Sorry for the slight delay on this review but this week I'm racing through the remainder of the Cars trilogy with a Throwback Thursday Review over Cars 2 and a review for Cars 3 coming soon. However, I do feel it's worth noting that I'm going out of town this Saturday and am not quite sure I will get the Cars 3 review completed before I leave (I'll see what I can do about publishing while I'm gone). Therefore, I apologize in advance for what I suspect will be late reviews over Cars 3, Transformers: Age of Extinction, and Transformers: The Last Knight. But in the next week and a half I plan to publish all of those and wrap up my thoughts on both the Cars and Transformers franchises for the time being. Reviews that remain to be seen for the month of June include a Throwback Thursday Review over Despicable Me 2 and reviews of new releases Baby Driver and Despicable Me 3.
'Cars 2' Review
Cars 2 races alongside Lightning McQueen, now a four time Piston Cup champ, and his silly tow truck pal Mater as they traverse the world for McQueen to compete in the World Grand Prix. After an elaborate series of events, 007-esque automotives Finn McMissile and Holly Shiftwell mistake Mater as an American agent and Mater becomes embroiled in a globetrotting spy adventure.
There's no way to dance around the elephant in the room. Cars 2 is easily the worst received animated feature film from Pixar to date. It didn't make as much as its predecessor did domestically, although it did outgross Cars internationally with a whopping $562.11 M worldwide gross ($370.658 M coming from foreign territories). It even still has some skid marks all over the hood from critics who decided to run it over mercilessly. However, I think Cars 2 gets a bad wrap because it's only the worst Pixar movie by default, on account of the many masterpieces put out by the premiere animation studio. When you take into account that Cars 2 was created to entertain children and it's made for children, you'll find it's actually not as bad as you thought and surprisingly fares better than many other animated films.
Most of the criticism derives from the fact people don't feel a sequel was justified and adult audiences would have rather seen sequels to Pixar's other works like The Incredibles, Ratatouille, or even maybe Monsters Inc. While it may not seem like it, there's a quick and easy explanation behind franchising Cars. Children LOVE it! The merchandise sold incredibly well because kids simply adore these animated auto-motives.
The areas where Cars 2 starts to shows its rust lie in the script and standard storytelling. Ben Queen penned the screenplay with an unconventional idea to focus around Mater rather than Lightning. The idea of centering around a supporting standout has actually become somewhat evident in Pixar's sequel/prequel model (ie. Monsters Inc. & Monsters University along with Finding Nemo & Finding Dory).
Mater is a charming character in his own right, who works well in small doses, but shifting all attention towards him wears the viewer down. Mater's slapstick charades grow increasingly more tiring with him at the franchise's steering wheel. Cars 2 is notably very scatter-brained with a racing story on the outside lane and a spy adventure fueling the engine. It's not that these elements don't work together, just that the agent antics seem to come out of nowhere. Cars 2's messages about being yourself and sticking by friends are worthwhile notions but they're conveyed haphazardly.
This subject matter had been traversed time and time again in what seems like an infinite number of animated features over the years. The techniques utilized to express this central theme also put McQueen's character arc in reverse. McQueen started out in Cars as a cocky, surefire rookie that discovered his humility and became a better race car for it. However, Cars 2 puts McQueen in the precarious situation of constantly being embarrassed of being friends with Mater (this is resolved of course but seemed like backward storytelling to me). While this is a natural story element, Cars 2 stretches it a little too far in execution. Thankfully, the vocal performances somewhat elevate the material.
Larry The Cable Guy expresses an over-the-top absurdity in Mater, that even rivals Mickey's pal Goofy, and finds a more emotionally vulnerable place for Mater to explore towards the film's finale. By Mater's side, Michael Caine's Finn McMissile exhibits all the qualities of a suave gentleman spy while Emily Mortimer projects an innate intelligence and a touch of heart to Holly Shiftwell.
Racing on the outer lanes, Owen Wilson's back as Lightning McQueen with all the vigor and dedication he previously showcased in Cars and John Turturro voices Francesco Bernouli as an arrogant, open wheeled Ferrari that plays as an adequate rival for McQueen. Returning Radiator Springs inhabitants include Bonnie Hunt, Cheech Marin, Tony Shalhoub, Guido Quaroni, Jenifer Lewis, Paul Dooley, Michael Wallis, George Carlin, and Katherine Helmond as Sally, Ramone, Luigi, Guido, Flo, Sarge, Sheriff, Filmore, and Lizzie respectively.
Despite its fast pace, the creators of Cars 2 went into cruise control for the second lap around Pixar's world of anthropomorphized automobiles and delivered a passable installment opposed to their outstanding original works.
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