Solidly assembled, amazingly animated.

Rating: 9/10 (8 June 2006)

I saw a sneak preview of this film last night, which played to a packed auditorium in an area theatre, comprised of an audience who won tickets from various media outlets. I must say that I was completely impressed with this latest Pixar outing and I almost dare say it was among the best animated features I have ever seen. It is almost hard to say "animated", because it looks like the bar for computer animation has been risen yet again by Pixar. There was the well-animated details of the cars, with great expression and fluidity, and the backgrounds and scenery was just jaw-dropping and nearly seemed photo-realistic.
The movie is incredible on so many levels. It is easy to forget that the cars are just cars, and you begin to relate to them on a people-like level. They are made to have easily identifiable facial expressions, which are animated well.
Going into the movie, I thought that it would focus too much on racing, since NASCAR related stuff seems to be all the rage now. But, the back story of learning to do things like not taking bad shortcuts with life and not being so selfish and inconsiderate, really takes the fore in this film. We could all learn from these "car-acters".
I definitely recommend this film, no matter if you're into racing or wouldn't even know what a "bump draft" is.
And, of course... remember to stay until the very very end of the movie, otherwise, you'll miss some cool stuff.