More Disney than Pixar

Rating: 1/10 (3 August 2006)

I saw Cars with my seven-year-old daughter - we are both huge fans of all the Pixar classics and perhaps for that reason our expectations for Cars were too high. As it was, we found this effort a total let-down. The plot is tired and loaded with hackneyed sentimentality. You could see where it was going almost before it got under way. The characters were little more than one-dimensional clichés and the dialogue was so lazy, it seemed to have been written by robots. There was just one redeeming gag that made me laugh out loud, a Shakespearean allusion that would have been over the heads of all the kids in the audience, and probably would have been wasted on most of the adults! What on earth has happened to the all-round brilliant Pixar of Bug's Life, Toy Story and Finding Nemo? If they think we'll go and watch any old dross just because it's Pixar, they're right - but this will only work once. I shan't bother with any of their future efforts. Dreamworks for us from now on!