Cars 2 is the sequel to the 2006 Pixar film Cars, directed by John Lasseter and written by Ben Queen. Unlike in the first film where the setting is mostly confined to a fictional town along Route 66 called Radiator Springs, this film gives us a tour around the world, taking us to places such as Japan, Italy, France and the United Kingdom. Cars is the second Pixar film to have a sequel, after the successful Toy Story film in 1995.
Four-time Piston Cup champion Lightning McQueen returns to his "hometown" Radiator Springs and is reunited with his friends, most especially his girlfriend Sally and his best friend Tow Mater. Meanwhile, former oil tycoon Miles Axlerod, who has now become an alternative fuel advocate, announces a racing event called the "World Grand Prix" as a way to promote alternative fuel. McQueen originally does not plan to join, but is provoked by Italian racing superstar Francesco Bernoulli. This race takes McQueen around the world, and he takes with him a few of his friends from Radiator Springs to be part of his pit crew, including Tow Mater. He, however, turns out to be a major headache--he becomes an embarrassment for Lightning, with his crazy antics and "hillbilly" behavior. Meanwhile, a group of "lemon" (defective) cars led by Professor Zundapp and a mysterious mastermind plot to bring down Allinol, the alternative fuels company sponsoring the World Grand Prix, since the group of lemon cars owns one of the largest oil reserves in the world. British spies Finn McMissile and Holley Shiftwell are out to stop them, but a mix-up at a World Grand Prix promotional event in Japan brings Tow Mater into the picture, as the two British spies mistake him for their American counterpart. Now, Tow Mater finds himself involved in dangerous spy missions in a James Bond-ish fashion, while his friend Lightning McQueen is also busy competing at the Grand Prix.
Cars 2 is able to stand on its own--even someone who has not seen the first Cars film will be able to easily follow the events in this film. For this film, the focus seems to have shifted to Tow Mater, as we see and hear more of him in this film than Lightning McQueen, the first film's main character and the Cars series' "poster boy". For this film, however, there seems to be too much of Tow Mater being himself--there is just too much of Mater's "hillbilly-ness" to the point that his antics don't seem to be that funny anymore., and they come out as just plain dumb. The film actually seems to lack humor that we would expect to see in these animated films (Dreamworks Animations does a really good job at this, especially for the Shrek series, as well as the Kung Fu Panda series which are among the funniest films I've seen so far), as the creators seem to have focused on all the action and the movie's overall James Bond feel. We do get plenty of action for this film, however, which the creators seem to want the audience to remember this film for. While this film does have humor, the jokes are too few and easily forgettable. In fact, it would actually take me a while to remember what the scenes that actually made me chuckle were.
This film, however, compensates for its lack of humor through its visual appeal. As earlier mentioned, the events in this film takes us to different cities around the world (though a lot of the events especially in the middle and last part of the film take place in Europe), and the film's animators do a pretty good job of showing us these places. I particularly liked how they tried to present to us these places as realistically as possible; each place is distinct from all the others. Tokyo is bright and colorful, the Italian countryside clean, sunny and breathtaking (with its beautiful cliffs and beaches), and London is dark and gloomy--just how they are in real life. As I have never been to any of these places, the way these places are represented in the film actually somehow make me want to visit them more.
Just like many of the films being released these days, Cars 2 is available in 3D. I did watch this film in 3D, but the creators didn't seem to put much effort in making the audience feel like they were actually watching it in 3D. Most of the few notable 3D effects were more of the "Hey, look! It's 3D!" or the in-your-face types which did not really do much to enhance the film's viewing experience.
Overall, I think Cars 2 is one of Pixar's weakest films. I don't think it will be able to match my favorite Pixar films, such as Toy Story 3, Finding Nemo, Ratatouille, and the critically-acclaimed, and award-winning Up overall (though visuals-wise, the animators of Cars 2 have done a good job). Even the 2006 film Cars received a lot negative reviews--I do hope Pixar realizes that the Cars franchise isn't one of their strongest, and I also hope that they would have to think twice first before coming up with a Cars 3. They might as well put this franchise to rest altogether, so that they could get back on track and come up with another animated film to match their award-winning greats--I'm sure everybody would love that.
Overall score: 5.5/10
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