Yes, it was good. Very, very good. Part of this reaction may be due to the cinematic sewage that I have been subjected to lately. However, my faith in John Lasseter and his team at Pixar continues to be affirmed. They can tell a good story, the can write good characters, and Lasseter can compose a film with the best of them.
Pixar's strength has always been its ability to merge a good story with strong characters and keep the whole thing rolling along. Cars is no exception. The story may not be all that original, but it feels fresh when placed in the context of the animated world.
Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson, who dials his performance up or down really well) is a brash rookie racecar, the LeBron James of his racing era (sorry, I'm not well-versed in NASCAR). He's on his way to the biggest race of his life when a mishap lands him in a forgotten town off the interstate.
The story then shift modes into the push-pull of "he wants to go but he wants to stay". This segment of the film is its heart, and Lasseter's team paints the town of Radiator Springs and its quirky inhabitants deftly. The three main characters are the redneck towtruck Tow Mater (Dan Whitney), the diffident oldtimer Doc Hudson (Paul Newman), and the misplaced lawyer Porsche Sally (Bonnie Hunt). All three voice actors turn in excellent performances, especially Newman, who is a NASCAR racing team owner.
It's easy to get lost in the sights and sounds and inhabitants of Radiator Springs. There are the in-jokes of course, but the little town does feel alive. One memorable sequence involves bringing the town back to its heyday when interstate traffic flowed through it. The nighttime scene with the buildings alight in animated neon is one of the prettiest things I've ever seen in an animated film.
The animation in Cars is breathtaking. Bonnie and Lightning go on a drive, and one s hard-pressed to tell the difference between real scenery on celluloid and rendered pixels.
While all of the characters in Cars are, well, cars, they exude a lot more human character than many of the characters in recent films I've seen. This includes most of the casts of The Da Vinci Code, X3 and MI3, and ALL of the cast of The Omen remake. When Owen Wilson can act circles around you and he isn't even on screen, you know you just sucked.
Bottom Line: So far, the best film of 2006. You HAVE to see it on the big screen. And yes, the double-disc DVD is going to be a must as well.
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