I do not hate this movie at all! But it is my least favorite Pixar film. I just have trouble enjoying a story about cars. I loathe cars in real life!
I love Cars. I don’t think it’s Pixar’s best movie, but it’s still a good one.
It’s alright. The script wasn’t really captivating for me, but you can’t win over 100% of the audience with some themes. I wouldn’t say I hate it but it is my least favorite Pixar film and stands alone. I would say it’s probably the only one I don’t love, though. And I’m not excited for the sequel for the sake of my own enjoyment, I’m only excited for Pixar producing another good film that I know will have a very positive response. I’m always happy for that.
I really can’t say that I hate it but it’s not entirely my fave either. I enjoyed it, it had a good storyline and message but, I don’t know, something about a movie all about cars does seem to have limitations. Despite this, I believe it’s the only racing movie that actually made the sport of Nascar interesting for me.
I agree. It’s good, but the others are better
I certainly don’t hate Cars, but I agree with a lot of people here that it’s probably not PIXAR’s strongest film. I think the reason why is maybe, for me, the story wasn’t outlandish enough. I mean sure, we’re in a world of Cars, where Cars populate everything. But once you suddenly adjust to this, it’s pretty much a stereotypical rookie story learning about how winning isn’t everything.
But, it doesn’t mean I didn’t like Cars. It’s just that I thought it was an OK film.
Cars is a love letter to a bygone era, specifically the United States just after World War II. You see, before the war, cars were out of reach for the majority of Americans, who were mired in the depression and just trying not to starve. You can read stories of people literally starving to death in breadlines in major American cities. Most folks around today have no idea how hard it was. On top of that, these folks volunteered to risk thier lives to save people in countries many couldn’t even spell much less pronounce from the scourge of fascism. A gamble many lost. Just one reason they are referred to as “the greatest generation.” What does this have to do with Cars? Well, after the war the United States saw the greatest economic boom ever as it basically rebuilt much of the world. There were more jobs than people to fill them. Suddenly, tens of millions of people could afford that symbol of freedom, the car. Just ask a sixteen year old what that means if you are not clear. Add to that President Eisenhower’s effort to build the Interstate Highway system, which was originally to enable efficient movement of material around the country during the “inevitable” war with the Soviets. All through the fities and sixties, the car culture was king. If you wanted your business to succeed, you has better make sure people could drive there.
So this movie is a tribute to those summer vacation road trips where stopping at every wierd and cheesy roadside attraction was half the fun. My fondest memory like that is Two Guns Arizona, Population: 4 people, one dog and two guns. All it was was a gas station and cafe with the “sherriff” in full cowboy costume leaning on his '48 Packard wearing - you guessed it- two guns. You’d get to stretch your legs, take a bio-break, and buy a glass bottle (!) of Coke for a quarter.
About the NASCAR aspect. many young folks don’t know that car racing was once as popular as football and basketball, equal to baseball. Mario Andretti was once the most famous athlete in the United States. If you don’t think that racing cars requires top physical condition, just try it. Now many people identify NASCAR with a certain stereotype of person, but if you look at the numbers, the fanbase is much larger than most people think.
So, in my opinion, Cars was aimed at people over thirty, and the current crop of racing fans, which in the United States, means NASCAR. Those folks in between, rather than hating the movie, just don’t get it. Except for the message, which is clear. helping those in need and being the best friend you can is the most heroic thing anyone can do, and that victory without honor is worse than losing.
If you don’t get or agree with the above, just enjoy the top of game Pixar storytelling. I heartily encourage everyone to take thier families up Route 66 one summer though. Sleep in a concrete Teepee and see the World’s Biggest Ball of String. Not to mention the stark beauty of the American southwest. Sunsets so colorful you’d swear the Gods pumped up the gamma (Photoshop joke for the techies!).
i didn’t know that Cars was the least favorite of so many people. i like Cars. it’s not in my top 5 Pixar movies, but i still like it more than some of the others.
Well written, ArtJoe. I was lucky enough to go on a trip to the mainland a year before Cars. Visited the usual tourist spots like San Francisco, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Anaheim. I remember travelling through the Nevada desert and it just stretches to the horizon on both sides of you. There were a lot of semis and trucks. I can’t remember which route we took (most likely an interstate). The sheer beauty of Rainbow Bridge in Utah remains one of my most indelible memories from the trip.
One of the things to do in my bucket list is to hire a classic and just travel along the Mother Road. This might seem a strange request for someone who lives on the opposite side of the road and who has had only a fleeting experience of Americana. It’s also not exactly an item on many of my friend’s lists (who would rather go to Tokyo or New York instead), but yeah… that’s just one of my idealistic wishes, so that’s that.
It also helped I was a fan of cars to begin with (I blame car chase movies and Top Gear), so naturally this movie ‘spoke’ to me on a deeper level than people who weren’t interested in the topic.
Cars is simply one of the best paeans to the open road and will always hold a special place in my heart. 
I just watched Cars and it was not what I was expecting. It was a great film!
First, let me chime in and say great post, ArtJoe.
I’m in the camp for whom Cars isn’t my favorite Pixar film, but it is still a good, entertaining movie and I enjoy it - I’m also in the camp who found it growing on me after further home viewings. Paul Newman is great as Doc Hudson, the tractor-tipping scene was a hilarious surprise, I tear up when Lightning helps the King finish the race, and I love all the little set-up/payoff moments (Guido’s pit stop, Luigi and the Ferrari, Mater and the Helicopter, etc.).
I think there are a couple of things that hamper it with critics and some viewers. I remember coming out of Finding Nemo feeling that Pixar had really taken a “darker” tone for the first time - that these were real, fragile, organic creatures facing certain death at every turn, and that it gave the movie a more serious foundation, which has really persisted through the later films, with the sole exception of Cars. Cars has warmth and heart, but strikes me overall as more of a “light comedy” - not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I think coming after the darker life-and-death underpinnings of Nemo and Incredibles, it made the critics, um, more critical.
The other thing is, one of the greatest charms of most Pixar films is the sense that these things are really happening around us, we’re just oblivious to them. If you could just open the door at the right moment, you would see the Monster in the closet, the rat cooking your dinner, the toys running around your room… Cars is the only Pixar feature completely detached from the real world, and I think that sort of “un-reality” separates it from the rest of the “this could really happen!” immediacy of the other films.
Anyway, that’s just my take.
That’s very true, although to be honest I think the first Pixar film to do that was really The Incredibles. It’s still grounded in reality, but it’s the more fictional comic book kind of reality where we know that superheroes don’t really exist, unlike Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Monsters Inc., and Finding Nemo where the stories that happen could very well go on in our reality without us knowing (somewhere in our world there’s a flea running a circus or a clownfish searching for his son).
Ah, but are you really 100% certain your Insurance guy isn’t a superhero in disguise? 
I love Cars. It’s an awesome movie <3
I don’t understand why people hate this movie! It’s not my favorite, but I still like it! I read that Cars 2 is about Mater going around the world, and I thought “Oh goodness…”. 
But I love Cars! One of my favorites. People shouldn’t hate it. 
I was surprised on how many IMDB users hated it! 
Oh yes, I hate movies for carrying the DWSKG labels, too!!
Personally, I love Cars. I have all the die-cast toys, love the plot, and everything about it. It’s one of my favorites, but I do recognize that there are a LOT of haters, who have REALLY DUMB reasons for bashing this movie. Nemo is the only Pixar film that deserves that kind of bashing, I mean really guys, let’s face the facts. It just is.
I don’t love Cars simply because I find Lightning to be the least symphathetic Pixar protagonist. And becuase Pixar normally have such great ideas for films like the last robot on earth and retired superheroes and Cars was just… talking cars.
It’s my least favourite Pixar movie, I think it’s alright though. I think people don’t like it because it’s not original and doesn’t have a memorable lead character, but that’s just my opinion.
I don’t hate it, but it’s one of my least favourite pixar movies unfortunatly.
I think its really because I could never suspend my disbelief enough in the world they created for the most part. The story in of itself, taking away the talking cars is good and has a great protaganist arc.
But I’d have liked it better I feel if they had either been humans or like the monsters from M.I. Or something.
Plus I think some people are irritated because… its not really their story. I think people feel Pixar should more ore less come up with their own stories, unlike 2D animated Disney which pretty much takes other peoples stories and make their own twist on it… Theres nothing wrong with that in my opinion, but thats another reason I think, that people don’t like it.
For me it was not being able to believe a world of talking cars and BUGS which look like cars… I just… yeah.
My cousins older son loves it though and I can sit throught it/buy stuff when I have the cash for him related to it. Its just not my first choice. I do enjoy it on some level but a part of my inner monologue just sees a world of talking cars and no human/humanoid people and Goes “Hahahaha… no.” 
The story itself a part from that is great though.
Its such a shame. It would be so much better if it was about people driving cars than… talking cars at least for me.
But that’s just my opinion.
Your opinion =/= fact.
It makes no difference to me whether a person likes or dislikes my favorite TV show or something, but saying that it’s “a fact” holds no water. You’re entitled to your opinion, but unless your opinion is actually based off facts, then it’s really wrong to say that. Just saying.
Anyway, I don’t really think people actually “hate” this movie, so to speak. People just like jumping into a bandwagon; it happens with everything. It’s the same thing with people labeling this movie as Pixar’s worst, even though though they might not have necessarily seen it.
As for me, yeah, it’s not my favorite either. It felt a bit stereotypical and cliched to me at times, but that doesn’t mean that I hate it. I thought it was an okay Pixar film overall, but definitely not a film that I’m enthusiastic about watching over and over again.