Two Words: No Heart

Rating: 5/10 (24 June 2011)

Visually dizzying and emotionally empty, Cars 2 is an amazingly indulgent piece that seems to throw out the Pixar "story" book in favor of strained plot and graphic excess. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. This is reported to have started as a film-within-a-film from the first Cars, and perhaps it would have worked well as a longer short. As a feature, though, it lacks anyone to care about and any reason to care about them. And while it may be family-friendly in the broadest sense of the term, it is not for young children - some scenes are dismally intense, and the by-the-numbers plot will still lose them. I saw it with a 7- and 9-year-old, and they were not impressed. "The first one was better" was the general agreement. Lasseter and company should perhaps consider another Robert McKee seminar before moving forward with the Monsters Inc. sequel. Five stars out of 10 for 25 years of really great film making.