Cars

Herald rating: * * *

Of course, Cars looks amazing. Being the seventh animated film from Pixar, and the fourth from founding director Lasseter, it was always going to. It even makes the all-American Nascar racing - which doesn't require its drivers to brake or steer much - seem exciting.

But while Cars renders its vehicle-only world with obvious affection and detail, it also feels too laboured in its storytelling. It's an over-familiar tale of the meaning of friendship, community and smalltown values. Its automotive gags have plenty of spark, but it can't find the high gears of its mostly brilliant predecessors.

It's as if Pixar's first flick on release since its purchase by Disney feels the need to be acceptably dull enough for its new parent, while creating a few stores of merchandise and some new dodgems for the theme parks.

Granted, Cars is trying to say something rather than just being a talking carshow. It also attempts to be a valentine to the asphalt heart of America, with its tale mostly set in Radiator Springs, a depressed Route 66 town set against a Monument Valley landscape.

Brash loner race-car Lightning McQueen (Wilson) ends up stuck there on a cross-country haul to his racing champ finals. After tearing up the place, he's sentenced to fix the road before he can go west. As well as spreading bitumen, he bonds with the locals, who include former big city lawyer-Porsche (Hunt) who has opted for the simple life; hillbilly towtruck Mater (Larry the Cable Guy); and most importantly Doc (Newman), a Hudson Hornet judge-cum-mechanic who may know a thing or two about racing.

But having a fast car stuck in a slow lane going nowhere for most of your film does not a fun time make, no matter how lovingly rendered everything is, whether it's bumper chrome or big-sky country landscapes. Sure, the giggle-ometer often swings into the red. Its nostalgic glow should have Uncle Walt beaming from on high. And it's the most carbon neutral carflick made, but this year's Pixar lacks the sheer exhilaration of the earlier models. Great design and all, but curiously sluggish on the open road.

Those transporting younger folk to Cars may wish they'd brought booster seats to strap them in for what feels like too long a ride.

VOICES: Owen Wilson, Paul Newman, Bonnie Hunt
RATING: G
RUNNING TIME: 121 mins
DIRECTOR: John Lasseter
SCREENING: Village, Hoyts, Berkeley cinemas