Written by: Susan Granger
www.susangranger.com

Absolutely ingenious! The imagineers at Pixar Animation Studios ("The Incredibles," "Finding Nemo," "Monsters, Inc.") and Oscar-winning director John Lasseter ("Toy Story," "A Bug's Life") have anthropomorphized automobiles, creating the most lovable characters ever encountered on legendary Route 66.

It all begins with cocky Lightning McQueen (a hotshot rookie race car, voiced by Owen Wilson), who, en route to the big Piston Cup Championship in California, is unexpectedly detoured in the sleepy town of Radiator Springs, where the ‘restaurant' is a gas station and the ‘doctor' is a mechanic. Hauled before the crusty Judge (a wise 1951 Hudson Hornet, voiced by Paul Newman), he's befriended by Mater (a rusty tow truck, voiced by Larry the Cable Guy) and Sally (a 2002 Porche, voiced by Bonnie Hunt). Stranded in the middle of nowhere, forced into community service and far out of the fast lane, Lightning learns that the journey is more important than the destination.

The clever design concept revolves around a crucial decision to forgo the usual idea of the "face" of a car, with the headlights serving as the eyes and the grille as the mouth. Instead, the eyes are part of the windshield - and, yes, Paul Newman's are blue. Via a digital technique called ray tracing, the car bodies actually look metallic, from Mater's rusty hulk to the sleek custom cars. And they tend toward type with George Carlin as a VW bus with a beatnik's goatee and Cheech Marin as a '59 Chevy Impala lowrider.

The more you know about cars and car movies, the richer the experience of watching. Familiar voices include Tony Shalhoub, Michael Keaton, Katherine Helmond, John Ratzenberger, Jeremy Piven, racing legend Richard Petty and the late Dale Earnhardt.

On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Cars" speeds in with a snazzy, high octane 10. Put the pedal to the metal and get going.