Lightning McQueen just wants to win. That is the entire engine of Cars, and for a while, it is enough. Owen Wilson voices the rookie race car with the right mix of pride and hunger, a character built to learn a lesson the moment he gets in his own way.
The Turn Into the Town
The setup is simple. McQueen is crossing the country toward the big championship race in California, chasing two seasoned pros for the title. A wrong turn leaves him unable to move on from a faded little town, full of characters who have no interest in his schedule. Paul Newman voices Doc Hudson, and he gives the film its moral weight. Bonnie Hunt’s Sally Carrera and Larry the Cable Guy’s Mater fill out the town with noise and feeling in roughly equal measure.
John Lasseter, who directed the film and wrote it with Jørgen Klubien and Dan Fogelman, clearly loves this part of American highway. The animation sells it: a quiet desert town, worn down and easy to miss. Cheech Marin’s Ramone and Tony Shalhoub’s Luigi add color and comic texture to a town that runs on memory rather than engines.
Where the Story Lags
The problem is pacing. At 117 minutes, Cars takes its time getting to the point it wants to make about life being about the journey, not the finish line, and the point itself feels thin drawn out across that length. The stay in the town is charming in pieces, but it repeats itself instead of building toward something bigger.
A work of American art as classic as it is modern. — EW
That line gets at what the film does right: the fine look of it, the love for a quiet, forgotten place, the affection built into every frame. What it misses is the long middle span, where the story sits still while the town’s charm is asked to carry the whole weight.
The Numbers on the Road
Cars was never going to lose money, and it did not.
| Detail | Figure |
|---|---|
| Opened | June 8, 2006 |
| Length | 117 minutes |
| Age rating | G |
| Budget | $120 million |
| Total earnings | $469.6 million |
The business side runs fine. The story engine loses its strength more than a Pixar film usually allows.
Final Word
Cars looks wonderful and means well, and Paul Newman’s performance gives it a soul the story does not always earn. But the film’s point, that life is about the journey and not the finish line, is drawn out across a length that goes beyond its ideas. It is a good film, not a great one — smooth where it should be pointed, and a little too content coasting at that pace.
