Cars, the worst Pixar film to date. With a lot of movie studios, for a film to earn that statement it would have to be pretty damn awful. Luckily for Cars it just makes it average because we're talking about Pixar, the studio behind such cinematic masterpieces as Monsters Inc, Wall-E and of course the Toy Story trilogy. Unluckily for Cars...we're talking about Pixar, and this film being made by Pixar makes it instantly feel worse than it is. As far as animated films for the youngsters go, this would usually be a strong 7 or 8 out of 10 without a shadow of the doubt. However, this is made by Pixar and thus must be looked upon as far as Pixar films go.
What differentiates this film (and it's sequel, although I argue that they made a lot of improvements with the sequel) from the rest of the Pixar bunch is it's lack of so many important things. This film lacks real heart, this film lacks the mass appeal from the concept and most importantly, this film lacks the humour for everyone that we've all grown to love so much. No longer is there the subtle humour and social satire standing alongside the slapstick that helps these films appeal to all age ranges, making them the perfect family films only for this to be completely overrun with bad slapstick humour while the only acknowledgement of an older crowd is bad attempts at innuendo which come across more forced than funny.
My final and probably most important complaint about this film is you just don't like the characters. Sure, the lead car Lightning McQueen learns his lesson by the end of the film but you'll never care for him like you cared for Mike and Sully from Monsters Inc, Wall-E and EVE from Wall-E or basically the whole damned cast of the Toy Story trilogy. Sit a 6-10 year old boy down in front of this, I wouldn't be surprised if it became his favourite film with ease and why not? This film was definitely marketed at him along with the extensive range of merchandise but if you're looking for something that means you can sit down and really get something out of the film too pick just about any of the other Pixar films, you'll do a lot better out of them.
5/10
