12:08 PM EDT on Friday, June 9, 2006

By Lawrence Toppman / The Charlotte Observer

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Almost every shot of "Cars" shows why it's the best-crafted piece of American animation this decade - and why Disney spent $7.4 billion to buy Pixar Studios and the services of its founder, "Cars" director John Lasseter.

Take the moment where the camera pulls back, revealing a series of mountains at an angle of 60 degrees to the horizon.

If you're a kid, they're a beautiful backdrop to the sentimental scene played in front of them. If you're an adult, they look like automobiles thrust door-deep into the rocky Arizona terrain. If you've driven down Route 66, you realize they're a visual pun on the Cadillac Ranch, an iconic 66 landmark where a row of cars stands half-buried in west Texas.

"Cars" culminates Lasseter's career as a writer-director and producer: It has the heart and humor of "Toy Story," kid-friendly cuddliness of "Monsters, Inc." or "Finding Nemo," and the kinds of adult gags and action sequences that yield bursts of energy in "The Incredibles." Most importantly, it teaches us that a happy ending - even in sports - may come from a victory over your shortcomings, not your foes.

Is it perfect? No. It runs a little long at 120 minutes, repeating itself in a way the longer "Incredibles" did not. (But stay for the witty outtakes over the credits.) To my ears, most of the music is sappy, though Randy Newman did write a plaintive ballad called "Our Town" for James Taylor.

Yet Lasseter's trying something here that only Japanese master Hayao Miyazaki has done better: He's taken a meaningful, emotional story that could have been told in live action and chosen to communicate it through computer animation. (Lasseter was the guy who convinced Walt Disney Co. to release Miyazaki's "Spirited Away" in 2002; it won an Oscar for best animated film.)

On the most basic level, "Cars" is an old-fashioned fable about an egotistical, talented loner who learns humility and redeems himself by helping unfortunates.

Owen Wilson does his most complex acting as Lightning McQueen, a rookie race car who has the Piston Cup locked up but makes a stupid, impetuous mistake on the track. He's thrown into a tie with The King (Richard Petty), who's in his last season, and bitter Chick Hicks, a perennial runner-up (Michael Keaton). They'll race a tie-breaker in California to decide the victor.

En route, careless Lightning ends up in Radiator Springs, an Arizona town on 66 that dried up when the interstate passed it by. He befriends Sally (Bonnie Hunt), a Porsche who's learned to appreciate the slow life, and Mater, a tow truck whose simple mind allows him to enjoy simple pleasures (Larry the Cable Guy, who's funny and endearing.) Only old Doc Hudson (Paul Newman), who's used to peace and quiet, finds this flashy hotshot an unadulterated nuisance.

A simpler film would make Doc a crusty codger with a heart of gold, Lightning's reluctant but lovable surrogate dad. Lasseter, who wrote the script with five other people, gives Doc serious problems: He's almost as selfish as Lightning, a petty dictator whose own racing history has soured him on the outside world.

In fact, all the refugees in Radiator Springs are self-deluded, from the hippie VW microbus who sells "organic alternative fuel" (George Carlin) to the cafe owner who dreams that her gas pumps will all be active again someday (Jenifer Lewis). The inevitable optimistic ending does not hide the reality: Small-town America is inevitably dying away.

No people appear, so we can identify completely with these cars. The windshields have eyes that "blink" - a shade descends over them - and the grilles have movable lips. Yet their limbless bodies operate as cars do, so they're "realistic" and anthropomorphically human at once.

Lasseter's a NASCAR fan, and paint-swapping racing scenes mix cartoon-like agility with credible crashes. Pixar filled the cast with auto-related celebrities such as NPR's Magliozzi brothers (Lightning's sponsors), driver Darrell Waltrip (an announcer) and Michael Wallis (the sheriff), whose "Route 66: The Mother Road" is seminal reading for folks who love that old highway.

The film is dedicated to Joe Ranft, who's credited as co-director. Ranft died last August, when a car he rode in plunged off a cliff along the Pacific Coast Highway. He'd supplied voices and story material for 20 years' worth of Disney/Pixar products, including "Beauty and the Beast," "The Lion King," "Toy Story" and "Cars." Lasseter's the star at the top of Pixar's Christmas tree, but he'd be the first to tell you the company isn't a one-man show.