Not exactly what I would call one of Pixar's great films, but as usual, it's decent family entertainment

Rating: 8/10 (23 April 2009)

Released in 2006, this was the seventh full-length feature from Pixar, and wasn't quite as well received as a number of other films from the CGI animation company, but unsurprisingly, it was apparently still another success from them, which I can't question after seeing it. I didn't see it in the theatre, but I think I first saw it on the small screen two years ago this month, when I first rented it. The other day, I rented it again, to watch it for the first time since then. So, I have now seen it twice, and it wasn't a masterpiece in my eyes either time, unlike some of its predecessors, all of which I had seen beforehand. However, from what I remember, I was impressed enough during my first viewing, and not much changed with my second, if anything.
In a world with no humans, one completely inhabited by anthropomorphic motor vehicles, Lightning McQueen is a very self-centred rookie race car. In the last race of the season, he hopes to be the first rookie to ever win the Piston Cup, but at the end of this race, he finds himself tied with The King and Chick Hicks! The three cars are scheduled to compete again in a tie-breaker race in Los Angeles. On the way there, Lightning McQueen is transported by his truck, Mack, but late at night, he falls out while he's asleep, as Mack struggles to stay awake! The young race car soon wakes up to find himself on the road, and tries to find Mack, but doesn't succeed. Instead, he finds himself in a town called Radiator Springs, and unintentionally destroys the town's main road as a result of his speeding! For this, he is sentenced to fix the road as community service, and won't be able to leave the town until he's finished. At first, he just wants to finish the task so he can get to the race, but he has a lot to learn.
Unlike some Pixar films, I've found that the humour here is somewhat lacking. For the most part, I did find quite a few small laughs, but not very many big ones at all. Some parts of the film are funny thanks to Mater, a living tow truck who lives in Radiator Springs, and is assigned to look after Lightning McQueen during his community service. In terms of humour, my favourite part is probably the "tractor tipping" one. (In the world this movie takes place in, tractors are like the cows in the real world!) The characters may be a bit bland and insignificant compared to popular characters in certain other Pixar films, but some of them stand out, including the humorous Mater, along with the main character. As for the story, Pixar has done better. I found it to be somewhat dull at times, not that consistent, but overall, it is a reasonable story about an arrogant, selfish character with valuable lessons to learn, with some perhaps mildly touching moments.
Unlike most of Pixar's full-length films to date, I've never seen this one in the IMDb top 250. However, even though this may be one of the CGI animation company's weaker efforts, and I can understand why many people might think it doesn't live up to Pixar's standards, it's still better than certain other animated films from recent years, including certain films from DreamWorks Animation, Pixar's rival computer animation company, such as "Shark Tale". For the most part, "Cars" is a good family film with nice animation, and one which isn't restricted to a certain age group, but probably entertaining for people of all age groups. I think that's typical of Pixar, and I'm very sure many would agree. This particular piece of computer animation probably has most things, if not everything, one would hope for in a Pixar film, just to a lesser extent than a number of its relatives.