Pixar Playlist #7 - Cars

Ladies and Gentlemen, whether you like it or not, the Pixar playlist.

 We come to the 7^th entry of the list and the final film to be produced under the original Disney/Pixar arrangements, Cars. Cars was not as successful as you might think at the box office, making $462m on it’s $120m budget, the first 9-figure Pixar budget, but it more than made up for in another lucrative area, merchandise.

There’s a reason Cars and Toy Story got their sequels first; their concepts make them exceptionally marketable and the toys sold. It’s the only Pixar movie that got Disneytoon spin-offs, that’s how marketable it was.

But let’s take a look at the film on its own, and see how it holds up.

In a world where everything is a vehicle of some sort, even flies for some reason, we’re introduced to rookie race car Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson), he’s among the fastest there is but he’s also a hothead, refusing to get tyres when he needs them and ultimately that costs him a decisive lead in the final race of the piston cup. It’s agreed that since it’s a 3-way tie, the 3 drivers will drive a deciding race in California.

Lightning has a sponsorship from Rust-Eze, which attracts a clientele that doesn’t interest Lightning that much, not to mention they’re not exactly rich, since they can’t afford to give him real headlights. That will bite Lightning quickly as he gets separated from his rig, Mack (Jon Ratzenberger) and through various hijinks ends up making a mess of a small village called Radiator Springs

Sentenced to repaving the road, a task that will supposedly take days, can Lightning finish the job and get to the race in time, and what of the village and its other problems. Can it be saved from desolation?

First thing I can say as that they more or less nailed it every single car design. It’s difficult to make a car look cute in a way that would be marketable without losing distinctive qualities of each car. Porsches look like Porsches and look distinct from Ferraris or the like. But they all look nice and appealing to children. The one exception maybe Mater (Larry the Cable Guy), who is at best tolerable comic relief.

Once again Pixar makes the choice to not have a real villain, as the centre focus is Lightning’s character arc but they don’t make the mistake of making the townsfolk jerks to him because of what he did. Most of them are surprisingly friendly, mostly because he’s the first new face they’ve seen in years.

Instead the main obstacle Lightning faces in his journey to build the road is his own ego and it’s satisfying to watch him being taken down a peg. That being said he’s never actively hostile against anyone, so he isn’t entirely unlikable.

We have a good set of supporting characters, but the two who are most of note are Sally Carrera (Bonnie Hunt) who serves as a love interest and Doc Hudson (Paul Newman – RIP) who serves as a kind of mentor. Both have interesting moments and Doc Hudson has a full-on character arc revolving around his past as a race-driver.

The animation is very fluid, you get a real sense of speed, but for far longer than they ever did with the Incredibles. It’s nice and vibrant and everything that should pops out.

To the negatives then, not all of the jokes land, particularly some of the weird world-building jokes. I get it, queues to the girl’s toilets are generally longer, what’s this got to do with cars? There are other world-building blunders like: Why are there car flies? And What do all the tractors and farming machines do? (Before you say bio-diesel, that’s seen as a hippy thing)

The only other thing I’d note is at times it does just become a commercial, the whole introduction feels less like a movie and more like a toy ad.

Cars is a solid, if basic story with likeable characters, great animation and some decent comedy, most of the time. It does its job of selling toys to children, but it’s for that reason why it’ll end pretty low on the list

#1 The Incredibles

#2 Finding Nemo

#3 Toy Story 2

#4 Toy Story

#5 Monsters Inc

#6 Cars

#7 A Bug’s Life