message in the movies By Rev. Bruce Batchelor Glader

        
Cars  Rated G
Directed by John Lasseter. Animated Feature

 

Photos © Copyright Disney Pixar Films

If you give small children toy cars to play with, sooner or later you will find them creating little adventures in which each car has its own personality. This is essentially the world of “Cars”, the seventh feature film from the computer animation geniuses at Pixar.  In the alternative world of this film, there are no humans anywhere to be found, but cars of all shapes, sizes, and model years, with personalities and feelings.  The movie is a simple morality tale about an egotistical race car named Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson) who is so cocky he refuses to let his pit crew help him win a race, receiving all of the assistance he needs from his own self-adulation.  After McQueen finishes a race in a three-way tie with two other cars, a rematch is set up in California, requiring a cross-country trip.  A highway mishap forces the sports car off the main highway and stuck in Radiator Springs, a little western town in Carburetor County on old Route 66.  While there, McQueen is challenged and befriended by a group of local characters, including a rusty tow truck (Larry the Cable Guy) a pretty little Porsche (Bonnie Hunt) and a gruff old Hudson (Paul Newman) who used to race back in the day. Lessons are learned along the way, but that’s just a small part of this film which also includes tributes to NASCAR racing (with many familiar voices of racers and announcers), a love of automobiles (with dozens of cars faithfully reproduced and parodied), and mediations on how fast-moving innovation often devalues meaningful traditions (gee, that sounds like the church).  Since this beautiful film required the innovations of computer technology, this last theme rings a tad hollow, but it gives the filmmakers license to reproduce classic restaurants, stores, and themes from the 1950s.  “Cars” is stuffed to the brim with in-jokes, quick asides and clever voice casting, which should keep folks pausing the film (when it comes out later on DVD) to try to catch everything.  It is one of the longer Pixar films – with a slower rhythm that kicks in during the Radiator Springs scenes – that may seem interminable to preschool children.  But even the youngest viewers will enjoy the exciting race scenes and the talking cars.  Be sure to stay through all of the closing credits; there are a few surprises yet to come.   

Pitchfork Rating: Four halos.  (An entertaining film for all ages that also celebrates the virtues of friendship and community.)    One pitchfork.  (A couple of quick double entendres that will go over the heads of children.)

 

 

 

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