Lightning McQueen Gets Lost on Route 66

Cars is a cute animated movie. And with all the hype that has been stirring up over it, I wanted to see for myself what this movie was all about. Let me just say, that for an animated film, I loved it.

John Lasseter came up with an idea of making a movie based on cars and to bring light to that unforgotten 2,000 mile road halfway between Chicago and Los Angeles known as Route 66. It was a place where as a young boy, his family would take road trips to and spend time on. His motto is "life is not the destination, it's about the journey" and watching the movie totally sheds light on those words, in the full extent.

It's the day of the Piston Cup Race and Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) is ready to embrace the laps and to steal the cup. He is considered to be the world's fastest racing machine and has a big ego that goes with it. He is competing against some great race cars and while passing all the rest of the cars and doing everything he can to make it to the finished line first, he does not consider that there are others that are just as good as him. Reality kicks in when the competition ends in a three-way tie between Lightning Mcqueen, Dinoco and Chick. To break the tie, each contestant will travel to California to again compete for the cup.

On the road with his truck, they travel down Route 66, but something that is not uncommon happens; His truck falls asleep and now he is driving uncontrollably. Lightning McQueen awakens not in the truck but on the road traveling in the wrong direction. Now he's dodging cars, messing up roads and running away from a sheriff that leads him to a little quiet town know as Radiator Springs where he is arrested for moving violations.

While there, he meets a lot of new friends. Mater is first introduced to him as his lawyer and then soon after becomes his best friend. Doc Hudson (Paul Newman) is the judge in the court where he had to appear before a witness to defend himself for all the damages he caused and later becomes one of Lightning McQueen's biggest inspirations. Doc too was the fastest race car once; the fastest race car to win 3 Piston cups. Sally is the prosecutor in the court who fights for the repairs to get fixed and forces the judge to make him do community service. Later, Sally becomes his lady friend.

Other characters include Green Ramone who owns a tattoo shop and will hook your car up with the most unique body art. Lizzy has a lot of love for everyone and a lot of stories to tell. She is silly. Lightning McQueen was able to do something that he never really took the time to do before and that was make friends. Previously, he was so focused on being the best and forgot that there is a whole other world beyond the glamour and the glory.

Lightning McQueen's disappearance causes an uproar. It becomes gossip for all the talks shows including Jay Limo's show. He is reported missing in action. The question is, will the race go on without him?

Cars is a high octane adventure and is a really fun-to-watch movie. The movie has been rated G and the running time is 116 minutes. It is a Disney Pixar movie and the animation is awesome while at the same time looking so real. My DVD is the wide screen version. It has a wonderful storyline. I like the excitement that builds up with the blazing speed of the race track. I like the music that provided a warm background for the cars that floated through each scene. By day the cars are cruising through the street. By night, the cars go to their homes, the garage.

Also featured on the DVD are 2 movie shorts; Mater and the Ghostlight and One Man Band. I was able to check out all the deleted scenes, the epilogue, and about how John Lasseter was inspired to make this movie. You could really get lost in this movie and become one of the talking cars on the road approaching the finish line. And it was such a good movie that it became known as the # 1 animated movie of the year.

So does Lightning McQueen ever make it to California? Who wins the Piston Cup? If Lightning McQueen and Doc Hudson raced each other, who would win? Find this and more details when you take the chance to see this movie. It is made for kids, but like Shrek, I consider it to be for the entire family because it is fun and it is live. I really love the movie Cars.