Have we ever managed to wrap our heads around the internal logic of the Cars universe? No. Are we suckers for a nicely composed series of retro posters? Yes.
The real question is, why can I accept the world of Thomas the Tank Engine but not Cars?
After all, I think that most people would agree that the weirdest thing about the setting is that we have to accept a world full of cars without humans to make, design, or require them.
Thomas the Tank Engine exists in a world where sentient machines work alongside their human creators and keepers, thus explaining where the machines come from and absolving us from entering the howling maw of madness that is the question “where do baby cars come from?” And what size they start out as. And how they get bigger. And who drills the oil. And who makes it into gasoline. And that they have governmental politics intricate enough to need spies and bleegle warble yargle arrgh –
But frankly, that conclusion just begs the question: why do we see a world where humans voluntarily create and work alongside sentient trains as more logical than Cars?
The world may never know. But I’m guessing that it’s because Ringo Starr and George Carlin were involved with Thomas the Tank Engine.
(via Bleeding Cool.)
