Cars 2: movie review
'Cars 2' is marginally better than 'Cars' and pulls in some familiar voices, such as Larry the Cable Guy and Owen Wilson.
Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson) is shown in a scene from 'Cars 2.'
Courtesy of Disney/Pixar
Of all the many and mostly wonderful Pixar films, the 2006 鈥�Cars,鈥� with the possible exception of 鈥�Up,鈥� is my least favorite 鈥� although the second half of 鈥�Wall-E鈥� lost me, and the image in 鈥�Ratatouille鈥� of all those supposedly cute rats pouring through the kitchen of a high-end French restaurant ranks right up there for me with the shower scene in 鈥淧sycho.鈥�
鈥�Cars 2鈥� is marginally better than its predecessor, but the same problem still remains: Cars just aren鈥檛 very interesting as anthropomorphic animation vehicles (pun intended). The facial expressions are necessarily limited, and so, even more than with the other Pixar films, the 鈥淐ars鈥� series relies on voice-over characterization. If you close your eyes during 鈥淐ars 2,鈥� you鈥檒l miss a lot of overbusy animated shenanigans but you鈥檒l still get the gist of the story. This is not necessarily a good thing.
Perhaps this explains why director John Lasseter, who codirected with Brad Lewis from a script by Ben Queen, relies too much on the countrified comedy of Larry the Cable Guy鈥檚 Mater, a pickup truck who seems to have wandered in from a vaudeville sketch on the Grand Ole Opry. Returning again as well is Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson, instantly identifiable by his drawl).
The helter-skelter story line has its ecofriendly side (as did 鈥淲all-E鈥�). Eddie Izzard鈥檚 Land Rover magnate Sir Miles Axlerod, promoting a clean fuel alternative to gasoline, stages a Grand Prix-style auto race that pits Lightning against Italian favorite Francesco (John Turturro).
Oil company spies and counterspies infiltrate the proceedings, which, often intentionally, have the flavor of 1960-era "007" movies. Michael Caine voices a British spy called Finn McMissile, an Aston Martin, of course, and Emily Mortimer is his accomplice Holley Shiftwell. They help tone things up, especially when Larry the Cable Guy is around, which is a lot of the time.
The film鈥檚 message in the end is: Be yourself. I鈥檓 sure departing audiences will take this to heart as they drive into the traffic jams that likely await them. Grade: B- (Rated G.)