A surprisingly good film which was well designed, well planned and well executed.

Rating: 7/10 (5 August 2006)

The narrative is a typical storyline of Disney's (- who brought out Pixar a while ago): Lighting McQueen (- voiced by Owen Wilson) is racing in the Piston cup competing against 42 other cars. It is possible to draw a comparison between the Piston cup in 'Cars' to the F1 Grand Prix in reality. Lightning is a novice with bourgeois capitalist ideals. He wishes to win the cup and gain a better sponsorship deal than he has with his current sponsor Rust-eze. Because Lightning is obsessed about winning he (possibly inadvertently) pushes his team's tolerance to the limit. He has no loyalty, no respect for others and is focused on nothing but winning the races. In the 'final' race, Lightning ties with three other cars  "The King" (Richard Petty), who is due to end his career after the race and "Chick Hicks" (Michael Keaton). As a result of the draw, all three are forced to race again (- this time only as a three -) in a final decisive race in California for the prestigious trophy.
The van that transports Lightning to California (Mack) is made to drive all night long so that Lightning can beat Chick to the race track. Mack falls asleep whilst driving and Lightning drifts out of the back of the van eventually ending up in Radiator Springs in police custody. Lightning is sentenced to rebuild the road he has 'inadvertently' damaged (when trying to get away from the police) before his final championship winning race in California. This story then becomes a comic tale of Lightning constantly trying to run away and, at the same time, his relationship with other town residents including Sally a 2002 Porsche, Doc Hudson a 1951 Hudson Hornet and a rusty old truck. Eventually Lightning learns loads of different skills for racing the biggest race of his life and builds up new friends from this redundant town.
The film is a gem for Disney even if a little too childish in my opinion. The narratives are well worked and executed to perfection and the scenery is very aesthetically pleasing. There are good interweaving story lines which all have hidden messages behind them and all of which are coherent and make sense.
However this film can be criticised. This genre has been exploited recently by other pictures such as Toy Story and Ice Age. In my opinion it becomes a little tedious to see the same thing developed in the same way with a slightly different setting over and over again. The fact it centered around cars also meant it neglected a large range of its perspective target audience. This is to say, in my view, the older generation who enjoy motor racing (- a major section of its target audience,) do not want to be moralised into choosing between benevolence and 'competitive racing' and thus would prefer a film like 'too fast too furious'.
Despite the above criticism it is actually very good film and thoroughly worth seeing. However, I'm sure ultimately it won't linger too long in the memory.
n.b. don't miss the end-credit outtakes which have loads of jokes.