Save the Robot – Chris Dahlen

With the release of Wall-E – which I can’t wait to see, with my kid, as soon as it hits DVD and I can sit and explain everything to him in the privacy of our living room – I’ve been digging the Pixar coverage, including articles like this primer (with clips) at the AV Club.

But I can’t help but notice how everyone hates Cars. I haven’t seen every Pixar movie – I missed the ones about monsters and bugs – but I deliberately skipped Cars, because it sounded like a kid’s movies. Pixar is artist-driven, and the maturity level seems to vary: Incredibles and Ratatouille were adult movies that kids could enjoy, while, say, Finding Nemo was definitely a kid’s movie that adults could love.

But like I said, I have a three-year-old, and three-year-olds dig the hell out of Cars. So in addition to living with a few die-cast McQueen’s and a talking Chick Hicks that’s loud as a bridge falling and just as annoying, I’ve also seen the DVD a couple times. And you know what? It’s a pretty good movie.

Yes, it’s long and a little padded – though we’ve never sat through the whole thing in one go. Yes, it spawned a ridiculous amount of merchandising. And it’s definitely a boy’s movie: there are only a couple female characters, and the love interest, Sally, may be independent, but she’s also shuffled to the side pretty quickly before any kisses or displays of affection would gross out the little boys in the audience. (Plus, cars kissing, wtf.)

But it’s still a solid, entertaining flick, with a couple particular strengths:

- Radiator Springs. The “fast-talking city slicker winds up in the sticks” storyline might be a cliche, but genuine love went into making this town. Radiator Springs was a hopping place in the ’50s or ’60s – but then the interstate diverted all the traffic, and sucked all the commerce out of the community. We have the luck to live in a small town that’s doing well and has a good economy. But a lot of people work hard to keep the place vital and interesting. I like that Cars tries to raise an appreciation for places like this, and I brought it up a couple times to my kid while we watched the flick.

- Friendship. McQueen’s and Mater’s friendship evolves in fits and starts. Mater’s the annoying, dumb but tried-and-true friend that many kids are lucky to have, and easily take for granted. When Sally stops McQueen and reminds him to take Mater’s friendship seriously – and not to dick him around – it’s a good moment: this isn’t a complicated lesson, but it’s an important one.

- The Big Race. It’s a given that in the big race at the end of the flick, the way McQueen races will be more important than whether or not he wins. And it’s a given that MCQueen will “do the right thing.” But I didn’t really see the ending coming. (The rest of this graf will have spoilers.) I admired the fact that McQueen did the right thing. But it was also a significant choice. It would’ve been easy for him to wrap up the race and then go back and check on the King, and still come off as a pretty good guy. He didn’t make a choice between a bad act and a good one; he left a good outcome for a noble one. I haven’t been so moved since the end of Chicken Run.

And a bonus number four: It helped turn my three-year-old into a “car guy,” which made his uncles really, really happy. (Pictured below: my kid, learning to drive a ‘64 Corvette.)