The Weasel reviews the movie ‘Cars’

Set in a freaky automotive world, the animated movie ‘Cars’ is one of PIXAR’s best creations.

As you might expect, the movie is jam-packed with cars - thousands of them - in every imaginable shape and size. In fact, just about everything in this movie is a car or looks like a car part.

The movie follows the exploits of rookie race car driver Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson), a car with the driving skills of a roller derby skater and an annoyingly arrogant attitude. He can win races, has adoring fans, but has no friends.

Through a series of unfortunate events, McQueen finds himself in Radiator Springs, a rundown desert town along Route 66.

While in town, McQueen hooks up with a dim-witted tow truck named Tow Mater (Larry the Cable Guy). The two of them become best friends.

Why would a fancy race car become best buds with the village idiot? Because it’s in the script.

Mater and McQueen spend a lot of time together. And it seems like Mater’s tow truck hook is constantly grabbing McQueen’s rear end. Is there some kind of ‘Brokeback Mountain’ thing going on here? We may never know. That’s not in the script.

McQueen is given a love interest - the town’s only beauty - a Porsche named Sally (Bonnie Hunt) with the personality of a damp paper towel.

Will McQueen give up racing and stay with the love of his life (I forget now, was that Mater or Sally)? Will he turn his back on the town just to win the Piston Cup Championship? What the heck is Paul Newman doing in this cartoon?

I guess you’ll never know by reading this review.

Go see the movie.

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The film is sprinkled with a few unusual items. Look for the following things:

- mountains shaped like automobile grilles

- birds on a telephone line, from a previous PIXAR short movie

- Mater’s license plate number is the room number of the director’s first animation class

- there is only one “baby” car in this film. Can you find it?

Don’t leave when the credits start to roll. There’s more funny stuff during the credits.

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‘Cars’ opens nationwide June 9.

Three out of four stars (give it an extra star if you are a NASCAR fan)

- Pop goes The Weasel