Cars 2

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A pointless sequel to Pixar's weakest film so far, if the first Cars had been released by one of the prolific studio's competitors we may have been less harsh on it. Alas, that's what happens when the bar is set at such lofty heights. This follow up lacks the warmth and humour of any of their previous efforts and is plain boring by any standard. Now a Disney animation bigwig, Cars 2 pangs of indulgence from the obviously gifted John Lasseter - who gave us the brilliant Toy Story movies.

Centring on the last film's comic relief, Mater (irritatingly voiced by American comedian Larry The Cable Guy), this one opens in full-on James Bond mode with Michael Caine voicing a slick, vintage Secret Agent car named Finn McMissile. Finn is on a dangerous mission, and Mater somehow gets caught up in the middle of it just as his best bud Lightning McQueen (a returning Owen Wilson) is competing in a globetrotting race against a cocky Italian Formula 1 car.

The main problem a lot of critics had with the first film was that cars just don't really lend themselves well to animated characters. They're not cuddly animals, or quirky looking humans and you can't help but wonder why there's a passenger seat. That said, Pixar generally has strong enough writers to endear you to anything - even Monsters. While this has some of the same problems as the initial outing, the focus here has shifted completely in the wrong direction to a character that surely won't travel well. Mater isn't that funny, and when he's fluked his way out of the fifteenth 'life threatening situation' you may begin to lose patience.

When it does work it does so during sequences; the animation is predictably impressive and the race sequences genuinely ferocious. Conversely that's a problem, because it feels like the main reason the film exists is for those cool scenes to happen, and it's this kind of attitude that doesn't seem very Pixar at all.

It was bound to happen sooner or later; Pixar have finally made a bad film. Given their previous brilliance let's assume they'll learn from it and move on.