Just needs a minor tune-up

Rating: 8/10 (27 June 2011)

I was really hoping that Cars 2 would score big like the first movie. The first movie is my favorite Pixar film, which maybe strange to some. It took in the lowest box office revenue out of all the films, and it is rated only a 74% on Rotten Tomatoes. Cars is true beauty in every category. Amazing colors, very heartfelt story, fifties nostalgia, amazing characters, and a soundtrack to die for.
Even though considered a failure in Pixar's eyes, Cars still took in over $8 billion in merchandise. Being young when the first movie came out, I went to Target and bought all of the main characters from the first movie. The little side characters or the parody Toy Story characters weren't for me. I bought the main/supporting characters like McQueen, Mater, Ramone, Flo, Guido, Luigi, Sally, Fillmore, Sarge, etc. It was so much fun to get those little cars. You gotta collect them all! They had numerous race tracks which I didn't want, pillows, t-shirts, posters, and other merchandising options that two full isles at Target were Cars-out'd the whole summer of 2006. Because cars can be made into so many different things. Race tracks, different designs, colors, sizes, etc can be made from one outline. Lightening McQueen had at least eight other versions of himself. Mater had two if I can remember if you include the very light blue painting of him and his traditional, rusty colored truck. It was inane how many options there were.
Now we have a sequel, to a film John Lasseter probably wanted to make since the death of his friend Joe Ranft, who helped co-direct the first film and voiced Red, the shy firetruck as well. His character makes an appearance, but remains sadly silent the whole film not uttering a single line or phrase. It's almost upsetting when you see his character.
Lasseter made the Toy Story sequels because they were huge money-makers and more could be done with them. I hate to say it, but I think the original Cars could've survived on its own. This is in no way bad, but it is just average to Pixar's standards. Much of the fun from the original film isn't here. The tear-jerking Your Town tune is absent, the campy Radiator Springs fun is gone, the flashbacks to the fifties where towns were made up of close friends are all gone, and the nostalgia, besides the characters, none is here.
Cars 2 doesn't fail entirely, though. Pixar manages to have some fun with the script and have very colorful moments about it. The end chase scene is very exciting, and I love how all the characters make it out without even a scratch. That part still impresses me. Try doing that with Grandpa's ol' 1972 Cadillac Eldorado.
The plot focuses on Lightening McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson) returning "home" to Radiator Springs every summer after the racing season to visit his friends. Mater (Larry the Cable Guy) is still his tow-truck self, now working at a fancy car-themed restaurant where McQueen and his girlfriend Sally (Hunt) go to eat on McQueen's first night. Mater, who is watching TV while waiting for drinks to be served, notices that the "sexy," Italian race-car Francesco Bernoulli (Turturro) is trash-talking McQueen. Mater, being the affectionate car he is, puts the motor where Bernoulli's mouth is and signs McQueen up to race against him in the Grand Prix.
Mater then becomes involved in a very elaborate plan conducted by Finn McMissile (Caine), a secret agent race-car. I'd rather not spoil any details because I feel reading about the colorful excitement isn't half as fun as experiencing it on the big screen.
Another problem I ran into that some characters didn't make an appearance, or weren't in it enough. Luigi and Guido, the two repairman of Radiator Springs, were hilarious in the first film but are in it far too little. Ramone and Flo, the husband and wife who run a body shop and diner, are barely in the film. Doc Hudson, voiced by the late Paul Newman, is dead according to Mater. And Fillmore's voice once provided by George Carlin is now voiced by Lloyd Sherr who does a just a stereotypical "hey, man" and "spread the love" motif the whole film.
The lights are extravagant in Cars 2, especially in Tokyo. The billboards are beautiful and the scenery is truly amazing. CGI animated features are good if used to their full potential. Glossy productions don't always win people over. For me, it needs a good storyline. Cars 2 has a fairly decent one, but not one that sustains a film.
The Toy Story themed short Hawaiian Vacation is actually very enticing and humorous, as all shorts from them are. I believe, this is the first Pixar short to utilize already familiar characters. Cars 2 doesn't fail at all, but it succeeds just because of its animation and well paced action. After eleven films and twenty five years of movie-making, Pixar has come to a sudden bump in the road. I'm sure this is just a minor fix, and they should be up and runnin' in a jiffy, but one can pray it doesn't go down the direction of Dreamworks or present day Disney. We may have to ship it to the junkyard.
Voiced by: Owen Wilson, Larry the Cable Guy, Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, Bonnie Hunt, Jason Isaacs, and Thomas Kretschmann. Directed by: John Lasster and Brian Lewis.