Easily PIXAR's worst outing to date.

Rating: 4/10 (27 August 2018)

The Cars franchise is something of a stigma among the collective PIXAR fandom: it's detested by the stingiest fans and for good reason, it's not a movie series that exists for good stories but for the merchandising side of things. When you see the Toy Story sequels and see what makes for GOOD animated filmmaking, Cars 2 is the antithesis of the Toy Story sequels in every discernible way. The characters haven't really changed and the James Bond-styled caper doesn't save the film from its underwhelming story and non-existent character development. With that said, the animation's still good: almost too good for this $200 million production that exists to sell more Cars toys.
Cars may boast nice visuals, but the movies aren't the kind which have clear rhyme or reason to exist. Cars 2 is animation done without creative flare. 2/5 stars.