Jun 23 2011
‘Cars 2′ Review: Running on Empty
PCN RATING: 
It was bound to happen eventually.
Even the best and brightest produce a dud, and Pixar has dodged that bullet eleven times in a row. Looks like it’s 12—instead of 13—that’s the unlucky number for the studio, because their newest, ‘Cars 2’, is a real beater. Trading up the original’s wistful tale of of the fading glory of Route 66 for a convoluted stab at the globe-trotting spy genre, Cars 2 manages a hat trick; it doesn’t really work for anyone.
The story follows a big international racing circuit that gives an excuse for Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) and Mater (Larry the Cable Guy) to leave sleepy-little Radiator Springs and travel to picturesque locales like Italy and Japan. When Mater publicly embarrasses McQueen (sadly, this involves too much wasabi, an automated toilet, and redneck antics) he puts a strain on their friendship and it opens the door for misadventures. Before you can say ‘Da’gum!’ the dippy, hay-seed tow truck gets caught up with British spy cars Finn McMissle (Michael Caine) and Holly Shiftwell (Emily Mortimer). They are investigating the sabotage of race cars and mistake Mater for a double agent. The rest is more or less a tongue-in-cheek romp through James Bond set pieces and stale automotive one-liners.
2006’s Cars is by no means my favorite of the Pixar cannon, but I do find it a cute movie with an endearing core that fell short of the other entries. This one doesn’t have the same heart and it shows. Presumably made to cash-in on the little kids who made the first a post box-office smash, it forgets an important fact: none of them were sitting in a theater for the original. Watching something at home between snacks and naps, while running your toy cars to and fro in front of the television is much different than being slammed into a booster seat in a dark, crowded room for a little over two hours. If you count the twenty minutes of additional shorts, previews, and promos Disney crams at the start, there’s little here to justify the crankiness most parents are going to get for their time, trouble and money.
Since Cars 2 is basically a Star Wars-esque movie event for the 3 to 6 crowd, it makes sense that Lasseter and the writers would go for something more adventurous this time around. But while changing the cars whizzing ‘zoom!’ to an exploding ‘boom!’ seems like a bang-up idea at first, it ends up being a bit too fearsome for the target audience, who may be likely to cry when they see the bad guys attempting to straight-up assassinate Lightning McQueen Lee Harvey Oswald style. Before that, some cars (in this universe that means some characters) get compacted into squares of trash, blown up with cannons, and in one case, purposefully incinerated.
The plot is a giant mess. If it’s not enough for parents to endure a kid’s film with Larry the Cable Guy as a lead, they will also get a car ride home where they can explain to their children what clean-burning fuel is and why it made the bad guys go crazy. Larry’s character Mater isn’t cut-out for the spotlight and his meager brand of comedy only highlights his awkwardness. This shifting focus feels much like what would happen if someone made a Toy Story movie that revolved completely around the slinky dog or Hamm the piggy bank.
Yes, the animation is beautiful and the technical team does their usually stunning work. There is no lack of detail and innovation in the world created, but I’m not exactly taken with this strange universe—for one thing, it still doesn’t follow any kind of logic, child-like or otherwise. There are other machines and buildings but they don’t speak, and apparently things like fossil fuels and wasabi are organic even though nothing else appears to be. Why does any of it exist if there are no human beings? When our hearts fail to be engaged, our minds wander, and there’s much to puzzle at here.
Cars 2 may not be a terrible kid’s film, but it’s a sorely disappointing one, especially for parents gearing up to take their Cars-obsessed tykes out to the theater.Trimming to a sleek 80 minutes with a tighter, wittier script would have improved the movie immensely. That isn’t the movie we got though. Better luck next time Pixar. If you can make Brave as engaging as the teaser trailer, all will be forgiven.
A note on the 3-D: Yes, it’s handled well enough, but it causes the film to seem far less colorful and bright than it’s predecessor. Better save those few extra bucks for emergency snacks.
CARS 2 GALLERY:
Jul 07, 2011 @ 14:47:32
I love the Pixar films, but this franchise just doesn’t appeal to me like Wall-E or some of their more imaginative work. too bad. Hopefully they’ll rebound from this.