'Cars' Revisit: Pixar's Swan Song

Owen Wilson and Paul Newman lead the voice cast in Pixar's final indie.

Now Streaming: This past weekend, Elio crashed and burned, box-office wise. This coming weekend, F1 The Movie hopes not to do the same. So let's revisit an animated adventure that could be considered the spiritual father of both films: Cars, released in June 2006. 

The seventh and final film independently produced by Pixar, which was purchased by Disney in January 2006, Cars was directed by company head John Lasseter, with Joe Ranft credited as co-director, his only such credit before his untimely death the year before. Sandwiched between Brad Bird's superb one-two punch of The Incredibles and Ratatouille, it must be admitted that Cars suffers by comparison. 

Still, even if it falls down narratively, Cars stands out for its dazzling animation, as well as a story featuring original characters and stories, as opposed to the sequels that would beset Disney Pixar in the subsequent 20 years, dominating its release schedule to the point that originals like last year's Elemental and this month's Elio feels like outliers, rather than what's to be expected from the hybrid studio. 

Frankly, Cars did not appeal to me at the time of its original release, which, as a confirmed fan of movies that feature car chases and/or automobile racing, I can only blame on my own snobbish tendencies. I did rent it on home video; unfortunately, I never truly synched with the anthropomorphic cars. 

Putting all that aside, I wanted to revisit the film to see if nearly 20 years had changed my perspective, especially after watching Elio and F1 The Movie last week, and now that Cars is  available to stream in 4K on Disney Plus. And I was surprised to realize that the film shares certain similarities with F1 The Movie. 

(First, though, let's get this out of the way: since I can't get it out of my head) 

Back to Pixar's Cars. 

The animation looks super awesome! It shares that with F1 The Movie: both are superb to gaze upon, especially during the racing sequences, which are entirely enthralling. Both also share a story in which a rookie race car driver seeking his first win ends up with a reluctant, aging mentor, who is a past champion race car driver. Lessons will be taught, resisted, and ultimately accepted, leading to eventual triumph. 

As the story develops, however, Cars becomes more of an ensemble piece, with Larry the Cable's Mater, a tow truck, eating up much more screen time than I remembered. (His Southern redneck character and humor do not age well). The same goes with other citizens of Radiator Springs, the fictional desert town where the speedy Lightning McQueen ends up spending a few days, against his will. 

I wish there had been more time spent between McQueen and Newman, perhaps because I'm aware that this was Newman's final voice performance in a fictional feature. (Indeed, the film feels haunted by death, starting with Joe Ranft's death in an automobile accident during production.) 

This might have saved the film from the awkward courtship between cars -- in this case, Lightning McQueen and Bonnie Hunt as a blue Porsche named Sally. Not to be indelicate in discussing a family film, but how exactly do cars have a happy marriage or, er, produce children? Perhaps best not to ask. (Talk about factory rejects.) 

Where the film does ring true is in its commentary on the real-life Route 66 towns that were bypassed by the national interstate system of soulless highways. Changing times and all that, but Cars truly seems to understand the sad song of towns that (mostly) withered up and died, all in favor of speeding through the endless expanse that sows the country together. 

At the box office, Cars grossed some $60 million on its opening weekend, on its way to $244 million in the U.S. and nearly $462 million worldwide. It also spawned two sequels, two spin-offs, and two television series. [Disney Plus]