Straight to DVD quality with a bigger budget

Rating: 5/10 (20 May 2012)

I'm a Disney addict, anything Disney you throw at me, I'm usually a happy camper. But when Disney and Pixar teamed up, it was like peanut butter and chocolate. These two teams belonged together and it seems like they were the only movie company releasing competent films. Only film I wasn't crazy about was Cars, it's one of those movies that everyone seemed to love that I wasn't falling for. Not to say it was a bad movie, it was good, but the plot really didn't get to me and the animation was good, but nothing spectacular. But apparently it was popular enough to get a sequel, which I have to admit baffled me, but I like to give movies a fair chance. I decided to wait to watch it at home though and actually I'm glad. This movie is a straight to DVD story with a bigger budget.
British spy Finn McMissile infiltrates the world's largest untapped oil reserves, owned by a group of "lemon" cars. After being discovered, he is forced to flee and fake his death. Piston Cup champion race car Lightning McQueen returns home to Radiator Springs and reunites with his best friend Mater. When Italian formula race car Francesco Bernoulli challenges McQueen, McQueen and Mater depart to Tokyo, Japan for the Grand Prix. Meanwhile, the lemons, led by Professor Zündapp and Master mind, secretly plot to secure their oil profits by using a weapon disguised as a television camera to ignite the Allinol fuel. McMissile and partner Holley Shiftwell attempt to rendezvous with American spy car at a World Grand Prix promotional event in Tokyo to receive information about the mastermind; Shiftwell and McMissile mistake Mater as their American contact. Now they use Mater to find out the information that could possibly kill McQueen.
The things that are good with this movie is that the animation is very sleek and shiny, it looks very beautiful. Some of the sight gags are clever, especially when they are in Japan. Some of the voice actors really give a good performance like Michael Caine. But the spy story has been done a million times. Not to say since this is a kid's film, it's new to them, but that means it's specifically for the children and not for the adults. Also the one thing I did kind of like from the first Cars movie was Mater. Usually the side characters are the one's who steal the show in an animated movie and Mater was charming and funny. So naturally like most sequels, they take the most popular character and exploit the heck out of them. The title should have been "Cars 2: Mater's Adventure" with the way they were going. Not to sound mean, but every time that Mater gets his feelings get hurt, honestly I don't really feel that bad for him. I wonder why it took him actually so long to realize that he's an idiot. It's like the Urkel factor, cue the sad music with his sad face and we are supposed to feel bad for him despite the fact that he's the one causing the chaos. I just didn't find anything too charming about this movie. I'd recommend it just as a rental at home as it is pretty to look at and will entertain the kids. But it would've been better if they just released it straight to video considering the budget that went into it that could've made 5 better movies.
5/10