Review of Cars 2 (2011) by Christopher A — 20 Jun 2012

The first Cars was released in 2006. While the movie was still a decent piece of cinema and loved by children, it was the least critically acclaimed of the Pixar movies, that is until its sequel. Cars 2 is what I would call a huge step down from the previous Toy Story 3. The movie seems to have been made with only the children in mind, but does so at the expense of the adult audience.

The movie begins on an exciting note. We are introduced to British spy Finn McMissile (voiced by Michael Caine), who infiltrates an oil reserves, but is forced to flee when he is attacked by "lemon" cars. We then go back to our heroes from the first Cars, Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) and Mater (Larry the Cable Guy). However, Duc Hudson has died sometime in the past. An event known as the "World Grand Prix" is being held to promote Allinol biofuel, which will be held in Tokyo, Japan. McQueen, challenged by Italian racer Francesco Bernoulli (John Turturro), enters the competition.

But there is an evil plot by the "lemons" to destroy the cars through their Allinol fuel. After getting into a falling out with McQueen, Mater accidently gets mixed up in the plot and is hired by Finn, who believes that he is a spy (not very smart for a top spy). Mater also falls for Finn's partner and niece, Holley Shiftwell (Emily Mortimer).

As with the previous Pixar entries, the animation is top notch and crispy. The Japanese atmosphere is very neat and gives the movie a lot of color. There are also exciting races, a chase scene, and a lot of different gadgets are used. But what really brings this movie down is its lack of heart. All of the previous Pixar films had heartwarming stories with plenty of drama and also teaches viewers a moral lesson. Cars 2 lacks that and is therefore underwhelming in comparison to its predecessors. Mater trying to deal with who he is is not the kind of drama story you would expect in a Pixar movie. The spy story was an interesting concept, but it didn't do much for me.

The characters, while good to look at, lack character. McQueen's character is not quite as interesting with Doc Hudson gone and Mater being away doing spy business. Making Mater the main character wasn't a good move. His friendship with McQueen was among my favorite things of the first Cars, but since he's off pretending to be a spy, he's not quite as fun. The new characters, Finn and Shiftwell, were cool, but uninteresting. I liked that Finn was voiced by Michael Caine, but Shiftwell is just there for the redneck to get the girl.

Pixar's weakest film, but not as bad as people make it out to be.