Thankfully, Pixar has very strict standards when it comes
to their sequels. They will only produce one if they feel they have an
excellent story to support it. We can contrast this with Disney, a studio with
a habit of producing cheap sequels to beloved animated classics and releasing
them direct-to-video in an obviously cynical money grab. However, I was not
crazy about the first Cars, and its
sequel Cars 2 just doesn’t measure up
to the high standards I’ve come to expect from their feature films.
In an obvious attempt to spruce up the story of a race
car that races around in circles, Cars 2
opens with a James Bond style sequence involving characters that are new to the
franchise. A spy car infiltrates a field of oil wells in the middle of the
ocean, taking photos of various ‘lemons’ being led by Professor Z, a
German-accented, monocle-wearing scientist voiced by Thomas Kretschmann. It
wouldn’t be a proper spy film without some British accents, so Michael Caine
voices Finn McMissile, the spy who came in from the past to spruce up the story
a little. Later his spy partner Holly Shiftwell will be voiced by the British
Emily Mortimer and Eddie Izzard will give life to Sir Miles Axelrod, the
innovator behind a newer, cleaner, greener form of fuel for cars.
The star of the show is the cool and confident Lightning
McQueen (Owen Wilson, reprising voice role), showing a little more humility
this time around. Another 90 minutes spent in Radiator Springs would be a
little too much, so the story by Pixar guru John Lasseter – among a cadre of
others – takes him there for the briefest of glimpses, just long enough for the
requisite appearances of the characters from the first film. Bonnie Hunt is
back as Lightning’s girl Sally, as are Tony Shalhoub, Paul Dooley, Cheech Marin
and Jenifer Lewis to continue their stereotyped voice work. In honor of Paul
Newman, however, his character Doc Hudson has been relegated to memorial
status. Larry the Cable Guy is also back as the beloved Mater, Lightning’s slow-witted
best friend.
A challenge by the Formula 1 racer Francesco Bernoulli
(John Turturro, relishing a thick Italian accent), gets Lightning and Mater out
of Radiator Springs and into the world for a fish-out-of-water adventure story.
As Mater visits far-flung places like Tokyo, Italy and London we’re treated to
the usual display of goofy faux pas when confronted with cultural differences. The
plot, which is really just an excuse to send Mater around the world and to
generate some half-clever spy movie spoofs, involves a plot to make oil the
dominant fuel source for cars for the foreseeable future. Oil tycoons as
villains is neither original nor particularly interesting.
John Lasseter’s direction keeps the pace of the engine
revved way up giving Cars 2
distinctly higher energy than its predecessor, but it’s all a lot of rumbling.
The most notable thing about Cars was
the incredibly rich detail in the landscape rendering. This film looks great,
but it loses that lush beauty by transferring the setting to various cities
with angular buildings and facades without character.
There’s plenty here to keep the kids transfixed and lots
of little jokes that adults will appreciate (like the first film, Cars 2 is replete with automobile puns),
but probably not laugh out loud as much as with Pixar’s previous work. Like the
gang of villains central to the plot, this is an unfortunate lemon staining the
studio’s excellent history.
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