Simon Dillon gives us the lowdown

As I sat through a smattering of trailers for upcoming children's films prior to the screening of Cars, I wondered what had happened to that once proud genre. Most films aimed at a younger audience these days seemed dumbed-down to a lowest-common-denominator level. At the risk of sounding like an old git, I'm sure it wasn't like that when I was a child. Classics such as The Wizard of Oz, The Railway Children, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, E.T The Extra Terrestrial and Babe are few and far between these days. I refuse to accept that children are so different today that they have to be patronised with "hilarious" flatulence gags, especially as all the above mentioned films are as universally popular as ever.

So thank goodness for Pixar. They seem to be the only people making decent family entertainment at present, not to mention the best computer animated features. Cars is director John Lasseter's first film since Toy Story 2, and it is such a fine addition to Pixar's superlative canon, that one wonders when, if ever, they will come up with a dud.

The plot concerns up and coming Lightning McQueen, an arrogant, cocky young race car who insists he doesn't need friends and works alone. Whilst travelling to a big race, he gets lost through a series of unfortunate incidents, and ends up wrecking the road in the backwater town of Radiator Springs. Sentenced to community service, he is told he has to repair the road before leaving. At first, he can't wait to go, but gradually he makes friends and discovers the importance of slowing down once in a while.

The colourful characters in Radiator Springs are memorable and beautifully rendered, and the vocal talents of Owen Wilson, Paul Newman and many other Pixar regulars are put to terrific use. I particularly liked the relationship between the "hippy" VW van and the army jeep. Also, look out for one hilarious moment involving "tractor tipping". Bookended by two intensely exciting race sequences, Cars is rich, dramatically satisfying, and hugely underrated (by critics, not audiences).

Frankly, I'm baffled that this has been criticised in some quarters for being too slow in the middle, because that is the entire point of the film. Whilst the action slows down in the mid-section, the plot never does, and there is not one superfluous scene. Some parts are predictable, but the story is so delightful that one doesn't care. At two hours, it is unusually long for an animated feature but Pixar's previous movie The Incredibles was the same length and no-one complained. Cars is as long as it needs to be and I wouldn't have cut a thing.

The obvious subtext is a well-meant message about avoiding burnout and nervous breakdown. This like Toy Story gives Cars a power to transcend its surreal setting and enables the audience to make considerable emotional investment in the characters. Lightning McQueen, no doubt aptly named after Steve McQueen with reference to pictures like Le Mans, slowly comes to learn what is important in life, but his journey never comes across as preachy, and the lightness of touch makes the moral all the more potent.

It seems utterly redundant to pour superlatives on the technical qualities of Cars, surely Pixar's most visually stunning and achingly beautiful film to date. Every frame of widescreen space evokes such jaw-dropping wonder that I recommend you see it for that reason alone. Oh, and whatever you do, see it on a big screen. It really, really needs it.

One more thing: there's a sublime little Pixar short film showing prior to the main feature called One Man Band. Don't arrive late and miss it!