Cars

Criticizing a Pixar animated feature is the cinematic equivalent of complaining about a Mozart composition or a Charles Dickens novel.

Which is not to say that Pixar is necessarily on par with those musical and literary greats. However, the animation studio is definitely the Mozart or Dickens of the cartoon world, and even one of its lesser films is better than about 90 percent of everything else out there.

"Cars" may be the least satisfying of Pixar's films so far. It's certainly the first that isn't constantly enthralling, and at nearly two full hours, it's way too long.

In its favor, though, "Cars" does boast an inspired design, and the flow of the racing scenes is dynamic and impressive.

Owen Wilson stars as the voice of Lightning McQueen, a hotshot rookie race car competing for the Piston Cup Championship. The last race ended in a three-way tie, so now officials are planning a winner-takes-all event. Unfortunately, Lightning gets lost en route to the race track.

He winds up in Radiator Springs, a sleepy little town located off Route 66, far from the main highway. And thanks to a brief destructive rampage, Lightning has to do community service imposed by the town's no-nonsense judge, Doc Hudson (voiced by Paul Newman).

To his surprise, Lightning falls in love with the town's peculiar charms, as well as with Sally Carrera (Bonnie Hunt), another former big-city denizen.

The design of these anthropomorphic automobile characters is stunning, especially the amount of detail, such as lighting and surface textures. And co-screenwriter/director John Lasseter's love for auto racing really shows during the exciting race scenes.

However, some of the humor just doesn't work. For one thing, the film offers proof that a little from Larry the Cable Guy goes a long way. He grows pretty tiresome as the voice of Mater, a redneck tow truck who befriends Lightning. And the usually laid-back Wilson sounds a little too laid-back here, though he does have some chemistry with both Hunt and Newman.

Audience members should stick around through the credits to see a bunch of auto-related spoofs of earlier Pixar films. "Cars" is also preceded by the amusing Academy Award-nominated short "One Man Band."

"Cars" is rated G for some mildly crude humor and references (including some innuendo), and some animated, auto-related violence. Total running time: 132 minutes ("Cars": 124 minutes; "One Man Band": eight minutes).

E-mail: jeff@desnews.com