Cars is Pixar's most improbable success to date, a film that could easily have misfired, but somehow does not.

| Original Score: B+ | Oct 29, 2008

Smooth, but bland and forgettable.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 29, 2006

Judged against previous form, this is not Pixar firing on all cylinders, lacking the sophisticated comedy we've come to expect. Judged against fare from other studios, however, it's a triumph.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 28, 2006

It had to end sometime. After a run of standard-setting CGI movies, Pixar has finally delivered a dud.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 18, 2006

I'm wondering if the Piston Cup conceit of huge crowds of cars watching fellow cars race around a track crashing is perverse in a "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" sort of way.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 12, 2006

Along came the interstate, apparently, and ruined everything. Just like that darned Internet, I guess, or that superhighway stuff, or those dumb movies they make with computers nowadays.

Full Review | Jun 12, 2006

Cars might get us into car world as a gimmick, but it doesn't get us into car world as a state of mind. Thus, the animation, rather than seeming like an expression of the movie's deeper truth, becomes an impediment to it.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 9, 2006

Though the central idea of nostalgia for a quieter, small-town life may well be lost on this movie's young audience -- Cars finds a pleasant and often sparkling groove.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 9, 2006

Cars made me want to hop in my jalopy and to head out to Route 66, bypassing the boring interstate highways that made the Mother Road redundant.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 9, 2006

It's impossible to find more joy in the dark at the moment.

| Jun 9, 2006

Cars somewhat self-indulgently runs nearly two hours -- but overall, it's well worth the trip.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 9, 2006

Like the Toy Story films, Cars is a state-of-the-computer-art plea on behalf of outmoded, wholesome fifties technology, with a dash of Zen by way of George Lucas.

Full Review | Jun 9, 2006

It achieves the near impossible, turning cars, trucks, tractors and farm harvesters into cute Disney characters whose fates you'll care about.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Jun 9, 2006

It thunders ahead with breezy abandon, scoring big grins on its way.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 9, 2006

For parents out there whose future holds the certain prospect of the DVD version blaring repeatedly from family-room screens, let this by your advisory. Warning: Cars comes unequipped with two essential options -- charm and a good muffler.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 9, 2006

It's touching, it's funny, it offers cautions about the modern pace of life, and it depends on a sense of rural Americana for its soul.

| Original Score: B+ | Jun 9, 2006

Its characters may be made of steel, but this movie is made of sturdier stuff: heart and art.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Jun 9, 2006

Cars idles at times. And it's not until its final laps that the movie gains the emotional traction we've come to expect from the Toy Story and Nemo crews.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 9, 2006

No other outfit can match Pixar's knack for plucking heartstrings without tearing them off the frets.

| Original Score: B+ | Jun 9, 2006

The short answer is: Pixar does it again.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 9, 2006