Rating of
3/4
Almost wins the checkered flag
The M.O.W. - wrote on 08/02/08
"Lightning McQueen" (voiced by Owen Wilson) is an arrogant, cocky rookie racecar who thinks he can win the coveted "Piston Cup" without help. He even has fired three crew cheifs, and ignored advice from "The King" (voiced by racing legend Richard Petty).
During the championship race, "McQueen", "The King" and top rival "Chick Hicks" (voiced by Michael Keaton) finish the race in a three-way tie, thanks to "McQueen" sticking out his tongue (yes, the cars have eyes, teeth and tongues). After looking at the finish at many angles to determine a winner, and discovering the tie, a tie-breaker is ordered to take place in Los Angeles, California.
On the way to California, "McQueen" is separated with his tractor trailer truck, "Mack" (voiced by John Ratzenberger), and ends up in the rundown town "Radiator Springs", an out-of-the-way town passed by the famed Route 66, which was built to take 10 minutes of travel time. Sadly, the town has been greatly affected by Rt. 66 not connecting through the center of town.
"Radiator Springs" has a unique group of residents that "McQueen" slowly begins to love -- especially "Sally" (voiced by Bonnie Hunt), who is assigned to defend "McQueen", who is arrested for speeding.
Now, "McQueen" tries to learn a way to get away from "Radiator Springs" and its residents. But he learns from them a greater lesson in life.
The first thing you will notice with this film is the great animation. The characters themselves, are quite cartoonish in appearance, and the backgrounds are amazing. The animators got the smallest details as close to perfect as they can get with their computers.
The cast is pretty good in their roles. The only problem I could see is that many of the supporting characters were not developed well, and only used to move the story along. You may be surprised at who provided the voices as the cast list scrolls during the closing credits.
There is some pretty good jokes in this movie, a few of which are visual jokes (watch for the RV that looks like a rock and roll icon). I would have liked to have seen more jokes that makes kids laugh, but only the adults in the audience would understand why they're laughing. I also would have liked to have seen a lot more car and NASCAR-related puns.
And speaking of NASCAR. You fans out there have to keep a look out for some of the most famous cars on the racing circuit. And what makes these characters even more special is the drivers who drive the real cars voice the animated versions.
The songs in this movie are good. Some of them are covers of classic car-themed tunes the adults watching the film may know. The adults may go away humming the classics, but none of the original tunes are really not that memorable.
Adults will enjoy this as a cute movie. Kids will certainly enjoy this movie, and hopefully will understand the moral of the story. The movie is not perfect, but it certainly is entertaining.
