Cars

Focusing on a small town in the Colorado Rockies called Radiator Springs, Cars (2006) taps into American nostalgia for a lost, pre-interstate past. Once a thriving town on Route 66, where every cross-country tourist stopped for a meal or a stay at a hotel, Radiator Springs was left high and dry when Interstate 40 opened. Everyone is in a hurry to arrive at their destinations, so they bypass the mountain roads that lead to Radiator Springs and instead take the interstate. The once thriving town is left to languish in isolation. The notion here is that modern times of interstates and high speeds come at the price of traditional values and a slower, more fulfilling pace of life—the kind of nostalgia that so appealed to Americans during the Reagan years. Part of the point of the film is to bemoan the loss of those traditional values and so-called better times. The film also builds on the fundamental American fascination with automobiles, highways, travel, and the American Dream. What would Carlo Marx from On the Road make of this film: "Whither goest thou, America, in thy shiny car in the night?"

Cars is a Disney/Pixar film. The animation is impressive. It creates the illusion that what you are watching is not an animated film but instead a film of an animated world. That said, as good as the animation is, technically, the film does not take much advantage of it and instead is fairly conventional. The characters and the plot are the typical Disney fare. There is a romance, an array of comic ethnic characters, some lessons in character building and American values, a lot of fast action, and a farting tow truck. What more could one ask?

Ethnic and cultural stereotypes abound in this film: an Italian tire salesman, a hippie from the 60s, a right-wing veteran, a Mexican, a redneck, an African American, and so on. The fact that there are no humans in the film, that all the characters are cars, does not camouflage the stereotypes. Another familiar pattern is of the old athlete who longs to return to his sport for one last fling. Finally there is the hero of the film, basically decent but self-absorbed and in need of value adjustment. We've seen him before too.

In the film, a famous race car, Lightening McQueen, is on his way to California to race in the final competition of the season, where he has a chance at the championship. He finds himself in Radiator Springs and is arrested for various acts of unintended mayhem. He is sentenced to repair the decaying road that runs through the town, and he makes friends with the various residents. His crew discovers him and takes him on to California to compete in the final race. Will he win? Will he put the lessons he learned in Radiator Springs to work? Will he leave his new friends behind? If you have seen many of these animated Disney/Pixar films, you can predict how things will turn out.

This is an entertaining film. The characters are voiced by various well known actors, such as Owen Wilson, Paul Newman, George Carlin, Bonnie Hunt, Cheech Marin, Larry the Cable Guy, and so on. They give individual identities to the various characters. To a limited extent the characters and the animation make up for the predictable plot.

Despite its entertainment value, the film as a whole is hollow: no vision, no comprehension, no real imagination.