Cars (2006)
Directed by: John Lasseter, Joe Ranft
Produced by: Darla K. Anderson
Studio: Pixar Animation Studios
Distributed by: Walt Disney Pictures
Release date(s): June 9, 2006, October 31, 2008 (YTV), June 4, 2006 (video game)
Cars is a 2006 American animated comedy film produced by Pixar and directed by both John Lasseter and Joe Ranft. It is the seventh Disney/Pixar feature film, and the final film by Pixar before it was bought by Disney. Set in a world populated entirely by anthropomorphic cars and other vehicles, it features voices by Owen Wilson, Paul Newman (in his final non-documentary feature), Bonnie Hunt, Cheech Marin, Jenifer Lewis, Tony Shalhoub, John Ratzenberger, George Carlin, Larry the Cable Guy and Michael Keaton as well as voice cameos by several celebrities including Jeremy Piven, Jeremy Clarkson of Top Gear, Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Bob Costas, Darrell Waltrip, Jay Leno, Michael Schumacher, Tom & Ray Magliozzi from NPR's Car Talk and Mario Andretti. The film is also the second Pixar film to have an entirely non-human cast after A Bug's Life.
Cars premiered on May 26, 2006 at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina, and was released on June 9, 2006, to generally favorable reviews. It was nominated for two Academy Awards, including Best Animated Feature, and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film. It was released on DVD in late 2006 and on Blu-ray Disc in late 2007. Related merchandise, including scale models of several of the cars, broke records for retail sales of merchandise based on a Disney·Pixar film, with an estimated $5 billion in sales
Plot
Cars takes place in a world populated by anthropomorphic motor vehicles. The film begins with the last race of the Piston Cup championship, which ends in a three-way tie between retiring veteran Strip "The King" Weathers, perennial runner-up Chick Hicks, and rookie Lightning McQueen. The tiebreaker race is scheduled for one week later at the Los Angeles International Speedway. Lightning is desperate to win the race, as it would allow him to leave the unglamorous sponsorship of Rust-Eze, a rust treatment for old cars, and allow him to take The King's place as the sponsored car of the lucrative Dinoco team. Eager to start practice in California as soon as possible, Lightning pushes his big rig, Mack, to travel all night long.
When Mack starts nodding off, he becomes the victim of a gang of reckless street racers, causing the sleeping McQueen to roll out of the back of the trailer unnoticed. McQueen wakes up in traffic, becomes lost, and in a panic ends up in the run-down town of Radiator Springs. A mishap with the local sheriff causes McQueen to inadvertently tear up the town's main road. McQueen is arrested, then tried the next day by the town's judge and doctor, Doc Hudson, who at first wants him to leave Radiator Springs immediately; but at the insistence of local lawyer Sally Carrera, Doc instead sentences him to repave the road as community service.
McQueen initially tries to rush through the job, but makes a sloppy, bumpy mess of the road and is forced to start over again. As the days pass, he becomes friends with many of the townsfolk and learns of their past. Radiator Springs was once a popular stopover along U.S. Route 66, but with the construction of nearby interstate I-40 that allowed people to bypass the town, Radiator Springs was effectively erased from the map, causing many of the businesses and residents to leave. McQueen also discovers that Doc is actually the Fabulous Hudson Hornet, a three-time Piston Cup champion who was forced out of competition after a serious accident ended his career over 50 years ago, but remains adept at racing.
Encouraged by his new friends and a countryside cruise with Sally, McQueen successfully completes the road and spends an extra day in town, visiting the local shops to outfit him with new tires and equipment. That night, Mack and the media converge on the town, having been tipped off by Doc as to Lightning's whereabouts, and Lightning reluctantly sets off for California, much to his dismay. Sally is upset with Doc for thinking only of himself ("Best for everyone or best for you?!"), and the other townsfolk are saddened to see McQueen go as well as McQueen is saddened to leave them. As they retire to their homes, the town's neon (fixed by McQueen) is turned off, and as the town returns to its previous quietness, Doc realizes just how much McQueen meant to them.
As the tie-breaker race begins, McQueen's thoughts keep drifting back to Radiator Springs and he is distracted from performing well. However, he is surprised to discover that his new friends have come along to serve as his pit crew along with Mack, as well as Doc - once again outfitted in his old racing colors - serving as McQueen's new crew chief. Heartened by their presence and recalling the tricks they taught him (notably Mater's backwards driving and the power-slide Doc kept trying to teach him), McQueen is able to counteract Chick Hicks' dirty driving tactics and take the lead of the race. On the final lap, Chick, fed up with being in second place, purposely rams The King so violently that he is sent flying off the track and into a devastating and horrifying roll-over wreck, much to the crowd's shock.
McQueen, seeing the King crash, stops just short of the finish line, letting Chick win the Piston Cup. Remembering Doc's bleary departure from racing, McQueen reverses to help push The King the rest of the way across the finish line, allowing him to complete his last race and retire with dignity, much to the crowd's pleasure. As for Chick, his victory is rejected and he is booed off the awards ceremony stage for purposely ramming The King off, much to his anger, rendering his Piston Cup victory hollow and meaningless. The King and his wife, Dinoco, the press, and the crowd praise McQueen for his sportsmanship. McQueen is offered the Dinoco sponsorship but turns it down, saying that he would rather stay with the Rust-Eze team that brought him this far. McQueen returns to Radiator Springs and decides to move his team's headquarters there, helping to revitalize the town and its businesses, much to the pleasure of his new friends. There, he and Sally reopen the Wheel Well Inn (a dream of Sally's) and start a relationship, a racing museum is opened with a whole wing dedicated to Doc Hudson who trains Lightning in all the racing tricks he knows and races with him, and Luigi and Guido finally get their dream of serving Ferraris when Michael Schumacher himself and two friends show up for tires on McQueen's recommendation. Sarge opens an SUV boot camp and Sheriff catches the street racers that put McQueen in his predicament and they are sentenced to doing more work on the road with Bessie. Also, Mater ends up finally finding his hood, but a sneeze causes him to lose it again. During the credits, everyone is at the drive-in watching various movies that are spoofs of other Pixar films Toy Story, Monsters Inc. and A Bug's Life where the characters are changed into cars and the name is changed (Toy Story - Toy Car Story, Monsters Inc. - Monster Trucks Inc., but A Bug's life remains the same) and Mack comments on the voice actor for various characters (all voiced by John Ratzenberger, like him) and then complaining about it once he realizes it is the same actor.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cars_(film)
English-language films | 2000s comedy films | American animated films | American comedy-drama films | 2006 films | American films | Auto racing films | Computer-animated films | Films featuring anthropomorphic characters | Films set in the 1950s | Pixar feature films | Road movies | Cars (film)
