Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that the car characters do some pretty raucous racing, careening off walls, trees, and each other. A group of The Fast and the Furious-style vehicles briefly threaten another car. Cars argue with one another, lose their tempers, and look sad or lonely. There's some innocent flirtation between boy and girl cars. Some mild language -- at least one use of "hell." At 116 minutes, it's on the long side for animation and may be too much for some really little kids. But stick around for the closing credits!
Families can discuss the relationship between the old cars and the newer ones. They have different values. How does the film set up a choice between the current era (selfishness, commercial and celebrity culture run rampant) and a more ethical-seeming past (Doc embodies patience, skill, and dedication to community)? How does Lightning learn to appreciate and also, conveniently, enhance that simpler life?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Cynthia Fuchs
Colorful and often charming, CARS renders its nostalgia for a mythic past via state-of-the-art technologies. As his name suggests, Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) is all about speed. A hotshot red stock car who's poised to be the next champion, he's focused narrowly on what's just ahead of him: the next turn, the next opponent, the next winner's circle.
Lightning wants to win the coveted Piston Cup. As the movie begins, he hits the track, cheered on by an adoring throng of other cars in the stands, as well as the pit crew, announcers (Bob Cutlass/Bob Costas and Darrell Cartrip/Darrel Wartrip), TV camera operators, and vendors. Slick and thrilling in its shiny surface detail, the NASCAR scene stretches before you like an anthropomorphized vista: This is the immediate future of animation, and Pixar means to own it.
The race pits Lightning and a bunch of also-rans against the legendary King (Richard Petty) and the brash Chick Hicks (Michael Keaton). A dead-heat finale sends these three key contenders off to a showdown in California, where the prizes include lifelong fame, sponsorship contracts, and assorted big-eyed groupies. Lightning boards his transport truck Mack (John Ratzenberger) and aims west along Route 66.
As per the somewhat formulaic plotline (see: Doc Hollywood), Lightning's fortunes are sidetracked when he falls off the truck and lands in the tiny town of Radiator Springs. Here he meets his life teachers, from Sarge the reveille-playing, surplus-selling Jeep (Paul Dooley) and Ramone the hyper-detailed lowrider (Cheech Marin), to Flo the neck-rolling (if she had a neck) diner waitress (Jenifer Lewis) and Filmore the hippie VW van (George Carlin), who likes to look at the single stoplight: "I'm tellin' ya, man, each blink is slower." And, oh yes, Lightning's new best friend, Mater the tow truck (Larry the Cable Guy) provides the requisite proud-to-be-a-redneck jokes.
Ticketed and sentenced to community service (repairing the road he ruins by leading the sheriff and deputies on a chase), Lightning squirms, complains, and tries to escape. And then he gives in, to the familiar life lesson that will comprise the bulk of the film's longish 116 minutes.
Lightning's education is arranged by pretty blue Porsche lawyer Sally ()Bonnie Hunt) and enforced by crotchety judge Doc (Paul Newman), a 1951 Hudson Hornet. By night Lightning is grumbling and paving, but by day, he's discovering the beauty of the western landscape, all big skies and grand canyons, the sort of mythic imagery that, according to the movie's nostalgia, families once drove across country to consume.
Slowing down makes Lightning a more contented racecar. It also, unfortunately, sets up for marketing opportunities. The film reframes many youthful fancies as consumable objects, ensuring that movie and NASCAR tie-in products will be in circulation.
Families who enjoy this movie will also like Toy Story, Toy Story 2, and Monsters, Inc.
Rate It!
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Sexual ContentChaste flirting between boy and girl cars. |
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ViolenceCar falls off his transport truck, briefly faces "gang" of cars; rip-roaring chase through small town leaves road torn up. |
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LanguageUse of the word "hell." |
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Social BehaviorCharacters learn to appreciate one another's differences; some race and ethnic stereotypes. |
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CommercialismMovie features products renamed for cars to consume; movie tie-in products include Disney toys, Goodyear tires, NASCAR, and McDonald's Happy Meals. |
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