CS Weekly Archive > DVD of the Day > 11/10/06

Enjoy the Ride

by jason davis

Anthropomorphic vehicles might seem better suited to Michael Bay's upcoming adaptation of the Transformers, but Pixar beat him to the punch with Cars, the engaging and emotionally touching story of an arrogant racecar learning to slow down and appreciate the ride more than the destination.

Cars

Dan Fogelman & John Lasseter & Joe Ranft & Kiel Murray & Phil Lorin & Jorgen Klubien
Story by John Lasseter & Joe Ranft & Jorgen Klubien
Additional screenplay material by Robert L. Baird, Dan Gerson, Bonnie Hunt, Don Lake, Steve Purcell, and Dan Scanlon

Separated from his big rig driver (voiced by John Ratzenberger) en route to a winner-take-all race in California, up-and-coming racecar Lightning McQueen (v. Owen Wilson) finds himself lost on Route 66. Idling into the near-ghost town of Radiator Springs, McQueen is spooked by the town sheriff (v. Michael Wallis) and tears up the main drag. At the behest of local beauty Sally Carrera (v. Bonnie Hunt), McQueen is sentenced to repairing the road by the town's judge, Doc Hudson (v. Paul Newman). Forced to stay in the town and interact with its inhabitants, McQueen's obsession with speed abates and he finds himself learning to savor a slower pace.

The beauty of Cars is that its fully realized, automobile-based reality—complete with Volkswagen Bugs as the insect life—is just the icing on the cake for a story that opens the viewer's eyes to a different way of living. The film opens with McQueen ensconced in his luxury trailer, meditating on speed, and it's his obsession with getting to the finish line that alienates his support staff and leads him astray on Route 66. Speed is at the heart of every mistake McQueen makes until he's trapped with nowhere to go and forced to deal with the now instead of racing toward the future. The ensemble of Radiator Springs inhabitants are lovingly drawn as recognizable small-town stereotypes, but each is given the opportunity to surprise McQueen, and by proxy the viewer, as the film reveals their stories. As his time in the town goes on, McQueen discovers a long-garaged legend that gives him a possible glimpse of his future and a better sense of what he might speed past without appreciating.

- "Mater and the Ghostlight" short
- "One Man Band" short
- "Inspiration for Cars" featurette
- Deleted and alternate scenes

After the lavish, two-disc presentation of The Incredibles, Cars' solo disc with a paltry set of supplements is a letdown (and likely harbinger of a re-release down the road). With such an intricately designed world to explore, a few featurettes focusing on the minutiae of the universe would not have gone amiss. Still, the extras manage quality if not quantity. Two short subjects showcase Pixar's imaginative storytelling, while a host of deleted scenes offer some truly radical alternatives to the movie's story. The "Inspiration for Cars" featurette recounts co-writer/director John Lassetter's realization that he should appreciate his children while they're young and how an RV trip intended to promote family bonding became the origin of Cars.

Another solid entry in Pixar's canon, Cars deploys the company's affinity for richly drawn characters and plots that can be appreciated by adults and children alike to offer a story that satisfyingly blends the world of racing with the legend of the Mother Road.

Cars
Walt Disney Home Video
Rated G; 116 min.
$29.99

Buy it now

Jason Davis is the DVD Manager for CS Weekly, a contributing editor for Creative Screenwriting Magazine, and writes "TV Wasteland" for Cinescape.com. He lives and writes in Burbank.

Cars courtesy Walt Disney Home Video

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