Cars 2 premiere - in pictures

Hollywood Boulevard, and the assembled press wait for the arrival of the stars of Cars 2. For the world premiere of Pixar's latest, parent company Disney has blocked off the entire boulevard and installed a racetrack-style final strait instead of a red carpet, complete with finish line and chequered flag to usher guests into the theatre. Photograph: Todd Williamson/WireImage

Life-size replicas of Cars characters Lightning McQueen, Mater the tow truck and Holly Shiftwell (a new, British participant - think Bond girl with wheels) chug slowly past camera crews and reporters. Pretty soon the likes of Owen Wilson, Eddie Izzard and Emily Mortimer will follow them down the race track. Photograph: Eric Charbonneau/WireImage

The spectacle seems strange for a company such as Pixar, headed up by the always dapper John Lasseter. It has always prided itself on a sort of earthy, sincere charm – an attitude that's paid impressive dividends since the release of the groundbreaking Toy Story in 1995. Its film-makers have somehow managed to sidestep by-the-numbers cynicism, prosaic storylines and cliched protagonists for films rich in character and offbeat verve. How does a film from a company with famously unfussy roots end up being the subject of such a souped introduction to the world as this? Photograph: Gus Ruelas/Reuters

As Owen Wilson poses with Lightning McQueen I wonder if, perhaps, Cars 2 needs the benefit of a big sparkly premiere precisely because it doesn't have the substance of previous Pixar efforts. Even Cars (2006) felt like a more commercial confection than stablemates such as Ratatouille, The Incredibles, Wall-E and Up. The Hollywood Reporter recently published a story suggesting that Cars 2 is set to sell more merchandise than Toy Story 3, whose release saw a small army of Budd Lightyears and Woodys invade supermarkets and department stores. Photograph: Gus Ruelas/Reuters

I see the film later on the same night, and I find myself enjoying it – though perhaps not quite as much as some of Pixar's other films. It's a hugely imaginative, visually ambitious piece of film-making that will not disappoint Pixar acolytes. This is not a movie that needs to make up for its faults by screaming about its imminent arrival in cinemas from the rooftops Photograph: PR

Can Emily Mortimer (posing with Eddie Izzard) – aka the voice of Ms Shiftwell - help solve the puzzle? 'Sometimes you feel a bit sheepish walking these red carpets because you think it's all a load of stuff and nonsense about nothing,' she tells me. 'However, not for this one.' Photograph: Jean Baptiste Lacroix/WireImage

'I feel like if there was ever a team that deserves a big old hoohah then it's Pixar and this film," explains Mortimer. "They really know how to make films, and they really know how to make big films. It's so visually exciting and stunning. It's got all the great elements which make a great Pixar film - like the attention to detail and the storytelling and the humour. So I think the razzmatazz is worth it. Why not live it up a little bit?' Photograph: Lester Cohen/WireImage