We gave the girls the Cars DVD (widescreen edition, of course) for Christmas and I finally had time to sit down with them to watch it.
I had seen it once in the theater, but PK fell asleep and had an accident on me during the movie, somewhat ruining my experience (we've since learned to make her go peepee before taking her into darkened places where she may fall asleep).
Pixar hit a home run with me with The Incredibles with the amazing animation, character development, action, and comedy. But what really sold the tale of the retired superhero's to me was the family interaction and virtually all too realistic portrayal of a Dad dealing with his wife and kids. I'm no super hero, but it struck this family man's testosteral chord.
Cars illicited a similar low and rumbly, carbureted reaction from me, and it did it on many personal levels.
I'm a car guy.
I'm a road trip guy.
I'm a closet animation otaku fanboy.
I'm a NASCAR nut...okay, not really, but I do know what the 6-letter acronym stands for, and unlike many hardcore beer-swilling, confederate flag-waving, winnebago driving NASCAR fans, I know and appreciate the bootlegging history, the importance of the names Parks, Byron, and Vogt, and the role that the '38 Ford and the flathead V-8 played in stock car racing's past.
All that aside, the filmmakers managed to squeeze a message out of the modified fish-out-of-water plotline, and it's a message very near and dear to my heart.
I don't live on Route 66, nor do I have a business on Route 66. However, I have invested my life and the lives of my family in a small town on a 4-lane highway, that could easily be swallowed up by urban sprawl and commercial progress.
I know the "paving of Paradise and putting up of parking lots" is occuring all over the planet, however it'll be a sad, tragic day when my little town's historic downtown business district is run into obsolescence by a soon to be built nearby Supercenter, or the town itself is relegated to a slow death by apathetic community members,
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Thank you. Cars tells a story that all of us on Route 66 have been trying to tell for years -- and it tells it in a way that non-roadies can understand.
Some of my friends thought I was a little bit daft for pouring so many volunteer hours into projects to preserve and promote Route 66 and the mom-and-pop businesses and attractions along its shoulders. Cars helped them understand why I do it. Cars showed them that Route 66 is, as Sally says, "much more than 'just a road.'"
I took my friend Vicki to see the movie the night it came out. Vicki is the kind of girl who wears shoes to match her top and immediately touches up her lipstick after she eats. Vicki's foot-in-the-carburetor, brake-for-nothing, interstate-all-the-way-home husband is, as Ron is fond of saying, "The most metro guy I've ever met." They are not old-motel-and-gritty-little-diner people.
Vicki watched Cars, and she got it.
If you want to thrill your girls, Ron has a list of people and places that inspired the Pixar animators as they were researching the film. Many of them are in Oklahoma.
I loved Cars. I cried through the whole part about Route 66. A lot of Oklahoma towns met similar fates due to the fickle nature of the early railroads moving - most Oklahoma ghost towns sit near a RR crossing.
I loved Cars. I cried through the whole part about Route 66. A lot of Oklahoma towns met similar fates due to the fickle nature of the early railroads moving - most Oklahoma ghost towns sit near a RR crossing.
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