This Pixar production depicts a human-free racing world where even the stands are filled with four-wheelers. The movie’s moral imperative is to teach a hotshot rookie (Owen Wilson) a lesson in humility via an unplanned detour in the tiny desert town of Radiator Springs, but the picture’s true value is visual. Limited in terms of facial features, the filmmakers rely on movement to communicate – the cars inch forward in anticipation or slowly reverse in despair. Director John Lasseter (Toy Story) pores over his characters with the intensity of a car enthusiast, so that even though the movie may not have the strongest story, it still gleams. It’s as if the screen had just been waxed.
