Disappointing compared to Incredibles or Nemo

Rating: 5/10 (4 December 2006)

I'm a big fan of Pixar: I've loved all their movies up until Cars. But I find it a huge disappointment.
After watching Cars, I watched Finding Nemo and The Incredibles to confirm that it was markedly inferior, and I was astonished at the lack of inventiveness or creativity in Cars.
Cars reminds me most of the mediocre animated movie Robots: Simple animation (no hair, no muscles, no clothing), simple settings, simple story.
What is new in Cars? What is unique? The settings were ho-hum, the characters stereotyped and boring.
Granted, my view might be tainted by the whole NASCAR milieu: it reeks of rednecks and racism, but ignoring that, the animation and story are still mediocre.
Compare with the Incredibles: Several individual _scenes_ in the Incredibles are superior to the entire Cars movie. Consider the scenes in E's house; or the "getting in shape" montage; or the glaring-fluorescent workplace of Insuricare. These scenes from The Incredibles are unique, inspiring, humorous, jaw-dropping. The same could be said for several scenes from Finding Nemo.
But Cars? Hmmm ... what scene is special? Maybe the neon-lighting ceremony at nightfall? But that is it.
I get the feeling that J. Lasseter had a personal affection for the subject matter, and hoped his enthusiasm would carry the story. But I think many of us did not grow up with his love of cars (perhaps we are younger?).
Lasseter, of course, deserves tremendous credit for Pixar's success: he had a hand in every prior Pixar movie. But was that the problem? Did no one at Pixar have the courage to tell him "look, this story is lame, and the animation is ho-hum"?