

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