Some of you may have noticed that I didn't exactly care for Cars 2. After re-watching Cars again, I hate the sequel even more for taking away everything that I love about the first movie. Cars is a love letter to a bygone way of life in America: the days of adventuring out in your car just for the sheer thrill of driving. It's about small towns along winding, thrilling highways. It's about the memories we make when the journey is as important as the destination.
Re-watching Cars, I came up with a theory for why this film is thought of as a miss-step for Pixar. I have a feeling many film reviewers live rather busy lives in major cities. Gas is expensive, navigating city traffic is a pain, and there are always deadlines to meet. I can sympathize with people for whom car travel has never been something to enjoy, but to endure. If that is the case, this movie is nothing but half-baked sentimentality for the red state crowd, a bone thrown to dumb country folk. You would have no frame of reference to connect to this movie on an emotional level.
The other thing I noticed is that Lightning McQueen isn't really the most important Character. We know what his arc is almost immediately and that's ok, because once you know where you are going, you can relax and enjoy the rich scenery. It's the townsfolk of Radiator Springs and their interactions the make up the soul of this movie. They make up a loving an touching family. Luigi and Guido make a great comedic duo, the crazy old lady Model-T is always amusing, and the shy fire engine is adorable. As for Larry the Cable Guy's Mater, I think this is the best performance the Cable Guy will ever give us, and I mean that as a compliment. Mater is goofy and dim-witted, but restrained and nuanced enough to create a character we'd like to hang out with. Who wouldn't want to go tractor tipping with Mater? Owen Wilson does a great job playing the straight man(car?)and the balance is just about perfect.
The anchor of the movie though, is Paul Newman's Doc Hudson. While many people choose to live in small towns to feel free, Doc has come to hide from his past, to deny his former greatness. Paul Newmans does a fantastic job of slowly revealing the deep emotional scars of a fallen athlete, and his reintroduction to his fans in the third act is lovely.
The most moving moment of the movie for me by far was the montage of what's happens to a town when it is forgotten. I saw the movie in Kilgore, TX. It's an old oil town where the wells have all but dried up. the downtown is filled with long dried up oil derricks and shuttered store fronts, all businesses have moved out to the highway or by the Walmart. If not for the small collage that holds the Texas Shakespeare Festival and boasts one of the best Cheerleader squads in the state, the town would have dried up and blown away years ago. When a montage essentially shows you the very thing you look at everyday when you go outside, you cannot help but feel the impact. I know of other towns, forgotten because of a freeway bypass, and it's like putting a kink in a garden hose.
The film takes ample time to preach the treasure that is Route 66. It's a highway that winds through the country and gives travelers a journey worth remembering. It's the symbol of the countless state highways throughout the country. The fondest Memory I have of my father is the time we took a road trip to St. Louis and back, just because. We spent a few hours on route 66 just for the heck of it, and it is the coolest road I've ever ridden on. We loved it so much we decided to take the quieter highways the whole way back, cruising along the Mississippi River and stopping in towns like Hannibal, MO just to see the town where Mark Twain lived. We took our time and I have a wealth of precious memories because of it. The Film also reminds me of a trip with the whole family out to Colorado, winding through Wyoming and the Black Hills of South Dakota. If you've only ever taken the interstate through the heart of the country, you might as well just fly because your missing all the things that make car travel a joy.
In the end it's the memories the film brings up that make Cars so special to me. Yes, it's a little weird that the world is only made up of cars and no organic life except for plants. But When you're writing a love letter to the open road and the thrill of driving, adding humans to your film is redundant because the movie speaks to the special moments when you become one with your car and the road. It's about the moments when you feel free.
7/10 - I have to dock it a point 'cuz even though it's redundant, it's still weird to have sentient cars ride around inside of each other.
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