Though still a good movie, this is by far Pixar's worst.

Rating: 8/10 (20 June 2008)

Cars is a good movie. It's got some really cool looking animation with detailed sets and well developed characters. It's entertaining and fun, and sometimes funny, though the funny scenes tend to appeal more to children's' senses of humor. The voice acting fits well and Cars has quite an ensemble voice over cast. So why is this the worst Pixar movie? Well, some elements of this film felt far-fetched to me, and I know I'm talking about a movie based around a world of cars, but still, some realism is needed.
Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) is the fastest race car of them all. After a big race he is being taken to another race in a pick up truck when he falls asleep and rolls out of the car causing damage to a small town called Radiator Springs. In order to leave the town, he has to fix up all the messes he made, and in the process he grows a connection to the town, and makes some friends, something he didn't have many of before because of his hectic racing schedule. He becomes good friends with Tow Mater (Larry the Cable Guy), a simpleton tow truck, and he becomes romantically interested in Sally (Bonnie Hunt). Lightning has now gone missing, and is needed for his next race. Will he choose his stardom, or the cars he's come to love?
One major problem I had with this movie was Lightning's sudden connection to this town. It takes him no longer than 2 minutes to become connected to this town that he's only been in for a day...it's just a bit unrealistic, even for a cartoon. I also didn't like the cutesy pie lines thrown in, which weren't in any other Pixar film. Tow Mater, who Lightning doesn't even know very well, states that Lightning is his best friend. That either is a fault on the writer's part for trying to speed up the process of great friendship by 100 times, or it shows how everyone hates Tow Mater, and I'm pretty sure the latter isn't the case. Because this movie is only under 2 hours, it can only have so much time passing, but I just have a hard time buying the friendships that these characters make. Compared to the other Pixar movies the plot just isn't as interesting either. Luckily it has enough of it's Pixar charm to make it an entertaining adventure, if not a very lame one for Pixar's extremely high standards they've set.
My rating: *** out of ****. 110 mins. Rated G.