Cars 2 Review: Stuck in Neutral
June 29, 2011 by Bilal Mian
Filed under feature overlay, Movies
I’ll come out and say it; I was not a fan of the original Cars. I saw the appeal and why people liked it, but I thought it was one of the weakest entries in Pixar’s library. I was originally sketchy when Pixar announced they would be creating Cars 2, but after last year’s successful Toy Story 3, I figured the animated studio knew what they were doing. Sadly I was wrong; Cars 2 is a mess.
Pixar is not afraid to preach a message within their movies, as we have seen with human overconsumption in 2008’s Wall-E, but what worked in the past does not seem to be the case in this automotive sequel.
Coming off his victories on the road, Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) returns to Radiator Springs for some rest and relaxation and no one is more excited than his best pal Mater (Larry the Cable Guy), a rusty old tow truck with a few loose screws. McQueen soon finds himself headed to Tokyo for the World Grand Prix, hosted by Sir Miles Axelrod (Eddie Izzard), after Mater calls into a talk show to defend McQueen’s honor against Formula-1 race-car, Francesco Bernoulli (John Turturro), for not entering the contest in the first place.
I was excited to see what track courses Pixar would dish out for the World Grand Prix since they marketed the races in the trailers, but my hopes were crushed with what turned out to be a poor imitation James Bond spy comedy.
Mater finds himself mistaken as the American spy in Tokyo by British Intelligence agents Finn McMissile (Michael Caine) and Holly Shiftwell (Emily Mortimer). The three try to uncover the evil scheme of Professor Z (Thomas Kretschmann), which consists of a conspiracy that could change the world’s view on gasoline versus alternative fuel by sabotaging the racers using eco-friendly gas in the Grand Prix.
The movie takes a giant misstep by concentrating on Mater for 85% of the movie when the trailers and commercials highlight McQueen just as much as counterpart. The lack of McQueen is letdown and the children’s voices rang out with their disappointment at the end of the movie.
McQueen is the selling point of the Cars franchise, while Mater is the hillbilly comic relief. People want to see the hero, not the sidekick. Pixar took the different approach this time around preaching that it is okay to be who you are regardless of what anyone thinks, but the studio seems a bit hypocritical as they spent majority of the film using Mater’s lack of intelligence as comic relief.
There is one good thing I can say about this movie. The animation and visuals are outstanding as the animators bring the Japanese cities, Paris, and London to life. Disney’s 3D adds nothing to this movie and only darkens the bright world of Cars. If you do find yourself headed to the theater to watch the movie, do yourself a favor and ditch the 3D.
Overall I really can’t recommend Cars 2 to many people at all. Children may love it, but the story might be too complicated and boring especially with a 113 minute run time. Parents will likely be looking at their watches hoping for the movie to come to an end. Cars 2 is a below average at best and feels like a quick cash in by Disney. I’m sorry to say it Pixar, but this year the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature will likely end up with Dreamworks or Studio Ghibli.
Grade: C-
Photos courtesy Disney/Pixar
I enjoyed both movies. Mater cracks me up, but i do agree more McQueen would of been nice.
I think this movie was honestly the worst one for pixar yet. Making a sequel to a movie like cars was just not a good idea.
Unlike you, I enjoyed the original Cars film. I never saw it in the theater, and went into it with low expectations as I refuse to acknowledge NASCAR as a sport and don’t see the appeal of it what so ever! My 4 year old daughter and I have watched it a number of times now on Blu-ray. Sure, the plot was a complete rip off of Doc Hollywood, but I found the film fun and entertaining and so did my daughter.
Cars 2 is a different story… Now I’m not usually a fan of “hick humor” but for some reason Mater is not as polarizing to me as he is for others. I can’t say I’m a huge fan, but I do find some of his comments and antics humorous…the wasabi part in Cars 2 was probably the highlight of the film. I really didn’t care for this second film, and neither did my daughter (she ditched the glasses and laid down in her seat about halfway through the film).
While it was action packed, I’d argue that it was a bit too violent for younger kids and the included trailer for Brave actually frightened my 4-year old. Cars 2′s plot was far too predicable (I had the ending pegged about the time my daughter took off her glasses). Cars 2 was a disappointment and I’d only recommend it to older boys who like mindless action and a predictable plot, for now my daughter will stick with Rapunzel.
I, too, was disappointed with the original Cars, and most of that sprung from my complete hatred of Mater. However, I enjoyed this film way more than the original. I thought the visuals were amazing–loved the scenic look of those foreign racetracks, and all of the additional characters. The scope of this film was much grander than the first. I also liked the general James Bond feel of the film, and the shout-outs to those films.
I saw this in 3D and was quite satisfied in how it was used to enhance the experience. There were no gimmicy, “let me point this at the audience just because we are in 3D” type of scenes.
As you said, they concentrated way too much on Mater. I cringed at the lines “Is he American?…Very!” I hate that they are furthering the stereotype that all Americans are stupid hicks! Most Americans are nothing like that idiot Mater!