“It’s quite shocking,” says Bella. The 22-year-old film fan, who dressed as Lightning McQueen for her last birthday, is contemplating the notion that Cars was not a universally beloved Pixar movie when it first revved up in 2006. It wasn’t reviled. But it was called “a dud” by the BBC. “Bland and forgettable,” said The Guardian. Following that astonishing run – the first two Toy Story films! Monsters, Inc! Finding Nemo! The Incredibles! – the studio’s seventh feature put a dent in the sparkling Pixar bodywork. Even Empire’s review is a lukewarm three stars: “This is not Pixar firing on all cylinders,” wrote our Olly Richards.
“It actually really does surprise me that other people at Empire don’t love it,” continues Bella. It’s true. When I announce that I’m planning an article for Cars’ 20th anniversary, there is confusion among the Empire team. But Bella is far from alone. As Cars returns to the big screen this weekend in a 20th anniversary re-release, it does so as a victory lap; the film has become a titanic part of Gen Z culture, a staple part of the Pixar canon that they quite literally grew up on. “As I’ve got older, it felt like the Cars franchise also moved with me,” says Jed, 24. Today, he has a Cars sun-shield for his own vehicle, a Rust-eze phone case – and a brain-load of useless Cars facts. “I know that the Japanese car from Cars 2 was called Shu Todoroki,” he offers. “No-one’s ever going to ask me that. It’s never going to be useful knowledge.”
‘Cars was one of the first films I remember seeing in the cinema’
For this generation, Cars was always there. There was no before Cars (BC) or after Cars (AC?) in the Pixar roster; it sat alongside the other greats. “Cars was one of the first films I remember seeing in the cinema,” says Jed, who was 4 at the time. He spent his childhood years playing with Cars toys. For Ella, 26, the film is a family affair; she loves it, her mum loves it, her little brother is an all-out Cars-head. “He went through a phase where that was the movie that was on continually, forever, for days,” she says. “It’s one that we all quote at each other a lot. It has that role within my family unit.”
So, what it is that makes Cars special? Why does Lightning McQueen run laps around his cartoon competition? It helps that a a bright red anthropomorphic race car voiced with lackadaisical swagger by Owen Wilson is scientifically engineered to be rad. “The characters are cool,” Jed asserts. “You’ve got Lightning McQueen, the cocky race car, and Tow Mater, the comic relief. The other side characters in Radiator Springs each bring something different to the film.” This hangout vibe is essential to the film’s charm, agrees Ella. While Ratatouille and Up are her top two Pixars, “Up, especially, is not one that you want to have on all the time,” she says. The good vibes and low stakes of Cars make it “a wholehearted comfort watch”.
It is this middle portion of the movie – in which the lost Lightning McQueen discovers the slow charms of forgotten town Radiator Springs – that Empire’s Olly Richards recalls being most caught out by. He’s a big Pixar fan, but hasn’t revisited Cars in the intervening two decades since his review. “It felt a lot younger in terms of its comedy, which is kind of weird because the story of this guy who’s lost his way and is trying to find his relevance again is really a lot older,” he points out. He’s right about the humour skewing young; all the Cars fans I speak to attest to how funny they find the film (“’Fly away, Stanley, be free!’ is a line I think about too frequently,” says Ella).
‘It really speaks to me, this idea of honing your craft, and honing yourself.’
The middle-aged messaging, meanwhile, can likely be attributed to John Lasseter; Cars was his long-gestating passion project, a love-letter to Route 66 and retro Americana, a reminder to slow down and enjoy the smalltown life in a world rapidly upping gears. This sentiment is revealing itself more and more to the Cars generation – notably also the internet and smartphone generation – as they grow. “Lightning McQueen’s relationship with [mentor] Doc Hudson is really special,” says Bella. “It really speaks to me, this idea of honing your craft, and honing yourself.” She screened the film for her birthday (hence the McQueen costume), surrounded by her nearest and dearest. “It’s such a testament to friendship as well,” she says. “It was really nice watching with my friends for that reason.”
Cars has also successfully hooked in younger viewers to the visual splendour of Radiator Springs’ desert roads and neon lights. “It’s become something that I refer to in my head, of like why I like certain aesthetics,” says Ella.
For everyone I speak to, Cars is constantly cruising in their minds. Jed’s friends “know me as the Cars guy,” he says, as he prepares to see it again in cinemas this weekend, in 4DX. The film sparked an obsession with cinema that’s drawn him to work in the industry. Ella was soothed by the thought of Lightning McQueen during a recent driving test, when she was asked to do an emergency stop at 40mph. “It takes slightly longer to stop than if you’re coming down from 20,” she recalls. “I remember having the thought, am I going to fail on this? No, it’s fine. In Cars, when Lightning McQueen does an emergency stop, it takes him ages.” And Bella is fuelled by the character’s big ambitions. “I joke that I want to be the Lightning McQueen of film criticism,” she laughs. “I want to be the underdog. I want to be the rookie that goes through this transformation.”
‘I don’t think any other Pixar film has made me feel the way that Cars does.’
After speaking to me, Olly Richards decides to finally rewatch Cars. All these years later he stands by his three-star review; still confused by the inner logic of the world (“I’d forgotten that they go into male and female gendered toilets,” he notes), still finding the middle hour baggy, still thrilled by the opening and ending. Mater has improved, in his estimation. “I actually found him quite sweet, and fun,” he says. He cannot count himself among the Cars generation, though he’s glad they exist. “I’m very pleased that people out there like it a lot more,” he says.
Like any film that adults didn’t quite get at the time, and that the younger generation adores, they become more than just films. Cars isn’t just Cars. It is toys, memories, family relationships. Sequels, too. Cars 2 is a “bad film,” Bella admits, though they all confess a secret love for it. “I don’t think any other Pixar film has made me feel the way that Cars does,” Bella says. As the Cars generation continues to grow, the film will forever be there with them. Because, like a wise man once said: life is a highway. Kachow.
Cars is in cinemas this weekend, and streaming on Disney+
