The Movie "Cars" Impact on Me: Animation "Ain't" So Bad

Back in 2005, when I learned there was going to be a movie about Route 66, I was excited.  We'd been bitten by the Route 66 bug in 2002 and just couldn't get enough of it.

Then I learned that it was going to be an animated one and that the "people" would be cars.  I was completely disappointed.  I hadn't seen an animated movie in a long time and thought it would be like "Sleeping Beauty" or "Snow White."  Plus, how could mechanical beings be people?

But. when it was released, I went out to see it anyway.  Hey, we can't get enough publicity for Route 66.  And, was I in for a surprise.  With computers, animation has come a real long way.  This was no "Snow White."  After a short time, I wasn't even thinking of it as animation.

And, the cars.  About as soon as animation, I stopped thinking of them as cars, but people who just looked like cars.

This was just an amazing film.  And, it was clear that so much of Route 66, both places and people, but also heart and soul was in it.  We recognized people and places.  The pathos of the interstate and impact on American travel was clear.

Well, I saw the film again in the theater a few days later, then went out to our local McHenry Outdoor Theater (McHenry, Illinois) and saw it there again.  Not only that, but before that I went to the local Dog 'N Suds in Ingleside for a Coney Dog and that great mug of root beer.  (We have three of the last seven Dog 'N Suds in the country within twenty miles of here.)

Just something about the curb service, and old chain of restaurants like this and a movie at a drive in theater just sort of set the stage for a movie like "Cars."

Make sure you watch the video I wrote four posts about to see how they arrived at the movie.

A Real "Cars" Experience.  Thanks John Lasseter.  --RoadCars