Not Pixar's best but still plenty of fun

Rating: 8/10 (26 November 2017)

In alternate reality the world is much like ours but there are no people; instead there are sentient vehicles! This film tells the story of Lightning McQueen; an arrogant race car who is challenging to be the first car to will the prestigious Piston Cup in his rookie year. He throws away a clear victory after ignoring the advice of his pit crew and is involved in a three way tie with the current champ and his long-time rival. To decide the winner there will be a three car race in California in a week's time. Wanting to get there first Lightning pushes his support truck to drive through the night despite his exhaustion. A run in with some street racers leaves Lightning on the road with no idea where he is. He leaves the interstate, gets more lost and as he speeds along the old Route 66 is chased by the police; this leads to a crash and his arrest in the town of Radiator Springs. Here is told he must help fix the road before he can leave. As one might expect he is not happy with this but gradually befriends the locals and learns a lot about how to treat others; he also falls for a Porsche and experiences the joys of just driving. Naturally these lessons will help him in the big race but will he win?
Having watched and enjoyed most Pixar films I put of watching any of the 'Cars' films as I'd heard they were a little disappointing; having watched the first I can say it turned out better than expected. It opens well enough with some exciting race scenes. There are some problems with such an arrogant protagonist even if most viewers will appreciate that he has to be flawed if we are to get the character development and life-lessons later on. The film picks up once Lightning gets to Radiator Springs and we meet a variety of interesting characters. The most notable of these are Matey, a rusty old breakdown truck; Sally, the love-interest Porsche and Doc Hudson; an old race car who keeps quiet about his past. There are also fun side characters such as the Italian Fiat 500 who is obsessed with Ferraris and a hippy VW camper. The story contains some fun action scenes and some good laughs before the final race which enables Lightning to show everybody what he learnt; both about racing and about both accepting help and helping others himself. Overall I'd say that this certainly isn't among Pixar's best films it is still a lot fun; Pixar has still not disappointed me.