Merrick here...

I love Pixar, but I was never a huge fan of CARS. It just didn't have much "life" for me, and I always felt the setting was kind of creepy (cars living in a human world completely devoid of people feels like the end result of Skynet's genocide campaign if you ask me).

Still, the film clearly has a following; I just saw information this week indicating that franchise-related merchandise is still selling extremely well. So our getting a sequel to CARS seems beyond natural - and that's exactly what was anounced quite a while back.

This said, we didn't know much about the film's storyline until a day or two ago - when the following information came from John Lasseter during a Disney presentation in London.

The story sees Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson), his pit team and new pit boss Mater head around the world for the Race of Champions, to take place in five different countries and involve the champions of different disciplines like Formula One and rally driving. First up is a race in Tokyo, starting at Mount Fuji and heading downtown; then there's a German race through the Black Forest; then "Porto Corsa" in Italy, which is based partly on the Monte Carlo Grand Prix; then a 24-hour race around Paris (so somewhat like Le Mans then) and finally a thrilling climax in London, approaching Buckingham Palace (where the guards appear to be Land Rovers).

But all this racing is not the only focus. Mater, who we know from the series of cartoon shorts Mater's Tall Tales (more on that in our blog in a minute) is prone to exaggeration, gets involved in a "Hitchcockian" case of mistaken identity, saves the life of a British secret agent called Finn McMissile (who looks a heck of a lot like an Aston Martin) and becomes embroiled in a huge spy thriller. Only no-one believes him. That too comes to a head at Buckingham Palace.

...reveals Empire HERE.

CARS 2 is being directed by Brad Lewis, who brought us the mostly excellent RATATOUILLE. So maybe I'll dig the cars more this time around...