Pixar has announced that the sequel to Cars, originally due in the summer of 2011, has been moved back. The film will now be released in December 2011, which should see it doing battle with Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part II for starters.

The film's original June 24th 2011 slot is expected to be filled by another studio shortly, with Paramount perhaps choosing to move Transformers 3 forward a week to take advantage of a rare gap in one of Hollywood's busiest summers for blockbusters.

Cars 2 sees Lightning McQueen racing around the world this time, along with his trusty friend Mater. It'll be interesting to see how the finished film pans out, given that it's generally regarded as the weakest Pixar movie to date (although it's still a solid family movie, to be fair). We'll be finding out a bit later than originally thought, though...