Of all the Pixar movies that didn't leave me loving it or wanting more, Cars would be one of them with The Incredibles being the other. So when I first heard that a Cars 2 would be coming out in 2011, I was indifferent about Pixar's move to make a sequel out of a movie that was good but could have been left alone to begin with. Thankfully, the Pixar short attached to the opening was a Toy Story short, which was both sentimental, hilarious, and heartwarming. The actual movie, Cars 2 however, only delivers in the hilarity department and not the other two.
Lightning McQueen(Owen Wilson) and Tow Mater(Larry the Cable Guy) return in the sequel, taking their car racing worldwide and out of the much loved Radiator Springs. Many of the characters from the first film (Doc Hudson and Sally Carrera as the notable ones) have reduced roles to make way for new characters and an espionage storyline. Two new characters, Finn McMissle(Michael Caine) and Holley Shiftwell(Emily Mortimer) were introduced as top secret spies who are investigating a mystery regarding gasoline for the cars to use.
The high-energy action and race sequences mixed with the gorgeous scenery of places such as London, Paris, Italy and Japan provides plenty of eye-candy for audiences both young and old to devour. And while the espionage story was engaging and fun, it also did not take away too much from the original story about cars on the racetrack. However, where the film fails is to find depth and heart like other Pixar films have been able to do. I didn't find myself walking out of there with a morally profound lesson learned nor did I find the movie Academy Award worthy.
So while Cars 2 was a entertaining animated movie, it doesn't rank as one of the studio's best movies, and certainly is nowhere as good as last year's Toy Story 3 or even other Pixar movies such as UP and Finding Nemo.
This movie opens June 24th 2011.
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