If you have a young boy in the family, chances are you are familiar with Lightning McQueen.
It's been five years since McQueen first roared on to the screen in the Disney Pixar 2006 blockbuster Cars.
The much-anticipated 3D sequel, Cars 2, is a razzle-dazzle, tyre-burning extravaganza.
With car chases, jet-powered engines and
burnouts to make Fast and the Furious look like Sleeping Beauty, Cars 2 has plenty to wow kids and "kidults" alike.
Disney didn't need to rush a sequel. Lightning McQueen and his merry motors are among Disney's most lucrative merchandised characters.
For five years the cars have remained in kids' imaginations - and on their lunchboxes, duvets, backpacks and birthday cakes.
In Cars 2, the action moves away from Radiator Springs to the World Grand Prix, sponsored by Miles Axlerod (Eddie Izzard) to promote his renewable fuel, Allinol.
In the heady world of Formula One, McQueen (Owen Wilson) is ashamed of his old pal, redneck truck Mater.
Mater gets embroiled with secret agents - the 007-inspired Finn McMissile (Michael Caine), and one for the girls, the clever but oh-so-purple Holley Shiftwell.
As in Cars, McQueen learns not to be an arrogant superficial little F1 - the obligatory Disneyesque message for the kids is about friendship. There is a more subtle moral about gas-guzzling cars. The writers seemed to have grappled with how to weave the green message into a character whose leitmotiv is "I am speed".
Cars 2 is as funny as the original. The adult audience laughs as Mater gulps wasabi, thinking it's pistachio icecream. The kids tell me the funniest bit is when Mater "wees" leaking oil. The best part? "When Lightning McQueen wins."
It proves that however much a sequel tries to trump the original, what kids relate to is a great story and characters they fall in love with.
For that alone, Cars 2 is a twice-champion.
Start saving now for Cars 2 toys. You will be buying them for another five years.
Stars: 3/5
(PG), 130 minutes
