Not that I’m about to start doing movie reviews here, but when they exclusively use CGI then I think that falls under my technology remit…

Last Friday, I dragged my wife along to the cinema to see Cars (the latest release from Pixar Animation Studios).

It’s the first time that I’ve been to a film where all the trailers are for animations too; although if they are a judge of what’s coming then Pixar don’t have too much to worry about from the competition. Toy Story goes down in history as the first fully computer animated feature film but that was a long time back and these days the fact that a film is exclusively generated using computer graphics is not enough – it needs to have all the other elements of a great film in place too.

Now I must confess that I’m a fan of Pixar movies and I’ve been waiting to see this film since I first caught sight of a teaser a couple of years back – I’m pleased to say that it did not disappoint.

As do all successful animations, the film caters to both adult and child audiences; however at 121 minutes it is a bit lengthy, considering that many of the viewers will be children. After the initial NASCAR excitement it slowed down and took a while to build as the characters were introduced and the scene set; but the second hour more than made up for the first. Making a bunch of cars seem human is no mean feat and Pixar have done a fantastic job, from Lightning McQueen the rookie racecar to Doc Hudson the reluctant retiree with a cast of supporting characters including Sally Porsche, Mater the towtruck, the delightful Luigi the Fiat (and his sidekick Guido the Italian forklift), Sheriff the Police cruiser, Sarge the WW2 Jeep and my favourite – Fillmore – the hippy VW Microbus. With cameo appearances from none other than Jeremy Clarkson (as Lightning McQueen’s agent – in the UK release only) and Michael Schumacher, this may not be the best Pixar film ever, but they are all pretty excellent and this one’s at least a 9/10.