Cars [Blu-ray]

When Pixar’s Cars was released in the summer of 2006, it was the first Pixar film that hadn’t scored almost unanimous raves since A Bug’s Life. Truth to tell, there is less obvious wit noticeable in Cars for a first time viewer, but I have to say that on this revisit watching the Blu-ray version, the film is loaded with humor, charm, and heart and can easily stand comparisons with its more heavily lauded brothers.

Not being a racing fan myself, I have nevertheless grown up and lived in the heart of NASCAR my entire life, so I understood completely the world of stock cars that the movie inhabits in its opening and closing race sequences. It‘s obvious the filmmakers have done their homework as well because despite the fact that this is an animated film, the sport is portrayed better than in any other movie about stock car racing that I‘ve ever seen. The abysmal Stoker Ace and the farfetched Talladega Nights poke fun at the sport in an inane and sometimes almost mean-spirited way. Cars doesn’t take any easy shots or low blows at the sport. And, for those who find racing a total turnoff, there is that wonderful lengthy middle section of the film that’s all about finding one’s soul and not allowing the world to pass you by that everyone can identify with, whether he knows who Jeff Gordon or Richard Petty is or not.

Hotshot rookie race car Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) finds himself in a three-way tie for the coveted Piston Cup at the end of the regulation racing season. A race-off is thus scheduled for the following weekend between McQueen, longtime champion The King (Richard Petty) and perennial runner-up Chick Hicks (Michael Keaton). Egotistical to a fault and possessing no real friends of his own, Lightning through an oversight gets abandoned in Radiator Springs, an almost deserted town on the old Route 66, no longer the heavily traveled highway it once was before Interstate 40 made it nearly obsolete. Wrecking the road through town and insulting most of the citizenry with his superior attitude and sense of entitlement, Lightning must make restitution before the sheriff (Michael Wallis) will allow him to leave for his race. Over the next few days, he gets introduced to all of the town characters: grumpy old Doc Hudson (Paul Newman), good ol’ boy Mater (Larry the Cable Guy), gruff Sarge (Paul Dooley), hippie Fillmore (George Carlin), and sardonic town lawyer Sally (Bonnie Hunt). They and plenty more town regulars help Lightning see the folly of his go-it-alone demeanor, and their friendship combined with their surprising knowledge of things that might get him ready for the big race help him to grow into a real champion.

Director John Lasseter is a huge fan of racing, and undoubtedly that’s why the racing scenes are so alive with spirit, excitement, and derring-do. What the animators achieve with these animated stock cars is truly mind-boggling, and the amount of activity that’s all animated during the races (not just all the cars on the track doing different things, but thousands of fans in the stands, in the infield, in the announcement and media booths) just never ceases to amaze. And once we get to sleepy Radiator Springs, we have a different kind of detail as each of the town characters gets such an individual look and personality that one almost forgets these are talking cars but rather thinks of them as people.

And the people who are voicing these creations couldn’t have been better suited for their roles. George Carlin as a hippy-dippy hippie, Tony Shalhoub as Italian tire expert Luigi, Paul Newman as the crusty town sage, and Larry the Cable Guy as the loveable redneck Mater: genius casting all around! And Owen Wilson in the central role of Lightning segues beautifully from his cocky loner to a persona with genuine feelings and warmth. And using stars of NASCAR like Darrell Waltrip, Richard Petty, and Dale Earnhart, Jr. in some important roles only increases the worthy credentials of the enterprise.

Yes, at 116 minutes, it’s a bit too long for its own good. Perhaps the funny but overlong tractor tripping sequence and the leisurely drive that Lightning and Sally take into the countryside do slow the picture down a bit, but the scenes are so gorgeously animated and the feelings that the segments generate are so true that it would have been a shame to omit them. Cars ends with a hilarious series of scenes over the closing credits. Thankfully, this epilogue is offered as one of the bonus features on the disc without the distractions of the scrolling titles and in full high definition.



The film’s 2.39:1 aspect ratio is presented in 1080p using the AVC codec. The high bitrate assures that the dazzling animation on display gets its ultimate presentation, and dazzling is certainly the right word for it. Bright, intensely colorful, and with textures and details (the rusty and scraped bodies of some cars, the digs and ruts in the roads, the gleaming chrome that adorns the bodies of the characters) that are almost palpable, Cars is a reference disc in anyone’s book. The film has been divided into 32 chapters.


The PCM 5.1 (48 kHz/24 bit, 6.9 Mbps) track for the film is awash in great sounding music (the superb Oscar-nominated song “Our Town“ is a standout), the roar of engines, the squealing of tires, and cheers of fans, jet flyovers, and on and on. Pixar produces such superbly designed sound mixes for each of its animated films, and the uncompressed soundtrack here does it full justice. For a quick moment early on, I thought the rear channels might be too actively loud and thus drown out the speaking voices in the center channel, but it was a momentary anomaly that didn’t recur.



The Blu-ray release of Cars offers Disney’s Cine-Explore feature which allows for interactive discussions, inserts of photographs and artwork, and branching featurettes to be placed throughout the film for easy manual access or automatic playback as user selected. The user interface for this feature is much friendlier than the one on Ratatouille allowing for quick changes on the fly while the film plays. A word of warning, choosing the automatic playback will stretch the 116 minute film to three hours when everything is played.

Cine-Explore offers two audio commentaries. The user may choose either director John Lasseter (my favorite of the two available) or a carousel of 12 production heads who chime in about various facets of the production that they were in charge of. Both tracks are crammed full of information with never a dull or quiet moment.

For those who don’t choose to let the featurettes play automatically, they can also be selected individually from a separate user menu. There are 7 documentary shorts covering Radiator Springs, the design of the characters, the animation and acting, the real Hudson Hornet, the graphics created for stickers and insignias on the cars, and a tour through Darrell Waltrip‘s car museum. These are all in 480p and run an average of 5 minutes each.

Five deleted scenes all in rough sketch form but with the voice cast track intact run a total of 14 minutes. They all have introductions by John Lasseter.

“The Inspiration for Cars” is a 16-minute 480p featurette that details the two areas that required the greatest research from the team’s writers and animators before Cars could get underway: NASCAR and Route 66. The documentary shows the team at racetracks and in race cars being driven by professional drivers so they could better understand the speed and the way the cars and drivers operate. The tours of Route 66 to almost abandoned towns seem eerily similar in look and feel to Radiator Springs in the movie.

“One Man Band” is the entertaining 4½ minute Pixar short that accompanied Cars in theaters. Dealing with rival musicians out to get a donation from a little girl, it’s presented in 1080p and Dolby Digital 5.1 EX.

“Mater and the Ghostlight” has practical joker Mater getting his comeuppance by the other Cars characters. The short runs 7 minutes and is presented in 1080p and Dolby 5.1 EX.

The Epilogue for Cars is offered here in 1080p so it can be viewed without scrolling credits. It lasts 4¼ minutes.

Boundin’ Cars is the 46-second Easter egg from the original Cars DVD release.

Car Finder Game is the high definition extra offered on this Blu-ray release. Players are asked to identify 217 different cars throughout the movie avoiding cars that aren’t actually in the film (bogus versions of Miss Sally, for example). The game has the ability to be saved and returned to at a later date. Finding specific cars also opens up car guides which give the specs on each car that’s identified.

The movie showcase feature is also here taking the viewer instantly to three scenes which the producers feel best represent reference quality material. Frankly, any scene in this gorgeous high definition release could qualify as reference quality material.



Cars may not be Pixar’s finest hour, but it’s fine enough under any circumstances. Featuring breathtaking animation, a story that one can easily find identifiable aspects of, and characters that one won’t soon forget, Cars is an outstanding and highly recommended Blu-ray release.


Matt Hough
Charlotte, NC