“Cars” (Disney/Pixar)
Running On A Half Full Entertainment Tank
“Cars” is the latest animated film from Pixar, the company that worked with Disney to bring us “Toys,” “The Incredibles” and “Finding Nemo” among others. Being of that lineage you can expect the movie to be perfectly animated, funny and heart-warming. It is all these things but not as much so as the movies that went before it. “Cars” isn’t running on empty, but it isn’t operating on a full tank of entertainment either.
The movie centers on “Lightning McQueen,” a racecar with a bright future ahead of him. Voiced by Owen Wilson, Lightning states at the first of the film that he does everything by himself and he doesn’t need anyone’s help. You just know that statement is gong to come back to bite him.
Lightning has been in a big race that ended up in a three-way tie. Now he needs to go from the east coast to California for a race-off. Along the way he gets sidetracked into a small town off the interstate. He has been speeding and the cops get him and sentence him to repair the road in the town.
While doing this he makes the acquaintance of a Porsche named Sally (Bonnie Hunt), a tow truck named Mater (Larry, the Cable Guy), and an old Hudson named Doc (Paul Newman), among others. Lightning gets friendly with these folks and learns that life is not all about winning races.
The film is beautifully animated, but the magic of this kind of animation is now expected so the “wow” factor is minimal. There are also some fun songs by Randy Newman and other composers but there is not one that is outstanding. The voices are perfect for the characters but Owen Wilson is no Tom Hanks or Tim Allen for that matter.
The main problem is the movie is one hour and fifty-four minutes long, and that is too long for kids to sit through a film. Heck, that is almost too long for adults to watch a cartoon. The stretch of the film where Lightning is trapped in Radiator Springs is interminable. It just seems to go on forever. When he finally gets back to the racetrack the movie picks up and ends on a high note but getting there was an effort.
There is also a problem with cars being the central characters. It is hard to make a car loveable and cuddly. Only Mater the tow truck comes close. The rest are just a little too chromatic, and their windshield eyes have a hard time making expressions.
The film is rated G although if you listen closely there are a few attempts at adult humor.
“Cars” is just the latest animated film of the past few months. Maybe some of us are just burned out on too much animation. “The Wild,” “Over the Hedge,” “Ice Age 2” and now “Cars.” Enough is enough.
“Cars” needed to zip by in a cloud of smoke. Instead it chugged along like it was operating on too few cylinders. I scored “Cars” a sputtering 5 out of 10.
