Pixar deserves a lap of honour! 12 straight hits!

Rating: 8/10 (26 June 2011)

Let me start out by saying this in no way is a movie for children. Animation is considered an art form, my father in law believes it to be nothing more than kids movies. How wrong is he? You'll know the answer after walking out of Cars 2 with a smile on your face. All the lovable characters from the first movie return, with bigger roles along with a few fresh new faces. We say goodbye to dear old Radiator Springs pretty early on, but hello to rest of the world. Lightning McQueen is invited to take art in the WORLD GRAND PRIX, run by a Billionaire Jeep that has created an alternative fuel to replace gas. Fun ensues. With the leap in technology since the first film, Pixar brings even further into the movie by using incredible point of view shots from inside the car and next to it, you can really feel how fast the cars are travelling. I would love to see the networks stacks Pixar uses to render the countries used in this movie because WOW are they pretty. We see France, Italy, Japan; its all so pretty. The Story of Cars 2 cruises at a good pace, introducing all the important players from the start. Michael Cain here as Finn MacMissile is great, easily the best part of the movie. The action is heart pounding and the heart that Mater brings to this action movie is a tremendous object to balance the film. I wont go too far into the story line, just know that this is more Jason Bourne or Daniel Craig's James Bond than it is anything else. Gritty, cartoonishly violent and over the top. The visuals here are insane and the story (as Pixar's always done) has hugely deep under currents all the way through it, from death and extortion, to gambling, match fixing, deceit and the race to find a greener way for human kind to exist. Im so glad Pixar is taking steps toward more openly adult films, hopefully the can shrug the childish stigma attached to them.
I look more and more forward to their next epic "BRAVE". If its half as good as CARS 2, they wont have to worry about unlucky 13.
Also, seeing Buzz and Woody on screen again during their short at the beginning of the film mad it more than worth the $10 ticket.
8/10 Not their best, but still leaps and bounds ahead of any other animation studios out there,