The 20th Anniversary Theatrical Re-Release
It’s hard to say this with a straight face, but Lightning McQueen has inspired an entire generation of gearheads and may have done more to popularize motor racing than Drive to Survive and Top Gear combined. After two sequels, more than $1 billion at the global box office and countless die-cast cars, the ‘Cars’ universe officially turned 20 this year. Disney marked the occasion by giving the original movie its first theatrical re-release on September 5, 2026, a fitting date for No. 95: Lightning McQueen Day.
Nostalgia among young adults in their twenties has already turned ‘Cars’ into a merchandising craze, with Lightning McQueen shirts, jackets and hats suddenly fashionable again. But buying a T-shirt is one thing. How many people would actually buy a ticket to see a cartoon they already own on DVD or can stream at home?
Disney gave fans plenty of encouragement. Lightning McQueen appeared at Monza during the Italian Grand Prix weekend, while cinemas across the U.S. offered special popcorn buckets, Piston Cups, lobby events and even screenings at the historic Tee-Pee Drive-In on Route 66. In the GTA, things were considerably quieter. Film.ca Cinemas in Oakville brought in some 20th-anniversary merchandise, but most local Cineplex locations barely seemed to acknowledge the occasion.
That didn’t matter. If the cinemas weren’t going to make Lightning McQueen Day into an event, we would.
The idea was simple: get a few friends together, find the busiest screening we could, and turn Saturday night into our own celebration of Cars 20th Anniversary. We chose the 6:20 PM show at Colossus Cinema in Vaughan because it’s such a cool place —look at the UFO on the roof— plus more than half the seats were already sold. Just like watching ‘The Fast and the Furious’ at an anniversary screening, there is something special about seeing an old movie in a room full of people who genuinely love it too!
We were two fathers and sons —one of the boys quite young— with a fistful of tickets in hand. Everybody was ridiculously excited to watch a cartoon we’d already seen dozens of times.
For the boys, ‘Cars’ had been part of their childhood. They knew every line of dialogue and had practically memorized every scene. For us dads, one of the funniest parts was hearing the youngsters finally understand jokes that had sailed straight over their heads when they were little. Fillmore’s remark about the 1960s being good to him lands quite differently when you’re 22.
Daniel even noticed that the aspect ratio of the DVD release we’d watched for years was different from the theatrical presentation. He was actually seeing parts of the full image on the big screen that he hadn’t seen since watching ‘Cars’ in theatres when he was three years old.
Along with families and father and son duos, the movie theatre was filled mostly with people in their twenties, which said plenty about the generation Lightning McQueen helped create. Remember, by the time ‘Cars‘ was released in 2006, both ‘The Fast and the Furious‘ and its sequel ‘2 Fast 2 Furious‘ had been released, and Pixar was poking fun at street racing culture. But for kids of a certain age, seeing Wingo, Boost, DJ and Snot Rod tearing down the highway was another reminder that ‘Cars’ probably had as much influence as ‘Tokyo Drift‘ on why a lot of today’s gearheads drive the cars they drive.
But after seeing the movie so many times, it wasn’t the racing, tuner cars or jokes that stood out most. It was the heart of the story. Lightning arrives as a selfish rookie obsessed with winning, then discovers true friendship and community in Radiator Springs.
That lesson reaches its peak in the final race, when Lightning gives up the Piston Cup to help The King finish with dignity. Maybe there is a little New Testament in that act of self-sacrifice. Either way, ‘Cars’ delivers its message without beating the audience over the head with it. And for Daniel, watching the movie that first made him want to race, just one week after wrapping up an endurance racing championship season, the evening felt wonderfully full circle. Twenty years later, Lightning McQueen was still leading the way.
~ by Chris #16 Demaras