I have to admit to being a huge Pixar fan. I have loved all of their films. I really don’t get how other companies don’t seem to quite understand the importance of good characters and a good solid story. That being said, while I did really enjoy this film it is my least favorite of the Pixar films, and that is for a couple of reasons. For one Mater is really annoying and so obviously there just to please children, and the other and bigger grype is the music. Almost the whole soundtrack is country western (with the exception of one new James Taylor song) and it really grates on me. I know that Nascar is a down south thing, but did it have to be all country western. Honestly I would have liked the movie so much better if it had not been. Still enjoyable overall, but I am sure looking forward to RATATOUILLE!!!

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Cars is the story of the living race car Lighting McQueen (Owen Wilson) a hot shot rookie who is racing for the Piston Cup against the 2 top racers The King (Richard Petty) and Chick Hicks (Michael Keaton). He is winning, but hasn’t changed his tires, and has such an ego that he has fired his last pit boss and is doing the race on his own, and so there is a 3 way tie for winner, which will be settled by a race off with the 3 of them in California. Lighting gets his truck Mack (John Ratzenberger) to drive all night so he can get their early and smooze with The King’s promoters since this is his last race, and he wants big money instead of the car rust sponsor he has. Mack is tired though and some modified rice burners play tricks with him and Lighting is dropped out of the trailer, and tries to find Mack, but without headlights gets lost and off the freeway onto Route 66, and when the Sheriff (Michael Wallis) chases him and starts backfiring he thinks he is being shot at and ends up destroying the road of the little town Radiator Springs, which used to be huge before the interstate stopped all business from coming there. Lighting is arrested and is forced to fix the road he destroyed which will take days by the judge Doc Hudson (Paul Newman) and lawyer the porsche Sally Carrera (Bonnie Hunt). Doc wants lightning out of town, but Sally wants him to fix his damage. The town is filled with characters, Mater (Larry the Cable Guy) who is a pickup and choses Lighting as his best friend. Romone (Cheech Martin) who runs the paint shop, and his wife Flo (Jenifer Lewis), the tire dealer Luigi (Tony Shalhoub) and his tire changer Guido (Guido Quaroni) who love ferraris, the Sarge an army jeep (Michael Wallis) and the hippy Filmore (George Carlin). A like develops between Lightning and Sally, who gave up on the big city for this small town, and Doc Hudson tries to teach Lighting some things about racing, but he won’t listen. Eventually Lighting realizes that Doc is in fact a famous race car who won 3 Piston Cups in one season and then had a horrible crash and was never seen from again, and he does teach Lighting not to be so selfish, until Harv (Jeremy Piven) the disembodied agent over the phone finds Lighting with Mac and Lighting heads off for the race, which he is losing until Doc and the gang show up to be his pit crew and help him win. Lighting is winning, but when Chick Hicks knocks out The King and causes him to crash, lighting gives up his victory to push The King over the finish line so he at least finishes, and in that gets the offer from The Kings sponsor he always wanted, but instead stays with his sponsor and moves his racing headquarters to Radiator falls.

Funny and enjoyable, if a bit stupid, and the music is really annoying. I love that the bugs are cars too, beetles and the like. Very funny. And Arnold as a Hummer is hysterical!