Get your kicks on Route 66

I thought I'd shake up my Epinion writing a bit by reviewing a movie and in choosing a movie to review there was no other choice than Cars.

There used to be a time when the movie the kids watched in the car rotated as people got tired. Because I usually only listen to the movies, I appreciate the variety as much as anyone. And then in 2006, my youngest son received the movie Cars for Christmas and changed everything.

For the first six months of 2007, we watched Cars a lot and although we all enjoyed it, it eventually got pushed aside for other new releases. But for the past four months, my three year old has been on a Cars bender. The DVD has stayed in the car and he chooses it as his afternoon movie at least three times a week in the house. You'd think we'd all be sick of the movie, but it's really that good that we all still enjoy it.

The Movie

Cars is about a race car named Lightning McQueen who is racing for the coveted Piston Cup. He is confident and a little arrogant and makes it clear that he feels that he doesn't need help referring to himself as a "one man show." In his arrogance, he nearly loses the race by having two blown out tires but manages to squeeze into a three way tie by a tongue length against Chick Hicks and retiring, long-standing champion - The King. A tie-breaker race is scheduled for California in one week. Lightning McQueen's isolation is made even clearer by his disdain for his sponsors and the fact that he has no friends when offered tickets by his agent.

In a rush to get to California to spend time with Dinoco, the retiring King's sponsor who will be looking for a new race car to sponsor, Lightning McQueen gets separated from his driver, Mack and finds himself in a small town, Radiator Springs along Route 66. Having torn up the town road trying to escape from the sheriff whom he believed was shooting at him (but was actually backfiring), he was sentenced to fix the road before he can leave to go to his race.

Over the next few days, Lightning McQueen learns what it means to have friends by the way of Mader (the town tow truck), Sally (the town attorney), Doc (the town doctor, judge and former Piston Cup race car), Flo (the gas station owner, Luigi and Guido (owners of the tire shop), Ramone (the paint shop guy), Sheriff (um, duh), Sarge (the ex military guy), Fillmore (the hippy van), Red (the firetruck) and Lizzie (the curio shop owner). He also learns that sometimes it's better not to be selfish.

The Cast

Lightning McQueen - Owen Wilson
Chick Hicks - Micheal Keaton
The King - Richard Petty
Mack - John Ratzenberger
Sally - Bonnie Hunt
Mater - Larry the Cable Guy
Doc - Paul Newman
Sheriff - Micheal Wallis
Sarge - Paul Dooley
Fillmore - George Carlin
Flo - Jenifer Lewis
Ramone - Cheech Marin
Luigi - Tony Shalhoub
Guido - Guido Quironi
Red - Joe Ranft
Lizzie - Katherine Helmond

Some Trivia

The first little bit of trivia is my own. The first time I really sat down to watch this movie (rather than listen to it from the driver's seat), I was visiting my husband in at school. He was in Emeryville, California, just down the street from the Pixar studios. In the movie, when people are closing down to attend the "big race" in California it says the city of Emeryville is closed. They included that, of course, because Emeryville is the home of Pixar, but seeing that sign was bittersweet for me for the remainder of my husband's class.

Some other fun trivia includes:

- Dinoco, the big race sponsor, is featured in Toy Story as the gas station where Woody and Buzz fight under the car.

- The landscape around Radiator Springs resembles various car parts including a nod to the Cadillac Graveyard located in Amarillo, Texas.

- Lightning's Rust-eze sponsors Dusty and Rusty Rust-eze are played by Ray and Tom Magliozzi from National Public Radio's Car Talk.

Route 66 Trivia

Because this movie is a tribute to all the towns that disappeared off the map when Route 66 was cast aside for the faster, straighter interstates, I thought I would share some fun facts taken from The Mother Road: Historic Route 66 website.

- Route 66 spans from Chicago to Santa Monica and is 2448 miles long.

- Route 66 crosses 8 states and 3 time zones.

- The highway was commissioned in 1926 and decommissioned in 1985.

- Having been decommissioned, Route 66 does not appear on many modern maps.

My Final Thoughts

Despite the fact that I've listened to or watched the movie hundreds of times, it's still one of my favorites. From Mater's tractor tipping to Doc's sad story to Lightning's transformation, it's simply a feel good movie with a good balance of humor and heart. If you don't own it, you should.