Reel To Reel: Cars

Life Is A Highway...

How It Rates: ***1/2
Starring: Voices of Owen Wilson, Paul Newman, Bonnie Hunt, Larry The Cable Guy
Rated: G
Red Flags: NONE!

The flyspeck town of Wikieup sits on Highway 93, between Phoenix and Kingman, Arizona. I have passed through it several times on the six-hour drive from Tucson to Las Vegas. The center of town includes two gas stations, one Subway, and one motel with rooms shaped like teepees. The motel vanished during my last trip. Use the restrooms at one of the gas stations, and you will spot a small wooden box on the wall asking you politely to donate ten cents or more towards the cost of maintenance in a "desolate area." The town is surrounded by joshua trees, red rocks, awesome views, a whimsical rocket statue showing Snoopy blasting off into space, and an almost desperate desire to exist.

I am reminded of Wikieup as I watch Cars, Pixar's latest animated family film, set in a parallel universe where car and driver are one, and where roadside Americana is roadside history. Adorably cute cars and trucks whiz along roads, smiling and talking, making the horn almost unnecessary. Curvy muscle cars rev up sporty sedans. Tricked up hot rods and neon racers are the street thugs. Imports and European sub-compacts speak with an accent, oil-swigging RV's hoot and holler, and burly big-rigs keep on trucking. It will remind you of those animated Chevron ads with the talking cars, but those claymation figures don't have this film's CGI showroom shine.

Cars opens with the race for the Piston Cup, and in a world full of cars, it's more popular than the Indy 500 and the Winston Cup races combined. Lightning McQueen (Wilson) is a rookie car looking for his first big win, and ultimately, the lifestyle of a star car and spokesengine for Dinoco Oil. Curiously, nobody ever talks about high gas prices or oil wars in the middle east.

Lightning pushes his truck driver Mack (John Ratzenburger) to make an all-night haul to California so the young hot-rodder can get in a few extra laps before the last big race. Mack falls asleep, things shift out of whack, and Lightning gets stranded in the Route 66 town of Radiator Falls after tearing up the main drag. Radiator Falls is a lonely place with a rundown diner, ancient neon lights, and a motel with traffic-cone shaped rooms. Its car citizens lead an idling life, waiting for the next customer, anybody, to stop by.

The film carjacks a plot device from Doc Hollywood, where Lightning is forced by the town's judge, Doc Hudson (Newman) to repave the town's street before taking off for California. Lightning is burning to get out of town, but he befriends Mater (Larry The Cable Guy), a rusty tow truck, and develops a crush on Sally Carrera (Hunt), a sexy muscle car. Other colorful car characters could star in their own pictures: Flo, a 50's classic roadster and diner owner; Luigi, an Italian compact tire salesman with a mania for Ferraris; and Ramone, a low-rider and body shop owner. One of the film's most memorable sequences features Sally and Lightning out on a drive to what we would call the Grand Canyon -- only this one has rock formations resembling front ends and tail fins. Lightning learns there's more to his life than spinning his wheels.

It is clear Pixar's animators developed a deep love for northern Arizona and Route 66. The film pays beautiful tribute to them, right down to the cheesy neon signs and 50's-retro architecture. It finds character in everything with wheels, and that makes up for the plot's lack of originality compared with Pixar's earlier efforts. Adults will like it as much as the kids for the memories, if not the message.