Movie Review: Cars

Year after year Pixar shows that they can do no wrong. From the groundbreaking Toy Story, to the heart-warming Up it seems as though the team at Pixar have made a deal with the devil to ensure that they always take home the Oscar for Best Animated Picture. If any piece of Pixar work could be considered a mis-step, it is Cars.

Not that there is anything particularly wrong with Cars. The animation, naturally, is fantastic. The characters sweet and endearing. The problem stems from the level of quality that Pixar has made movie goers accustomed to over the past 15 years.

Cars tells the story of rookie race car sensation Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) as he gets stuck in a one horse town on his way to a championship race. There, McQueen is forced to re-evaluate his arrogant ways as small town life brings him back down to Earth. It is a perfectly serviceable story, allowing for some great gags and (as is normal for Pixar) some heart-warming moments.

One of the biggest faults of Cars might be the casting. Not that any of the voice actors are bad, with some even being excellent choices, but Pixar decided this time around to pursue bigger name actors for the voice roles. This is a regular criticism of other studios such as DreamWorks, as these vocal cameos distract from the product as a whole. Cars features such notable names as Cheech Marin, Paul Newman, George Carlin, Michael Keaton, Owen Wilson, Bonnie Hunt, and Larry the Cable Guy, among others, with only Keaton playing outside of his regular realm.

It is a minor gripe, though, as the target audience of Cars, that being children, do not care for big name voice actors. This awareness of their audience also makes for a lot of childish gags, some of which work better than others.

All in all, Cars is a great way to spend an afternoon. The story and cast, while not spectacular, are passable. The problems mostly come from comparing Cars to other Pixar films. Any other studio would showcase this movie as their crowning achievement, but for Pixar it is their low point in storytelling. When Cars is your low point, you know you are in pretty good shape.

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5.