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Cars

Cars

Animation · Adventure · Comedy · 2006

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.

Movie details

Cars

“Ahhh... it's got that new movie smell.”

2006 Animation · Adventure · Comedy 1h 57m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

7.0 / 10

Community rating

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.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Cars?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Teenager Riley's mind headquarters is undergoing a sudden demolition to make room for something entirely unexpected: new Emotions! Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust, who’ve long been running a successful operation by all accounts, aren’t sure how to feel when Anxiety shows up. And it looks like she’s not alone.

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip

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Tom & Jerry

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Where it lives

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Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.

Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

John Lasseter

Written by

Dan Fogelman · Joe Ranft · John Lasseter · Kiel Murray

Owen Wilson

Owen Wilson

Lightning McQueen (voice)

Paul Newman

Paul Newman

Doc Hudson (voice)

Bonnie Hunt

Bonnie Hunt

Sally Carrera (voice)

Larry the Cable Guy

Larry the Cable Guy

Mater (voice)

Cheech Marin

Cheech Marin

Ramone (voice)

Tony Shalhoub

Tony Shalhoub

Luigi (voice)

Guido Quaroni

Guido Quaroni

Guido (voice)

Court is in session

Put Cars on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Popcorn Loyalist

“It owes the canon nothing.”

The movie pursues immediacy and audience pleasure without begging institutions to certify its worth.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“Easy pleasure, short half-life.”

It moves efficiently through the moment but offers little reason to keep arguing once the credits end.