I'm going to write this immediately, before I decide I'm out of my mind, and give it two stars.

Have you noticed something about nearly all the reviews below? Everybody expects to hate this film, and comes away liking it. Count me in. And this doesn't just apply to the fact that it took me until now to bother watching it - 10 minutes into it I'd decided it was going to be so unbearable that it was headed for 1 star.

Very brief plot, because it's been summarised a dozen times already. Brash, egotistical rookie sports car has to make an important race (equivalent of Indy 500), but gets lost in a desert backwater town somewhere near the Utah/Arizona border (it's near 'Ornament Valley', where he gets impounded for accidentally tearing the road up, and... well any more would be giving too much away, but he's stuck there doing community service.

Back to the film as a whole. In this world, humans are basically replaced with cars. There _are_ no people (except, apparently, Jimi Hendrix). About 10 minutes into it, I'm thinking - ok, how did these cars get up into the commentary box or the grandstands? Who built them in the first place? How can a car stick out it's tongue? How can anything in this universe be remotely plausible? Let's face it, to enjoy this movie you don't just have to suspend your disbelief - you have to levitate it.

But eventually... you do. Or I did.

The plot is nothing special, and rather predictable, but it's not a bad thing that it reminds you of other films, because it's a conscious retelling of them. In fact the film never stops being a parody of our world.

As you know, I'm hardly a CGI fan, and one thing that bothers me is the inevitable harping on about how great the animation is, or how realistic it is, when what this really boils down to is 'we used a bigger computer this time'. That's a shame because people are already starting to talk about early CGI films as looking 'dated', so it better have a lot more going for it than eye candy. I've never, for instance, heard anyone referring to Bambi as being 'alright for it's time, but the animation looks dated now' - and that film just turned 65.

Anyway, why the big score from someone who generally doesn't like 3D? I don't really know. This one just got under my skin.
Yes, I do like motorsport (though not that oval racing they do in the US. Gimme something with some actual bends in it!)

Yep, I was right. It's starting to wear off, and I'm starting to think 'how could I have liked that? But I did. The way they could get cars, trucks and tractors to emote was a real achievement, and I must be crazy, but this one just manages a 3.5. I thought it was one of Pixar's best, and reaffirmed them as the best at their craft, because they care about what they do.

They prescribed me some new drugs. That must be it.

PS. of course you noticed that Michael Schumacher voiced oned of the cars (the one that made the two Italian tyre-sellers fall over) - but wait; i I forot. Hardly anyone in America follows Formula 1, which was the whole joke.

While I adore the bulk of Pixar's films, I had a very hard time liking Cars. It was bearable, that much is certain, but it wasn't one of those movies I wanted to watch again and again. Once was more than enough for me, I found myself becoming easily distracted when my friend and I tried to sit down and watch it on DVD. He concluded that I have ADD, and I concluded that Cars was a boring movie.

Plot: "City slicker learns to slow down and smell the flowers from down-to-earth, simple country folk", only with cars... Whoo...

Animation: As usual Pixar does wonders, the animation is beautiful, slick, and never too bright and never too dull. Lighting effects are superb as always.

Characters: Eh, this is where I may be biased seeing as I don't care much for cars, unless they are beautifully restored classic cars, but that's another story. The characters in this film weren't bad, but they weren't great. I found Sally's character dull as a loaf of bread... With wheels. And Lightning himself wasn't very charming, yes he learns his lesson, but I found his character extremely disrespectful and self-absorbed. I hardly batted an eyelash when he became sad that he had no one to invite to the big race. Big whoop, that's what you get for being conceited. The one character I despised was Luigi, the ethnically insensitive Italian immigrant with an accent made me think of Lady and the Tramp's Tony character. Okay, so I doubt any Italians took to the streets in protest, but I still thought it was a very poor choice. However, on the flipside, I thought Doc Hudson's character was very cool, I paid much closer attention to the movie when his character appeared. Since they were going for a historical touch on the story of the town's rise and fall, I thought having a classic car show up was awesome, as well as giving him a cool background story.

Sound/Music: Sound effects were fabulous, I like a bit of realism with my talking cars, they still have to sound like cars sometimes, right? Music was okay... I loathe modern pop-laden country, but it was tolerable. None of the songs were too horrible, except for the opening one in which the singer is bragging about how ignorant and loud she is just because she is American. That just made me feel all icky inside... I want to move to France now...

Overall I thought the movie wasn't bad, but it certainly wasn't worth a lot of the hype it got. Sure, it's another Pixar classic, but I found it nowhere near as engaging or charming as say, Toy Story or even MonstersInc. Hey, maybe it was the talking cars, maybe it's me being bitter about country music, but either way I thought this movie was one of the more boring Pixar movies.

Interesting characters, good story with a great message, fantastic animation, creative character designs(just gotta love em') and its very funny. The only things that I can think of that was bad was, the music that I wasn't too fond of, the sappy romance between Sally and Lightning, and the predictible ending, even though that didn't bother me too much.

OHH! And Larry the Cable Guy wasn't annoying as Mater!!! Mater was actually my favourite character! Whats up with that?!

I didn't want to see this movie, because frankly, im not interested in cars at all, and I thought this movie would be all about racing and car stats, but it wasn't! Even though I didn't enjoy it as much as some of Pixar's other movies, it is still a really good film. 3 stars!

When I first saw the commercials for Cars, my first thought was "What the heck? Has Pixar finally lost its mind?" My first impression was that I was going to hate it. Thankfully I see that my impression had been wrong.

That doesn't mean Cars is among Pixar's best efforts. I personally would rank it just slightly above A Bug's Life and Monsters Inc. Once you get past the weirdness of seeing automobiles as being alive, you slowly realize that Pixar is pulling away from being innovative and returning to formulas that work time and again. Still, it's sad to see even Pixar falling into a rut.

The movie follows nothing that hasn't been seen before. I guess that could be said of Finding Nemo and The Incredibles, but Cars REALLY dips into old cliches. Big shot city boy gets into trouble, learns the value of selflessness, helps out the locals he initially hated, and even learns a lesson about how old fashioned values aren't necessarily worse than fast, modern lifestyles. Blah blah blah. Been there. Done that.

Still. Even if the story has been told before, I doubt you had seen it being told in such a manner as this movie. I suppose Pixar should be commended for trying something a little risky. Suddenly seeing toys and bugs as being alive isn't so weird. But cars?

But what makes this movie so watchable are the characters. Pixar has always been good at characters, and Cars is no exception. Even if they are machines, the characters seem more alive and fleshed out than the robots of Robots. I especially like the relationship between Lightning and Sally.

The animation is, as always, top notch, and it lends itself very well to scenes involving classic American vistas and to the gripping race at the finale. Some critics complained that this movie has no humor. I agree. Cars is rather sparse on laughs. Take this with a grain of salt. It doesn't make the movie bad. But it's up to the viewer to determine whether he or she will like that. Humor I can do without. But I'm seriously craving a viable, airtight story.

When the Indy 500 was broadcast on TV, I always asked my father where the fun was of watching a bunch of cars driving in a circle. His answer was, "Well, sometimes they crash."

Understandably, I waited to see this one till it was out of the theaters, but it was better than I expected. It uses Disney Movie Formula B--spoiled brat loses everything, takes time out to build character, and gets everything back plus more. Lightning McQueen is a race car on his way to California for a championship race, when he accidently ends up stuck in a small rural town. (Wasn't there a Michael J Fox movie with the exact same plot?) There he falls in love and learns the true meaning of life as is usual in this type of story.

One of the things that sets Cars apart is the beautiful desert scenery. Another is the sheer energy and excitement of the racing (and crashing) scenes. The character design is fun. and there's a lot of humor.

My recommendation--quite worth a watch!

Race car rookie Lightning McQueen is a real hot shot. After a 3-way tie, Lighting heads cross-country to compete in the Piston cup finals. But on the way, he gets separated from his transport truck. Trying to find the highway, he has a little run in with the law, does some serious damage to the road, and is forced to slow down in a town called Radiator Springs. Eventually Lightning makes it to the big race, and I wont tell you who wins the Piston cup (you may be able to guess), but I really liked the way the whole thing unfolded.

One of the film's main characters is the truck "Tow"- Mater voiced by Larry the Cable Guy. From everything I saw in previews, this character's hayseed personality looked likely to ruin the movie. But fortunately, I found Mater to be surprisingly likeable and endearing. Other charming townsfolk included the classic Doc Hudson voiced by Paul Newman of salad dressing fame, a pair of Italian tire peddlers, and Ramone the body-painter voiced by Cheech Marin. Like Nemo's "mine" chanting gulls, Cars boasts an amusing herd of cowlike tractors ripe for tipping.

Cars follows the Pixar formula, plenty of heart, fantastically rendered animation, some music by Randy Newman, and some jokes. Cars is probably a bit lighter on humor than other Pixar entries, not to say it is unfunny, but it is more of a drama in a way than a comedy (at least until the credits roll). I won't say the formula is stale, but it does seem that Cars is riding in familiar territory. The film also integrates classic songs like Life is a Highway and Route 66, though AC/DC's Highway to Hell was noticeably absent.

Pixar has been on a roll ever since releasing the original Toy Story in 1995. Cars is the studio's 7th feature film, and their 7th hit. While A Bug's Life and Cars may not be the megahits that the other 5 films were, their reception and acclaim surely justify these 2 films inclusion in the hit list. So, where exactly does Cars fall in comparison to the other Pixar films? I prefer it to Pixar's "Fish" and "Bugs" films, but The Incredibles remains the studio's crowning achievement. Nonetheless Cars rolls in with an impressive A-.

I simply hated this movie! It is Pixar's worst film to date. Not only is it getting better reviews than Over the Hedge(which I gave 4 stars), but people love Mater more than Hammy! Hammy is WAY more lovable. To be frank, I hated Mater.

This is one of the ones where I find myself asking, do I measure this against Pixar's history and what as a studio you know they're capable of? Or do you measure it against general likeability as a whole? For the purpose of the star-rating, of course I'm going to measure it against animated movies in general... and by the score it's not bad. There are some movies where you walk out of the theatre feeling like you might as well have just lit your money on fire rather than exposing yourself to such visual torture.

But this was a good movie... it looked good, it had its funny moments, nice voice-acting from a solid cast, a feel good ending... etc. etc.

As a Pixar movie however, this was WAY below average in my opinion.

First off... let's talk about story. Anyone remember the Michael J. Fox movie, "Doc Hollywood"? Hot shot doctor on his way to California to start a lucrative career as a plastic surgeon gets stranded in dumpy, eclectic little small down. Replace 'doctor' with 'race car' and ta-daa... you have your plot. The similarities between the two are close to the point of being extremely distracting.

Next problem... they're CARS. I'm sorry, I know we've had fish and monsters and toys but you simply reach the end of my ability to sympathize when you ask me to get all gooey over the budding romantic relationship between a porche and a racecar.

And finally... maybe it's because I felt 'The Incredibles' broke the Pixar mould so completely, that when 'Cars' returns to it, it seems even more obvious than it ever was before. The climax of the film is quite satisfying, but the formula makes the little bits laid in throughout the movie that end up being book-ended in the climax very obvious... perhaps not any less cute, just obvious.

I will however note that the ending sequence over the credits is exceptionally funny... if that had been the movie I think I would've bumped in an extra half-star. No, it's not a blooper reel but it works very nicely.

I really wasn't expecting to like this film that much. The trailers made it look terrible, but I'm so glad I did got see it. I really enjoyed it. Pixar has turned out yet another great movie.

The story was good, the characters were all likeable and the main ones had depth to them, and as always the animation is top notch. I also really enjoyed the soundtrack. Of the scores Randy Newman has done for Pixar the one for Cars is my favorite. The voice cast is excellent, and I don't think they could've have done better with their choices.

Cars is a very fun movie. It balances the humorous scenes well with the more serious material. I'd recommend this one for the theater.

I have the honor of being the first to review this wonderful film.

I saw Cars for the second time today. It was truly a work of art. Excellent animation, great story, great sight gags, great jokes, great everything!

These guys CANNOT make a bad movie!!

I command you to ignore all the people who say "this will be the first bad Pixar movie" and get up off your lazy butt and see it!

The trailers do not do justice to this awesome movie.

Joe Ranft would be proud.

4 stars out of 4.

James