Director: John Lasseter

Cast: Owen Wilson, Bonnie Hunt, Paul Newman

Synopsis:

Lightning McQueen, a hotshot rookie race car driven to succeed, discovers that life is about the journey, not the finish line, when he finds himself unexpectedly detoured in the sleepy Route 66 town of Radiator Springs. On route across the country to the big Piston Cup Championship in California to compete against two seasoned pros, McQueen gets to know the town's offbeat characters.

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I wouldn’t have thought that even in animation a 1951 Hudson Hornet could look simultaneously like itself and like Paul Newman, but you will witness that feat, and others, in “Cars.” This is the new animated feature by John Lasseter (“Toy Story,” “A Bug's Life“); it tells a bright and cheery story, and then has a little something profound lurking around the edges. In this case, it’s a sense of loss.

What have we lost? Its hero, a racing car named Lightning McQueen (voice of Owen Wilson), has just lost a big race, and then one day on the highway he goes astray, and rolls into the forgotten hamlet of Radiator Springs, in Carburetor County. This was a happenin’ town, back when Route 66 was the way to get from Chicago to L.A., passing through Flagstaff, Arizona, and don’t forget Winona. But now the interstates and time itself have passed it by, and the town slumbers on, a memory of an earlier America.

© Roger Ebert