Of all the Pixar projects in the offing, it would be fair to say that Cars 2 is probably the one that excites us the least. By anyone else's standards, the original Cars would have been a fine, entertaining family movie. Yet, given the pedigree of Pixar, this was weakest in the area where its films constantly surprise: it's story. While the realisation of the Cars world was genuinely superbly done, and while the race sequences were quite breathtaking, the problem was that this was a steadfastly very ordinary story, spread over a comparably long running time for an animated movie. The middle act in particular felt like it went on for a looooong time.

Its box office performance, however, vindicated Pixar's decision to make the film, with a worldwide gross of $461m notched up. But it was in merchandising where the film delivered, reportedly bringing in around $5bn (yup, you read that number right) in spin-off revenue. It's that, rather than a huge customer demand or massive initial box office numbers, that you suspect is fuelling the pushing ahead of Cars 2. Those are the kind of figures you simply can't ignore.

Thus, next year, Pixar will be taking us back to the world of Lightning McQueen for Cars 2. This time, Lightning McQueen will be going on a bit of a world tour, with Mater once again in tow. And with the release still some 15 months away, Disney has offered some concept art to give us the briefest of ideas as to how the film is shaping up. That's Mount Fuji in the background.

The film is called Cars 2: World Grand Prix, and it's arriving on June 24th 2011.