Featuring the Voices of: Owen Wilson, Larry the Cable Guy, Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, Bonnie Hunt, Tony Shalhoub, Cheech Marin, Jason Isaacs, Joe Mantegna, Eddie Izzard, John Turturro, Vanessa Redgrave, Jeff Garlin, Bruce Campbell, John Ratzenberger and David Hobbs
Directed By: John Lasseter
Co-Directed By: Brad Lewis
Screenplay By: Ben Queen
Story By: John Lasseter, Brad Lewis and Dan Fogelman
Produced By: Denise Ream
Distributor: Walt Disney Pictures
Rating: G, for General Audiences.
Running Time: Approximately 112 minutes
Website: disney.com/cars
Budget: $200 million
Genre: Animation/Comedy/Adventure
Release Date: June 24, 2011
In the annals of big-screen animated fare, you’ll be hard pressed to find an animation studio with a better track record than Pixar.
Founded in 1986, Pixar made the leap into the feature film realm with the release of the computer-animated classic Toy Story back in 1995. It goes without saying that the qualitative power and bold creative choices that comprise the majority of Pixar’s cinematic output, including the Toy Story trilogy (1995, 1999, 2010), Monster’s Inc (2001), Finding Nemo (2003), The Incredibles (2004), Ratatouille (2007), Wall-E (2008), Up (2009), has entertained and enlightened moviegoers – young, middle-aged and old – the world over.
Pixar’s films have made hundreds of millions of dollars and been honored with the Academy Award for “Best Animated Feature” a record six times since the category was introduced in 2002. Along the way there have been a few less-than-perfect entries among Pixar’s offerings, namely 1998’s A Bug’s Life and 2006’s Cars, the latter of which has spawned a sequel, the aptly-titled Cars 2.
The first Cars, an agreeably entertaining, if slight, piece of Route 66 nostalgia, built an entire film around the tried and true premise of transplanting a urban dweller used to living life in the fast lane into the slower paced, genteel climes of small town, USA (called Radiator Springs), populated by, you guessed it, cars. By the end of the film, the main protagonist, Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson), a race car in the midst of a personal and professional funk, has learned a host of important life lessons and has become a better man, er, driver, as a result. He’s mentored along the way by an older, lifelong resident of Radiator Springs, Doc Hudson (the late Paul Newman), a 1951 Hudson Hornet; befriends Mater (Larry the Cable Guy), a 1951 International Harvester l-170 tow truck; and romances legal eagle Sally (Bonnie Hunt), a 2002 996-series Porsche 911 Carrera.
In the sequel, Mater shifts into the lead role and Lightning, like any best friend would, gladly takes the back seat. Essentially a riff on The Pink Panther with a dash of James Bond and “The Avengers” (Mr. Steed and Emma Peel, not Tony Stark and co.) thrown in for good measure, Mater, who’s a country bumpkin from way back, is mistaken for a crafty super spy. As Lightning tries to beat his archrival Francesco Bernoulli (John Turturro) in the inaugural World Grand Prix, an international race where the winner will snag bragging rights as the world’s fastest car, Mater gets caught up in international espionage with British spy Finn McMissile (Michael Caine) and rookie field spy Holley Shiftwell (voiced by Emily Mortimer). Will Mater help Lightning win the Grand Prix, or will he feel compelled to assist McMissile and Shiftwell wrap up their assignment?
The race also serves as a showcase for its creator Sir Miles Axelrod (Eddie Izzard), a former oil baron who has gone green and developed an alternative fuel source, which the filmmakers inexplicably build a rather confusing subplot around that doesn’t pay off or hold all that much interest.
It’s odd that of the 11 previous features Pixar has made, Cars was the one that got the sequel. It’s especially odd that they decided to release Car 2 to coincide with their 25th anniversary. The film as a whole is a minor effort and your overall take on it will depend quite a bit on how appreciative you are of Larry the Cable Guy’s shtick. Admittedly, a little goes a long way, but in Cars 2 he is the show. Also young fans of Lightning should know that he’s nowhere to be found for large chunks of the movie.
As we’ve come to expect from Pixar, the film looks amazing and it’s easily the best use of 3-D animation that Pixar has used to date. However, Hawaiian Vacation, the Toy Story short that plays before and imagines Woody, Buzz and the gang treating Ken and Barbie to a dream trip to the land of pineapple and macadamia nuts, is infinitely more imaginative and entertaining, and it manages to pay proper homage to the Pixar brand in a way neither Cars nor Cars 2 can or ever will.
2.5 Stars
